How Our Technology Enabled a Low-Cost, Flexible Drop Trailer Solution for a Global Beverage Shipper
About the Shipper
This North American beverage company produces multiple beer and spirt brands for global distribution.
They operate several breweries, warehouses and repack/co-manufacturing facilities distributed nationwide in the U.S.
Coyote Services They Rely On:
Challenges and Results
Their Challenge:
As a large producer of beer and spirits, this shipper is always on the hunt for as much drop trailer capacity as they can find to help them handle regional and seasonal surges.
They need the flexibility drop trailers provide to let them load and move product when it’s ready to roll, and they specifically want equipment they can send to customers (beverage distributors) anywhere at a controlled cost.
Results With Coyote:
We helped them secure a dedicated power only freight contract with flexibility built in at an attractive price point by combining our leased trailer capacity with our power only carrier network and pairing both with our My Smart Routes technology.
Getting Creative to Keep Kegs & Cans Moving
This beverage producer is long-time shipper in our network, moving freight with us for roughly 14 years. Our engagement with them began with freight moved out of a single brewery and eventually expanded across their network.
Heading into the 2023 bid season, they came to us with an intriguing challenge. They were looking to source drop trailer capacity for deliveries from a Mid-Atlantic facility to distributors throughout the northeast — but not just any drop capacity.
They wanted a solution that could offer trailers and drivers that could be dynamically responsive to their evolving needs, but they didn’t want to break their budget to find that flexibility.
To put it simply, they didn’t want just a broker or an asset-based carrier — they wanted the best of both worlds:
- Trailers dropped at their facilities to be loaded at their convenience.
- Lane- and destination-agnostic trailers that can be sent anywhere within their delivery footprint.
- A pricing model that lets them change routing and delivery destinations on the fly without incurring extra charges.
How did we deliver all of this consistently? With the help of our extensive network and our AI-driven technology.
Our Team Brews Up a Winning Tech-Enabled Solution
My Smart Routes, our industry-leading route optimization technology, is the secret ingredient to the nontraditional brokerage solution that keeps this brewer’s drop trailer freight moving.
This software accounts for hours of service, geospatial data and destination preferences from carriers who opt into the My Smart Routes program and matches them to ideal freight from real-time live listings.
It’s essential to the solution we are able to offer because it dynamically finds backhaul freight for the power only carriers who move their trailers. That means even if the brewer needs to push a shipment by a day or wants to reroute to a different customer, they can do so without the risk of paying for empty miles.
The full recipe for our unique solution is:
- Connections to thousands of power only carriers built through our Peak Season support for our parent company UPS.
- Access to leased trailer capacity from UPS and national trailer leasing companies.
- My Smart Routes freight matching technology to secure backhaul opportunities in real time for carriers.
To date, operations have been smooth throughout the length of this engagement. The shipper is loading 10-20 trailers weekly on-site at their facility and sending them when needed to distributors in the greater New York area.
The program has been so successful that we’re currently piloting even more exciting new capacity solutions with them, including a pop-up fleet program for one of their Midwestern facilities.
Tell Us About Your Own Unique Capacity Challenge
Think the combination of My Smart Routes technology with our power only and leased trailer connections can support your needs? We’d love to scope out a solution for you.
Facing any other complex capacity or service needs in your supply chain? Our logistics specialists are excited to engage any and all of our unique capabilities to solve your trickiest shipping challenges.