Solving the Challenges of Cross-Border Logistics
Sheer’s client saves more than $4.5MM in transportation costs through a holistic cross-border and intra-Mexico transportation solution.
Overview
“RR Inc.,”* is a leading global provider of systems and components for freight and transit railcars and locomotives. The company has experienced rapid growth, primarily through acquisitions, and as a result, needed better solutions for managing their transportation with key performance indicators (KPIs) and network visibility. In addition, RR needed support for its complex cross-border and intra-Mexico logistics and transportation.
Prior to partnering with Sheer Logistics, RR Inc. operated without a transportation management system (TMS), which limited visibility to their supply chain.
Challenges & Needs
RR Inc. faced several challenges in managing their transportation. First, because they lacked a TMS, RR Inc. suffered from limited supply chain visibility and an inability to effectively measure KPIs. In addition, the rapid growth of the company via acquisitions resulted in a variety of disparate, disconnected systems and data sources.
RR’s cross-border logistics needs included moving freight northbound from central Mexico to Laredo with subsequent door-to-door deliveries to multiple destinations in the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. RR also moves freight southbound from Laredo to their manufacturing facilities in central Mexico. Often, these moves require specialized equipment to move heavy machinery. Sheer’s solution manages these shipments without transloading at the border.
In addition, RR ships freight intra-Mexico, delivering finished components to a manufacturing facility owned by one of their largest customers. Supporting this operation requires the coordination and management for RR’s domestic Mexican suppliers located in Monterrey, Puebla, Mexico City and San Luis Potosi.
RR needed a partner that could manage the entire process, including US and Mexico Customs, securing dry van, flatbed and other specialized capacity and coordinating inbound freight from their suppliers.
The leadership team at RR recognized that in order to transform their US and cross-border logistics and supply chain operations, they needed a partner to help them move from a “dark” to a modern, digitalized environment.
“I value a smaller company that you are a big deal to.”
“After planning, integration was relatively smooth.”
AT A GLANCE
Industry
Railcar systems & components manufacturing
Modes
Multimodal
Annual Revenue
$915MM
Annual Freight Spend
$25MM
Technology
No tech or TMS prior to partnering with Sheer Logistics
Transportation Savings
More than $4.5MM
Solutions
Sheer Logistics provided a comprehensive Managed Transportation solution, including implementation of the Sheer TMS. This was facilitated by SheerExchange, Sheer’s proprietary integration Platform as a service (iPaaS), which seamlessly connects RR’s disparate systems, including their ERP, real-time transportation visibility platform (RTTVP) and other point solutions with the Sheer TMS. Through SheerExchange, RR’s data is aggregated in a single location, providing the RR leadership team with visibility to business intelligence, KPIs and reporting dashboards that empower them to make more timely decisions.
Sheer’s Managed Transportation Services include a complete multimodal outsource solution spanning expedite, truckload (TL), less-than-truckload (LTL), ocean, international air, and parcel. The solution leverages a combination of Sheer-contract and client-contract carriers. Sheer processes freight payments for all contract carriers, including RR’s own carriers. Sheer manages RR’s extensive cross-border and intra-Mexico operations, providing northbound door-to-door, southbound and intra-Mexico logistics and transportation services, including the sourcing, management and coordination of all shipments from RR’s domestic Mexico suppliers. Sheer effectively set up a “mini-network” to better serve RR’s transportation and logistics needs in support of their large customer in Mexico.
Results
Since 2018, RR has saved more than $4.5MM on its intra-Mexico transportation and logistics alone. In addition, RR has saved more than 24% on transportation costs through mode conversion from flatbed to dry van for one of its highest-volume cross-border lanes. RR has realized efficiency gains, enhanced transportation management, improved visibility and the ability to capture and report KPIs. Additionally, as a result of the services and solutions implemented by the Sheer team, RR was able to focus on their core business of providing systems and components for freight and transit railcars and locomotives, rather than dealing with the day-to-day challenges of supply chain management.
*The company name has been anonymized for the purposes of this case study.
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