How Every Shipper Can Benefit From Flexible Drop-And-Hook

Overcome Traditional Drop’s Big Problem to Save Money and Flex to Cover Any Surge

Today, the majority of US Fortune 500 shipments are sent through preloaded drop trailers. If they could, many shippers would move 100% of their loads as drop-and-hook to benefit from its efficiency, foregoing live loads all together.

Unfortunately, shippers can’t move all their loads this way because there is a BIG problem with drop. Despite its efficiency on established lanes with predictable volume, traditional drop is highly inflexible, making it impossible to react to rapid changes in demand.

Today, an asset-based carrier can commit to a fixed number of drop loads on fixed lanes. When a shipper needs to flex above this commitment, they convert the load to live, paying more through load-in and loadout costs and spot premiums, and reducing the facility’s daily shipment throughput. This inflexibility costs shippers 9% of their annual freight spend on average, representing millions of wasted dollars.

In 2017, Convoy Go became the first drop service to let carriers of all sizes haul power-only loads using a shared pool of smart trailers. This unique approach to drop offered shippers flexible capacity with the reliability they’d come to expect from asset carriers. Convoy Go has since expanded to offer primary drop freight nationwide.

This year, Convoy has taken an unprecedented step by expanding drop-and-hook across the routing guide to cover backup and spot freight. For the first time, shippers can get automated, nationwide drop capacity across primary, backup, and spot - all from the same provider.

In this white paper, we’ll cover drop’s big problem and its consequences, which prevent shippers from moving all the loads they want, and how this can cost shippers 9% of their annual freight spend, on average. We’ll then introduce the concept of a flexible drop service and how it empowers shippers to overcome the traditional drop’s problem. Finally, we’ll drill into how Convoy uses innovative technology to make this all happen.

Download this white paper to learn how every shipper can benefit from flexible drop.