At the height of the COVID pandemic, the customer, a major plastics distributor, was fulfilling incredible amounts of protective equipment orders, from countertop sneeze guards and student desk shields to face visors and medical intubation boxes. During this busy time, they reached out to several TMS providers as their solution was outbound LTL only. Their goal was to enhance their supply chain by gaining full visibility across all transportation modes—air, ocean, LTL, inbound, and outbound. The catalyst for the customer seeking out a new TMS solution was the need to view 100lb small pack (parcel) with LTL on the same screen when they shopped rates and booked shipments. Their former provider could not support this requirement, and they found that viewing LTL rates only defeated the purpose of searching rates to save money. They could not properly assess where it was less expensive to ship with limited information.

Elgen Manufacturing, a successful HVAC contractor manufacturing company in New Jersey, was struggling with their existing transportation management software. The software was clunky and limiting, making it difficult for the team to add or remove carrier partners. This lack of customization capabilities made it challenging for the team to view and compare carriers, transit times, and rates. As a result, Elgen was potentially losing money due to their TMS’s inability to effectively add carriers. The manufacturer was also missing out on forging relationships with new carriers, simply because their TMS made it so difficult to add these carriers to the platform.

Newegg, an online retailer specializing in computing hardware, gaming, and consumer electronic components, was facing challenges in managing its high-volume consumer transactions. The company was leveraging air freight, trucking, and intermodal transportation, but the process was inefficient and time-consuming. Newegg was negotiating with carriers over email and using Excel spreadsheets to track shipment data. This manual process was not only labor-intensive but also failed to guarantee optimal freight rates for customers. Furthermore, the information spread across multiple spreadsheets was not easily accessible, making it difficult to track shipments, ensure delivery, and assess costs.

Before implementing FreightPOP, the global printer faced several challenges common to high-volume shippers. They often lacked visibility into the whereabouts of their shipments, had numerous manual processes, and needed a centralized method to coordinate inbound and outbound shipments. A significant part of their business is their customer service, from project inception, planning, and completion, they pride themselves on providing highly innovative concepts, support, and minimal downtime. Therefore, tracking shipments and reducing ordering errors due to double and manual entries became critical issues.

Until 2016, Hanover Foods Corporation was using a manual freight management process which was long and arduous. The company was in need of an automated, feature-rich, TMS platform. They wanted a solution that would vastly improve the visibility across its transportation network. Some of the key requirements during the selection process included the ability to quickly generate accurate reports concerning the prior week’s on-time deliveries. The company also wanted to digitize its manual accounts payable process, which often took five or more hours a month for the controller to manage.

Holman Parts Distribution was facing several operational and financial challenges. Operationally, the company was struggling with cost overages due to inefficient carrier selection, poor on-time delivery rates, and a lack of supply chain visibility. Financially, the company was allocating too many human resources to manual freight invoicing and frequently paying incorrect invoices. These challenges prompted the company to search for a transportation management system (TMS) in the fall of 2015.

Hyperline Cabling Systems was dissatisfied with their third-party logistics provider (3PL) and recognized the need to regain control of their logistics operations by implementing a transportation management system (TMS). They found that their 3PL would dictate which carriers they could and could not use. This was a problem for Hyperline because not all of the carriers that they wanted to ship with were “approved” carriers. By not being able to choose their desired carriers, Hyperline couldn’t take advantage of lower rates, better service types and price competition. Another deficiency in using a 3PL was the lack of visibility to loads. With the 3PL, some of Hyperline’s loads would be turned into handoff loads, meaning that the carrier that picked up the freight was not the one that delivered it.

AMMEX, a global importer of disposable gloves, was facing challenges in consolidating processes into a single transportation management system. The company needed a TMS that could integrate with Microsoft Dynamics and connect to a variety of LTL carriers. The system also needed to scale to incorporate container tracking and be usable by multiple departments within the organization. The company was shipping between 80 – 100+ LTL shipments every day from their domestic warehouse locations and needed a system to streamline their logistics operations and make shipping processes more transparent.

Master Magnetics, a company that manufactures and distributes magnets and magnetic devices, was facing challenges in their logistics operations. They had no previous experience with a Transportation Management System (TMS) and were initially uninterested in adding technology to their operations. The company ships roughly 500 – 600 pallets worth of magnets each month to retailers, resellers, wholesalers, and distributors nation-wide. Some of their products are still in their raw form and others are pre-packaged and ready for resale. The logistics team ships between 40 – 50 LTL shipments each day. The company was looking for a solution that could help them realize significant financial ROI by leveraging technology while simultaneously saving time rating and booking freight.

Show Me Global Logistics, a national broker and logistics provider, was facing the challenge of connecting with shippers who may not be aware of their services. They were also looking for a way to fill available capacity on a spot basis. The company was seeking a solution that would allow them to quickly and easily connect with hundreds of shippers without adding to their headcount and save time finding freight to fill empty assets.

Coatings & Adhesives (C&A) is a manufacturer of coatings, adhesives, and polymers for the printing and graphic arts industries. The company sells their products across the United States as well as internationally to distributors and end users. For years, C&A used a third party logistics provider (3PL) to manage their freight operations. The prospect of change was daunting for the organization, but high freight expenses, limited carrier scope and poor service from their 3PL pushed C&A into considering other options. When considering this change, C&A’s main goals were to reduce freight costs, gain visibility and accessibility to carriers, and improve the efficiency of their supply chain operations.

Sensata Technologies, a company that ships over 1.1 billion units globally each year from 12 international locations using a variety of modes, was facing challenges in managing their complex supply chain. The company was seeking a more effective way to manage transportation operations with the help of technology. Their goals were to reduce costs, identify areas needing improvement, and gain visibility, traceability and control of global logistics operations. The company needed a technology solution that could flex with their needs due to the complicated nature of shipping product internationally.

Summit Supply, a family-owned direct importer of high-quality rubber tracks, undercarriage wear parts, rubber track pads, and flatproof solid tires for equipment, was facing a challenge with their manual order creation process. The process was time-consuming and prone to errors as it relied on team members entering orders one-by-one into different carrier websites. The objective was to automate the order creation process to save time, avoid human error, and operate in a centralized transportation management system.

Boone Brands, a company with a history dating back to 1942, is known for delivering quality canned products. However, keeping up with the ever-demanding supply chain industry was a challenge. The company needed a solution that could help them save time, contribute positively to their bottom line, and support the growth of their business while mitigating rising freight costs. They also needed a system that could allow them to compare all their carrier rates on one screen to select the lowest cost carrier for each shipment.

Veterinary and Poultry Supply, Inc. (VPSI) has been a family-owned business for 60 years, distributing a wide variety of animal health and nutritional products. As their business began to expand regionally, they faced the challenge of managing new carrier relationships and an increased number of orders. Previously, VPSI relied on their sales team to hand-deliver the majority of their products to customers. However, as the business grew beyond the sales team’s ability to hand-deliver all orders, VPSI needed a solution to manage these new relationships, free up time for the sales team, and ensure customer satisfaction.

Gunner Kennels, a manufacturer of safe, durable dog kennels, was managing their freight through a 3PL, which had proven to be an expensive option. The issue of added costs became especially apparent as Gunner Kennels began experiencing a period of growth. The company needed a transportation management system that would be just as reliable as their products. They were looking for a solution that could manage multiple carriers, compare rates, and avoid additional fees from 3PLs.

In 2016, 180 Innovations began experiencing a rapid period of growth, which necessitated a shift from small parcel shipments via the postal service to LTL shipping. With these increased freight needs, the company realized the need to optimize their processes rather than scaling an old system. The company was looking for a solution that could handle their increasing business, without needing to scale their previously manual process. The challenge was to find a system that could rate, book and track shipments with ease as well as automatically create BOLs.

Challenger, one of Canada’s largest privately owned transportation and logistics companies, was facing a challenge in expanding their footprint and bringing in new business. They needed to find new customers and build direct partnerships with them. However, this was proving to be a difficult task as small details like product information and drop-off location often slipped through the cracks. The dynamic nature of freight made it difficult for Challenger to identify target lanes, find new customers and meet their detailed requirements.

Pioneer Valley Books was facing a challenge with their previous process which was highly manual and didn’t allow for rating with multiple carriers. Their freight spend was only understood on a macro level and they couldn’t audit every invoice for discrepancies due to time constraints. The company was leveraging stand-alone shipping apps, rate aggregators tied to specific carriers, and map-based platforms intermittently. This meant the logistics team at Pioneer Valley Books needed to copy a lot of data back and forth manually, wasting time and limiting the amount of rate comparison possible. As the company’s LTL and parcel freight began to expand rapidly, their home-grown solution wasn’t flexible enough for their long-term needs.

Zoom faced a sudden wave of new audiences in new regions that needed education on how to use the platform. And they needed to keep up with the pace of global adoption. How would the company keep internal and external communications aligned in every market and tell a consistent story around the world? Zoom’s content team found themselves doing more writing gut-checks, and inconsistent terminology created bottlenecks and unnecessary rework. The growth pushed Zoom’s lean marketing team into a race against time to onboard new staff while continuing to delight an ever-expanding user base. Rapid global hiring increased the need for consistency in messaging and brand tone. Slight differences in spelling and grammar were time-consuming for content teams to catch. For example, the Zoom team preferred American English for external communications and had to edit each instance of British English manually. Jumping into the front lines of one of the world’s most recognized brands put enormous pressure on new hires to get things right. A social post with a spelling mistake could potentially be seen by millions of people. Customer-facing content had to land a helpful, friendly tone across markets. The volume of content production created review bottlenecks.

Craveable Brands, the largest Australian-owned quick service restaurant operator, faced several challenges. They wanted to improve the overall customer experience and increase mobile engagement in their loyalty programs. They also aimed to measure average visit duration, time of visit, and queue time in the drive-thru line, gauge the level of customer satisfaction, increase customer frequency, remind customers of their loyalty card at the time of purchase, and determine how customers engage with competitors. To address these priorities, they needed to unlock their customers’ location (and dwell time) and create personalized journeys to increase repeat business.

McAlister’s Deli, a fast casual restaurant chain with over 400 restaurants in 28 states, was looking to streamline its customer experience, improve staff efficiency, and wow guests, especially first-timers. They wanted to prioritize orders for freshly prepared food. To achieve these objectives, they needed to understand the physical behavior of their guests and optimize their service based on those behaviors.

The drive-thru experience is a critical focus area for Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), but it continues to be a point of friction for customers, especially during peak times. According to QSR Magazine’s 2019 Drive-Thru Study, drive-thru wait times increased by an average of 20 seconds. Dunkin’, a global QSR, wanted to buck this trend by creating a truly frictionless experience in the drive-thru lane. The executive team envisioned a Frictionless Drive-Thru (FDT) that would take mobile orders to the next level using location. The challenge was finding an advanced location solution that was easy to deploy and scale across hundreds of stores, precise and accurate down to a single drive-thru lane for order sequencing and timing, and optimized for guest experience to prevent app deletion - such as minimizing battery drain.

Beatgrid Media, a media measurement technology company, was facing several challenges. They needed to create a single source of data for all media channels and match offline TV, radio, digital video, and out-of-home (OOH) campaigns to retail foot traffic. They also needed to minimize battery drain from their 'always on' app and boost attribution accuracy. The company was looking for a solution that could be added to their Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology to capture real foot traffic for ad attribution and industry benchmark purposes.

LOKE, a leader in mobile loyalty and payments, was tasked with building a mobile payments app for one of the world’s 25 largest banks. The app was intended to serve as a digital wallet and smart-ordering service for Australian Football League (AFL) fans, allowing them to order, pay for, and pick up food and drinks without waiting in line at major stadiums. The challenge was to incorporate accurate location services that would recognize when fans at stadiums were on their way to pick up their order and send a notification to the merchant. Additionally, the company needed to provide the bank with real-time, proximity-based data to optimize the experience for bank customers.

Sidecar, a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, has been serving comfort food in a warm and inviting atmosphere since 2007. However, with the rapid growth of its Park Slope neighborhood, the restaurant has faced increased competition. Co-owners Bart and John DeCoursy have had to find ways to maintain an edge and set their business apart. Operating on a limited budget like most small businesses, the DeCoursys needed to make wise choices in their efforts to stand out. They were uncertain about the effectiveness of print and other forms of advertising and had previously used Yelp, which they found unsatisfactory.

Cae Centro, located in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling tech community, was facing the challenge of maintaining its momentum and continuously improving its business. Despite the healthy amount of foot traffic due to its strategic location, the cafe needed to ensure the return of these customers and attract new ones. To achieve this, owner Tom Buswell decided to explore the avenue of online advertising. He was in search of a novel, effective, and easy-to-implement solution.

The Bronx Beer Hall, located in the 73-year-old Arthur Avenue market in the Bronx, faced a significant challenge in promoting their exact location within the large market. The beer hall, known for its craft beer and light fare, needed a solution that would effectively guide potential customers to their specific location within the market.

Saz’s Hospitality Group, a food institution in Milwaukee, has six properties located throughout the city and is one of the largest caterers in the state of Wisconsin. Despite its popularity at catering events, Summerfest, and the Wisconsin State Fair, many people were unaware that they could enjoy the same food in a sit-down setting at Saz’s State House. The biggest challenge for the group was driving customers of their festivals and catering properties to their flagship restaurant location. They needed a solution that could effectively raise awareness about their restaurant and entice people to visit.

Batch Gastropub, a neighborhood gastropub in Miami, was facing the challenge of reaching new customers on a tight budget and with limited resources. The owner, Kevin Danilo, was looking for an efficient way to increase the restaurant’s exposure in real time. Traditional channels like print were not effective as they did not target people in the exact moment they wanted to find a restaurant — when they’re out and about with mobile phones in hand.