Carrier Diversification in Perishable Shipping: A Necessity, Not an Option

By Jason Park

For perishable parcels, carrier diversification isn’t an option. It’s a necessity.

Late deliveries = spoiled product = refunds = reships = customer churn

In any given zip code, every carrier has a different on-time delivery % at any given time. The more carrier options you have for the same shipment, the higher your chances of better on-time delivery. Someone always has at least 1% better on-time delivery than someone else.

However, if you rely entirely on one carrier, then you're at the mercy of whatever their on-time delivery is at that moment. Whether it's 95%, 85%, or worse. For perishables, that's literally the difference between refunding 5% of your sales, 15% of your sales, or worse.

Yet, few if any perishable shippers consistently use more than 1-2 carriers. Why not?

Even if you set aside the false comfort of incremental volume discounts…the technology simply has not existed to enable this intense degree of carrier diversification.

And no, conventional "rate shopping" doesn't actually do this. Why not?

• Not only does on-time delivery vary overall by zip code, but regional and local carriers often have consistently better on-time delivery.

• However, traditional WMS/TMS/OMS solutions do not take this into account - because they don’t select a carrier until AFTER the warehouse is already filling the order.

• To get the best on-time delivery possible, available carriers and their on-time delivery need to be part of the criteria BEFORE a warehouse is selected.

Stated differently, whether I ship an order out of IL or NJ should be heavily influenced – if not determined entirely – by which carriers are available in those facilities.

Because again, every 1% difference in on-time delivery is another 1% of your sales.

This is another example of why traditional software actually REDUCES efficiency for perishable shippers and 3PLs. Perishable parcel logistics requires perishable parcel software.