Transportation Rate Management

GEODIS takes a balanced approach to transportation rate management that focuses on both cost optimization and service quality. Unlike competitors who focus solely on driving rates to bare minimums, we maintain strong carrier relationships by offering fair rates while achieving your cost objectives. This relationship-focused approach ensures carriers prioritize your shipments during capacity constraints, giving you both competitive rates and reliable service.

Our clients typically experience cost reductions of 3-5% through our strategic rate management, with some achieving 30% or more savings during favorable market conditions. The exact savings depend on your current procurement maturity and market conditions. In rising markets, we focus on cost avoidance strategies rather than reduction, such as achieving 6% increases when market averages are 8%. Our goal is delivering within 1-3% of projected transportation costs for reliable budgeting.

We develop strategic relationships with carriers through our core carrier methodology, providing them consistent volume commitments in exchange for capacity guarantees. We typically maintain 3+ carrier options per lane versus single-sourced solutions, creating a diversified network that ensures availability. Our 12-month volume commitments to carriers in exchange for capacity guarantees mean your shipments are prioritized during constraints, and for unexpected demand spikes, we can access additional carriers within our network.

GEODIS uses multiple data sources including DAT, Truck Stop, FTR, and Sonar to get comprehensive market intelligence. Our TMS (Mercury Gate) integrates DAT rates for real-time comparison during procurement and spot bidding. We continuously track key indicators including tender acceptance rates and on-time delivery performance, allowing for early identification of market shifts and strategic adjustments before they impact your service or costs.

We've designed a balanced fuel surcharge program that's fair for both carriers and shippers. The program is structured with defined ranges that adjust based on published EIA retail diesel prices, with updates occurring weekly (every Tuesday) within defined thresholds to provide predictability. This transparent approach helps with budgeting despite fuel price volatility while avoiding excessive profit-taking by carriers during fuel price fluctuations.

GEODIS offers flexible client engagement models from full collaboration to managed service. Our preferred approach involves you in strategy development, carrier selection, and award decisions, ensuring alignment with your priorities and providing ownership of results. You'll have complete rate transparency through the GEODIS Visibility Portal and participate in regular performance reviews to ensure bid targets are being achieved.

Implementation timeframes vary based on your specific requirements. Factors influencing implementation include the number of locations, ERP system integration needs, and decision-maker involvement. Our transportation rate management can typically be implemented as part of our standard TMS setup with minimal additional time required. The system can be tested and validated within hours once rates are loaded, providing a seamless integration with carrier development and rate loading teams.

We provide comprehensive transportation budget guidance each September for the following year, including mode-specific increase/decrease ranges based on deep market analysis and decades of transportation market expertise. Our projections typically include mode-specific increase/decrease ranges (e.g., 3-5% for a specific mode). Our historical data analysis supports your annual budget planning with 13+ months of trend data, and our accrual reporting enhances financial forecasting accuracy.

You'll have access to comprehensive reporting through our Visibility Portal, including dashboards that display key metrics related to rates, carrier performance, and cost trends. The system provides real-time updates of key metrics and KPIs with interactive sorting, dynamic filtering, and drill-down capabilities across customizable date ranges. You'll see summaries and comparisons of carriers, lanes, and vendors, along with details of all charges including contracted rates, spot rates, accessorial fees, fuel charges, and supplementary costs.

Our market-responsive approach continually evaluates lane performance, monitors contract rates against market benchmarks, and identifies cost reduction opportunities when market rates shift. We provide strategic acceleration or delay of procurement events based on market analysis - during COVID volatility, for example, we adapted to 6-month cycles to capture rapid market changes. Our transportation experts provide proactive suggestions for network improvements based on data analysis and scenario modeling for potential network changes.