33rd Annual Quest for Quality Awards: Service in the spotlight

This extensive annual report is the culmination of a six-month research project conducted by LM and Peerless Research Group (PRG) that has been known for more than three decades as the single most important measure of customer satisfaction and service performance excellence available in the logistics and transportation industry.

Keeping with tradition, we use the August edition to officially announce the results and celebrate the carriers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and U.S. ports that have earned the ultimate vote of shipper confidence by receiving the highest scores across our service performance criteria.

It’s important to keep in mind that the winners on the lists that you’re about to read have been determined by LM readers—the buyers of logistics and transportation services who put these carriers and service providers to work around the clock and around globe. For that reason, carriers and service providers put more weight on winning a Quest for Quality award than any other award in the market.

The survey is by invitation only, allowing shippers to vote in the type of services that they use on a regular basis and rank those carriers and providers that they work with every day. In order to evaluate a provider, the voter must have experience with that specific provider at some point over the past 12 months.

“Unlike other awards programs in the market, Quest for Quality goes well beyond name recognition and popularity and is solely based on the merits and performance of the service providers,” says Judd Aschenbrand, director or research of PRG. “Logistics Management readers are a dedicated group of professionals, and they care deeply about rewarding service excellence when and where it’s due.”

For the 2016 survey, our research group received 4,725 total responses that resulted in 129 transportation and logistics service providers walking away with a coveted Quest for Quality award.

One of my favorite parts of this long-standing tradition is speaking with the many winners who attend our annual awards dinner. Year after year, they tell us that the value of winning a Quest for Quality award continues to rise inside their organizations, especially when you consider the operational challenges that just about every mode and service sector has faced over the past 10 years.

And as you read through executive editor Patrick Burnson’s Ocean Cargo Roundtable and contributing editor John Schulz’s deft reporting on the state the trucking market, you’ll find that those operational challenges show no signs of subsiding.

The good news for the carriers and providers on the Quest for Quality lists this year: The weighted average score in just about every category ticked up a couple of points, signally that LM readers have seen service levels improve despite the hurdles those winners have had to clear. While these results show that shippers believe service is improving, I’d add that the enhanced collaboration between the shippers and their service partners has gone a long way in bolstering this perception.

Now it’s time to recognize and celebrate the winners of the 33rd Annual Quest for Quality Awards.