Alliance Awards: Birdsong’s “masterpiece of collaboration”

It sounds like an academic thesis; one that’s presented at a conference and discussed at the ensuing networking reception—only to get lost in the haze of our day-to-day grind once we’re back in the office.

However, as our research has continued to reveal, it’s now become imperative that we usher in a “new era of collaboration,” one where willing shippers pay reasonable rates for the service and capacity they need while executing supply chain innovation through a network of true operating partners

For LM readers, the clarion call was sounded late last year as we presented our “24th Annual Study of Logistics and Transportation Trends” with Karl Manrodt, Ph.D., of Georgia College and Mary Holcomb, Ph.D., of the University of Tennessee. Manrodt and Holcomb surmised that the excess transportation capacity that existed during much of the recession enabled shippers to negotiate substantial reductions in transportation rates, enabling a “cost savings addiction” that we now need to break

“Demand for freight transportation has now exceeded the available capacity in several surface transportation modes,” proclaims Holcomb, “and forecasts indicate that this imbalance will increase as the driver shortage in trucking gets worse in the future.”

Our message remains clear: Shippers who were relying on this freight savings “fix” are getting a wake up call. To kick the habit, we need logistics networks that offer benefits and new opportunities for all involved.

What does this mean? For shippers it means concentrating on serving up “friendly freight” to a transportation system that now has the upper hand. For carriers, it means breaking down contact barriers and improving capacity visibility. And for 3PLs it means working closely with shippers to ensure that they are optimizing the services at their disposal.

While we understand that they have a powerful platform to push this important concept along, we believe it’s better to show what this “new era of collaboration” looks like in action as opposed to offering pages of theory. With that in mind LM forged a partnership with SMC3, a provider of data, technology and education to the freight industry, to produce the Alliance Awards

In its fourth year, the Alliance Awards recognizes real world examples of shippers, their carriers and service providers collaborating to overcome challenges specific to unique supply chain operations. Winners are singled out for the ability to produce meaningful outcomes for all players involved in the solution—a true logistics collaboration success.

I was honored to help hand out the awards this past January at SMC3’s Jump Start Conference, and now equally proud to roll out the first of three winning success stories that we’ll share in the pages of LM. In fact, contributing editor John Schulz, the author of our cover story “Birdsong Peanuts: Expanding markets, increasing savings,” refers to this first winner as a “masterpiece of collaboration.”

“Here’s a 102-year-old peanut ‘sheller’ who suddenly receives a massive export order from China that is time sensitive and requires an innovative transportation network to make it happen,” says Schulz. “What unfolds is the melding of intermodal, port and ocean carrier partners into a solution that not only helps Birdsong expand into a massive new market, but changes the game for the peanut industry. It’s a perfect example of collaboration in action.”