Beyond Rate Shopping

Most shippers select carriers through a waterfall process: tender to the cheapest primary carrier, and if they reject, move to the backup. This approach has a critical flaw — it optimizes for line-haul rate while ignoring the total cost of service.

Consider two carriers for a lane from Chicago to Dallas: - Carrier A: $1,200 line-haul, 85% on-time, 2% claims rate, averages $150 in accessorials - Carrier B: $1,350 line-haul, 97% on-time, 0.3% claims rate, averages $40 in accessorials

When you calculate the true cost — including late-delivery penalties, claims, accessorials, and the customer service cost of managing exceptions — Carrier B is often cheaper despite the higher base rate. AI makes this calculation at scale across thousands of shipments daily.

Multi-Variable Routing Optimization