A new, insourced model for logistics management?

New supply chain services provider Haversack Logistics is looking to pioneer a “first-party” logistics model by leveraging MercuryGate’s TMS and project44’s API connectivity to empower shippers to take transportation processes in-house.    A new logistics services provider has set up a partnership with two prominent freight transportation technology companies to establish what it refers to as a “first-party” logistics (1PL) model for supply chain management.
   North Carolina-based Haversack Logistics, which launched over the summer, will use MercuryGate’s cloud-based transportation management system and project44’s application programming interface (API) carrier connectivity platform to allow its customers to take broader internal control over logistics management.
   The model is based on Haversack supporting a shipper’s in-house staff to plan, optimize and execute freight transportation and logistics operations against lowest-cost, highest-service standards.
   “We partner with our customer’s internal team to help them fully understand their logistics spend and opportunities, then support them with the tools and training to drive out costs, drive-up performance and retain the savings,” said Haversack President Christopher Nadeau. “Our sole focus is enabling our customer to take ownership of their logistics, and through advanced technology tools, best-practice processes, real-time analytics and support, gain true competitive advantage — without outsourcing.”
   Haversack is positioning the offering against traditional 3PL and 4PL models, where the shipper essentially yields critical functions like procurement and execution to the logistics provider. Haversack said it will design a plan for a shipper, including setting metrics and “identifying cost savings and performance improvement opportunities through strategic sourcing, route and load optimization, labor management,” and configure the solutions according to the shipper’s parameters.
   Haversack’s revenues are derived purely from a percentage of cost savings, not from a percentage of freight spend or service costs.
   “We are an invested partner in improving their (profits and losses), so if the operational execution of our plan doesn’t generate the projected savings, we don’t earn our fees,” Nadeau said.
   Haversack will act as a reseller of MercuryGate’s TMS and will individually configure a “private label” version on the platform for each customer. The integration with project44 comes via MercuryGate and facilitates the real-time exchange of normalized pricing information, shipment status, and electronic documents.
   Nadeau said Haversack is aiming at what he called the “sweet spot” of shippers who “want to bring the control and functional execution of transportation and logistics back in house (or keep it in-house), and build up their internal capabilities, instead of outsourcing.”