In the past, shippers have lost hours of productivity and billions of dollars in potential revenue by retrieving empty containers from congested ports before preparing them for reuse. Street turning empty containers helps to solve that costly problem.
Street turns essentially allow an imported container to be emptied and reused for export without involving an additional leg or stop to a terminal or yard, which can take hours.
“When carriers street-turn their containers, it increases loaded efficiency by adding extra dollars to the same trips,” according to CDL 1000 CEO Andrew Sobko. “Empty drayage moves cost the industry over $20 billion in the U.S. and over $40 billion worldwide.”
While street turns have been allowed for some time, the manual process of arranging them has historically been unreliable and time-consuming. CDL 1000 aims to revolutionize street turns by automating the process, cutting out inefficiencies and improving speed.
“Due to a lack of transparency between all stakeholders in the industry, there was no progress made in street turns for the last 10 to 20 years,” Andrew said. “Some more efficient drayage companies have figured out a way of charging import and export customers twice for the round-trips and take advantage of those same inefficiencies. No one had a conservative solution for the whole industry.”
Andrew believes that street-turning containers “is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice.” Smart Logistics Marketplace, powered by CDL 1000, is designed to make that choice easier.
The marketplace platform allows export companies to meet drayage companies with equipment on the street and reload at a one-way rate. The tool uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to match import and export containers automatically, taking out the tedious scheduling work and freeing up manpower for more substantial tasks.
“AI allows machines and computers to perform tasks that humans consider difficult, boring or thought impossible. It makes decisions through the support of intelligent algorithms,”Andrew said. “Carriers can post in our marketplace when and where they have deliveries, and we will offer them opportunities for backhauls. Drayage companies can now benefit from consistent backhaul loads while exporters can easily receive real-time tracking updates and reserve a truck in seconds.”
“Companies that are considering deploying this agnostic TMS street turns tool will have a competitive advantage, and it will benefit all of their stakeholders: drivers, dispatch operators and customers,” CEO of Blue Larry Cuddy said.
C&K Trucking President Mike Burton is optimistic about CDL 1000’s new Smart Logistics Marketplace. The 900-plus truck company specializes in drayage and hopes to achieve better visibility and smoother matching with the tool.
Burton plans to use the new tool to find backhauls at a time when the market is relatively soft and coronavirus concerns are disrupting the entire supply chain.
“It’s all about trying to find freight,” Burton said. “Our sales team is aggressively out there, and we have an existing customer base. We are worried about the impact of coronavirus, though.”
Using the Smart Logistics Marketplace will be the company’s first foray into the world of digital tools, and Burton expects it to spark progress.
“We don’t do any digital at all right now,” he said. “We’re looking to see what’s out there, and we are excited about this product.”