What We Do

Our guarantee is that we will help drive EBITDA growth through the creation of effective logistics strategy.

In order to deliver on this promise, it is incumbent on us to have no gaps in our logistics expertise. Whether we are building procurement wins across all modes of transportation or implementing risk-mitigating trade compliance programs, our knowledge is both exhaustive in our field and readily available to our clients.

Below are the primary categories where our clients use Smart Chain, and we invite you to get in touch with us to discuss your specific needs and how we can best be of service to you.

Logistics Strategy Creation

A well-defined logistics strategy is paramount for any company aiming to thrive in today's complex business landscape. At its core, logistics involves the efficient management of the flow of goods, services, and information from the point of origin to the final consumer. An effective logistics strategy streamlines these processes, ensuring that products are delivered to customers promptly, cost-effectively, and in optimal condition. Furthermore, the right logistics strategies enable businesses to adapt quickly to unforeseen disruptions or changes in their own business environments without sacrificing the continuity and reliability of their operations.

Our clients trust us with their logistics strategies because our approach considers all variables and resultant models and processes are easily adaptable to move with their businesses. Our strategies are focused on cost management realized by carefully planning routes, warehouse networks, product sourcing, available logistics service providers, and operational processes. When optimized, these levers can beneficially augment freight costs, fuel expenditure, personnel costs, inventory carry costs, duty/tariff exposure, and opportunity cost.

In addition to quantitative data and results, our strategies also review our clients' use of technology, data standardization, and logistics visibility.

Thankfully, pilots do not leave an airplane after takeoff. Similarly, our team stays on the job with our clients after strategy implementation to help with logistics management and, consequential to a successful strategy, support new business growth and brand expansion.

Ocean Freight, Drayage, & Network Optimization

Our approach to international freight comprehensively addresses end-to-end processes, ocean freight procurement and performance analysis, drayage positions, chassis availability, free time usage, and schedule integrity. Moreover, we offer network analyses to present alternative routings focused on DCOGS reduction and/or avoidance of current and forecasted bottlenecks.

Before beginning any freight procurement, we conduct a thorough analysis of our clients' current state followed by an interview of stakeholders to ascertain current alignment with long-term goals. From there, we create a strategy with incremental milestones and, upon client approval, we begin our procurement work.

All procurement projects are supported with daily updates, analysis files and summaries, and weighted rankings based on criteria that our clients establish. Once initial procurement is completed, we continue to support our clients' freight management by identifying overspend, tracking real savings/cost avoidance, tackling service issues with carriers, and balancing contract rates with spot rates to ensure that there is no waste in annual freight spend.

Our solutions conclusively deliver below-market cost structures, improved on-time performance, updated SOPs across all parties in our clients' supply chains, and a suite of KPIs customized for each client's specific logistics strategies.

Over-the-Road Freight

The volatility of both short-haul and long-haul markets brings considerable financial risk to a logistics strategy. If negotiated pricing is too low, shippers may struggle to secure capacity. If pricing is too high, shippers leave critical dollars on the table.

While our clients are in manufacturing, distribution, CPG, retail, energy, or raw materials all have disparate trucking needs, our experience and insistence on building solutions from the ground-up (instead of relying on frameworks) has allowed us to create truly effective models. Some examples of past work include:

Three-tiered index based pricing model for a distributor using vans, tankers, reefers, and mini-floats.
Transload and final mile solution as a new product for leading FTL broker.
Two-tiered pricing model with 17 asset-based carriers on point-point lanes supported by 3 brokers on market-market lanes.
Updated fuel model that expanded the price steps, moved from a U.S. average diesel price baseline to DOE sub-PADDs, and converted from a % of linehaul basis to a cost per mile.

Logistics Performance Measurement

Measuring the performance of your logistics strategy is crucial to determining its effectiveness and identifying areas for improvement. We use a variety of performance metrics to evaluate your logistics operations and provide you with actionable insights that can help you make informed decisions and drive better results.

All metrics that we use at Smart Chain provide actionable intelligence. We go beyond simple reporting and provide unique solutions to achieve KPI improvement. For example, manipulating the footprint of chemical supersacks in a container to load more on the floor and improve DCOGS per LB.

Chemical Logistics

Shipping chemicals continues to become more difficult as time goes on. From ocean carriers consistently adding more UN/Class combinations to their forbidden goods lists to tanker companies having only a handful of insurance underwriters willing to cover liquid road transport, the movement of dangerous goods has never been more difficult.

Our team has a strong background in chemical logistics and trade compliance. We have a playbook of tested strategies and processes that ensure the effective delivery of chemicals while mitigating risk. Furthermore, our list of chemical-approved logistics partners across all service verticals saves critical time in restructuring to a best-in-class network.

Sales Training

Selling logistics services as a forwarder, NVOCC, customs broker, truck broker, or other 3PL/4PL is not an easy task. The marketplace is crowded with competition, core service offerings lack clear differentiation, and sales strategy devolves into a numbers game. Consequently, shippers receive dozens of identical value propositions daily and end up tuning out all of them.

Our training program delivers a process to create target-specific value propositions, generate higher response rates from targets, identify and capitalize on opportunities to integrate with a customer, and both motivate and retain a top-tier sales team.