Today, the digital world makes it possible to buy almost anything online and the expediting companies deliver these products to the consumer.
Quick shipping services increase in demand because the modern consumer shops online more than ever.
This is why the need for the quick shipping of full truckloads or less-than-truckloads (LTL), or parcels are in high demand services these days, which are being provided by the expediting companies.
Below, I'll explain what expediting companies do and how they provide the quick shipping for their customers.
What do expediting companies do?
Expediting companies get a product from destination A to destination B as quickly as possible without damaging it.
In trucking, due to this characteristic, these types of loads are known as "HOT".
Usually, these are products such as medical aid, manufacturing products, and legal documents that require fast delivery.
Read about what is an expedited service in trucking.
How do expediting companies provide these quick shipping services?
To provide the quick deliveries, expediting companies rely mainly on the four types of trucks:
- Cargo van - goods that fit into a small van.
- Sprinter van - goods that can be well packed in 1 to 3 palletized freight.
- Straight truck - for goods that are too big or too heavy for the sprinter van but fit great into a straight truck.
- Tractor-trailer - for long-haul deliveries or loads that require a full truck (FTLs).
Why do customers choose an expedited service?
What kind of services does expediting trucking include?
Frank from the "The Trucking Couple" youtube channel breaks it down into 4 main components. These are exclusive use, door to door, time-definite, time-critical.
Here's how Frank explains each of these components.
1. Exclusive use
This option means that you get exclusive use of the truck.
It doesn't matter if you need to ship only 5 pounds or 5000 pounds. You get exclusive use of the full truck.
Someone might say that this is a lot of waste. But, this is the character of expedite trucking.
A lot of times, the cost doesn't matter because whatever the truck driver carries is so important to the customer that the shipping cost outweighs the loss of production, labor hours, or some other catastrophic loss.
So, the exclusive use option is the exclusive use of the truck. Nothing else goes on it. The truck driver picks it up whether it is 5000, 15000 or 50000 pounds.
It doesn't matter. You get the whole truck.
2. Door to door
This option means that the truck driver picks the freight at the customer's door and delivers it at the receiver door chosen by the customer. Or, most of the time, it is business to business.
The truck driver doesn't have to get the load to a distributor, to a terminal, or anything like that.
In this case, the truck driver comes to the customer's door, picks up the load, secures it, and delivers it to the receiver's door.
3. Time-definite
This option means that everything is done by appointment.
For example:
The pickup is at 10 am and the delivery is at 4 am where the appointment times are confirmed upfront.
So, time-definite means that the truck needs to be at that appointment time. No later than 15 minutes.
4. Time-critical
This option means that at the essence the time is important to the customer. The customer may request to receive the load within the time parameters that they provide.
The truck driver confirms that he can get it done in this time parameters.
Conclusion
Today, the trucking business increases. That's why fast truck deliveries play a very important role in this game.
By choosing to deliver their product through an expedited service, the customer chooses to receive the product fast and secured at a convenient time for the customer.
Quick shipping is what expediting companies do best.
If you intend to open your trucking company then read how to start your own expediting business.
