Third Party Logistics Operations, Accounting Support and Customer Service
Client needed help putting together an Operations team to handle Load Coverage, Carrier Relationships, and Capacity Sourcing for their operations. They also needed a Customer Service team to handle Appointment Setting, Building Loads, and other back-office work. Furthermore, they also required a Carrier Compliance team and an Accounting Support team to assist their Finance Department.
The challenge
To create the different departments that a large 3PL needs for handling an operation of over 1,700 loads per month. The operation involves Coverage (Carrier Sales Reps), Customer Service, Accounting Support, Carrier Compliance and the creation of an After-hours/Weekend Load Coverage and Customer Service crew.
The solution
Avanza established processes and SOPs to ensure an efficient and smooth daily operation. Processes are very important to provide and deliver consistent results in this industry. Our team members work in a high pace environment where a sense of urgency and communication are key to maintaining a high-quality service.
The Operations Department will be responsible for load coverage. This will be done through different ways such as, capacity sourcing via cold calling, carrier relationships, utilizing capacity tools and load boards.
The Customer Service Team will have a variety of tasks to perform. From setting up pickup and delivery appointments, to rescheduling existing appointments. Additionally, they will monitor EDI and other online TMS and build loads into our client’s TMS. They will work very closely with the Operation Dept to ensure smooth pickups and deliveries, for both the carriers, and the customers.
The Accounting Support Team will be a very important extension of our client’s Finance Dept. They will be processing invoices and payments, answering payment status requests, sending balance statements to customers, and setting up customers in our client’s system.
Carrier Compliance will be responsible for the carrier setup process. They will perform and run different tasks and reports to get this done. They will also process overrides and check carrier scores.
The result
Over 45 agents make up the organization and departments of our client operations. Due to the significant growth of our client’s business, additional positions were added to keep a high quality-of-service while the operations scale up. Some positions include, Director of Operations, Accounting Manager, Carrier Compliance Manager, Capacity Managers, Customer Service Manager, Trackers and more.
Our Operations Team went from booking 1,100 loads a month at the beginning of this partnership to currently booking close to 2,000 loads per month. This has resulted in building countless carrier relationships and driving annual revenue from $1,036,868 to $5,009,693.
The Accounting Support team processes an average of 130 to 160 invoices daily. They also process 60 to 100 load payments per day. The team handles 50 to 75 payment status requests/inquiries daily, helping carriers. They also send balance statements weekly and set up 10 to 15 customers daily.
The Customer Service Dept builds around 800 loads per month into our client’s TMS. They also accept hundreds of additional loads through EDI and other integrated TMS. This team setup nearly 1,800 appts a month and handles load rescheduling. They also answer load inquiries coming from our client customers.
The Carrier Compliance team completes on average 100 – 150 carrier setups a day. They also process from 5 to 10 overrides per day. They are responsible for checking carrier scores and reports to adjust carrier status in our client’s TMS.
This entire operation is running like a well-oiled machine and our customer receives a lot of compliments from their partner agencies about our team and performance.