Survey Shows Improved Economic Environment For Shippers

The Kewill 2011 Best Practices Survey for Parcel Shipping and LTL/Freight Management revealed challenges and strategies in parcel shipping.

This is the fifth year Kewill has conducted this highly anticipated benchmarking survey of logistics professionals, which highlights key trends and industry best practices. The findings of the survey are detailed in a whitepaper that also provides 10 best practices recommendations for parcel shipping and LTL/freight management.

Key findings from the report include:

* Twenty-one percent of shippers are still using a fully manual process to input parcel information, and only a small minority of progressive leaders, eight percent, claim to have a totally hands-free operation.

* The difference between 2010 and 2011 is that we see an improved economic environment, with an increasing number of companies in a position to add headcount to their shipping operations.

* Most LTL/Freight shippers currently use between two and five carriers in their operations.

* The majority of companies are still using from one to three parcel shipping carriers.

* The survey also looked at the use of blended postal solutions (ie, Newgistics and Fedex Smartpost) and a third of respondents who are using blended solutions clearly see the advantage of using USPS's infrastructure for final delivery with another 19 percent considering the option.

"This report clearly highlights the challenges that shippers face when it comes to making strategic choices as to how to move forward as parcel and freight volumes start to increase," said Alan Gold, vice president of marketing and business development for Kewill. "Organizations that were holding steady or contracting last year may now be in a position to consider growing their operations and investing in the future."