How Berlin Packaging uses shared truckload service to keep this long-standing record running, deliver freight intact, and slash overhead shipping costs.
Who is Berlin Packaging?
As the world’s only Hybrid Packaging Supplier®, Berlin Packaging offers a variety of packaging solutions for businesses large and small, along with end consumers. The company’s broad customer base includes almost every industry, from healthcare to food and beverage. Since its founding in 1898, Berlin Packaging has been helping its customers increase sales, reduce costs, and boost productivity. With the support of over 200 packaging consultants in more than 100 offices around the world, the Chicago, Illinois-based company is achieving its mission of improving customers’ bottom lines.
Berlin Packaging’s valuable products and services play a major role in packaging supply chains. Metal containers, dispensing systems, plastic, glass — These are just a few of the billions of packaging components that the company sells. Through its comprehensive set of solutions, Berlin Packaging is helping customers beat their competition and better their businesses.
On time or bust
To meet global demand and provide a fantastic customer experience, Berlin Packaging maintains high standards for its shipping processes. Since 2004, the company has maintained a 99% on-time delivery rate for warehouse customer shipments. Increased demand and an ever-changing supply chain landscape necessitated innovation and adaptation to maintain this high service level.
Before finding Flock Freight’s shared truckload solution, Berlin Packaging relied on traditional services to fulfill all of its partial and less-than truckload (LTL) shipping needs. Unfortunately, traditional LTL shipping tends to result in unreliable transit and damaged freight. At enterprise volumes, damages were accruing to sizable overhead.
LTL and partial costs were another problem.
“We’ve dealt with many LTL costs. Whether we’re hit with accessorials or hidden fees, LTL has created headache after headache for us.”
The company also had the desire to lower its carbon footprint.
The Flock Freight Difference
Berlin Packaging sought out shared truckload shipping after discovering one of Flock Freight’s articles on LinkedIn. The piece stood out because it directly addressed the pain points that the company was experiencing with LTL. Soon after, Berlin Packaging decided to look into Flock Freight.
“Flock Freight found us at the right time and place. As we did more research, the company’s shared truckload service seemed to have an answer to many of the issues we were facing. We were also drawn to Flock Freight’s status as a B Corp.”
Berlin Packaging secured its first shared truckload shipment with Flock Freight in April of 2020. Now, Berlin Packaging books this service for all types of shipments. In fact, 80% of Berlin Packaging’s shared truckload shipments are larger than 12 linear feet.
While Berlin Packaging hasn’t stopped shipping LTL altogether, the company says Flock Freight’s shared truckload service is “superior to LTL by a long shot.”
“FlockDirect is the core of Flock Freight. We use Flock Freight to reduce our costs and improve service with shared truckload.”
Roughly 40% of Berlin Packaging’s Flock Freight shipments are large-size partials, so the packaging company realizes the most value from the cost savings and higher service levels of shared truckloads.
Since joining the Flock, Berlin Packaging has seen a huge improvement in its shipping key performance indicators in terms of overhead. Cost savings — especially as they relate to shipping costs on specific lanes and costs associated with damage — have been Berlin Packaging’s main driver for continuing to work with Flock Freight. Shared truckload service enables Berlin Packaging to share the space (and cost) of one trailer with other shippers, offering a sensible alternative to buying a whole truck for partial loads that can’t fill it to capacity.
Berlin Packaging has also benefited from the service quality of shared truckloads. By giving Berlin Packaging complete control over pickup and delivery dates, Flock Freight keeps the 99% on-time delivery target intact. And by moving freight hubless, Flock Freight helps Berlin Packaging deliver damage-free shipments as fast as possible.
Berlin Packaging even realized positive sustainability outcomes shortly after partnering with Flock Freight: In just the first month of shipping shared truckload, the company reduced its carbon emissions on shipments moved with Flock Freight by 37%.
Every shared truckload shipment that Berlin Packaging runs is one less fire for its team to put out. The company can rest assured that a shared truckload won’t accrue accessorials, deliver at an unpredicted time, or arrive damaged.
Flock Freight has given Berlin Packaging and its customers something that they can rely on in today’s unpredictable world.
Quotes
Quotes from Todd Birman, Senior Manager of Domestic Transportation
Meet your on-time delivery benchmarks with shared truckload.
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