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From the Assembly Line to Your Doorstep: What the Journey of a Package Really Looks LikeVictoria HeckstallFollow3 min read·Apr 16, 2018 --
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Let’s follow the journey of a pair of shoes. First, they are manufactured in a factory, which produces a massive number of shoes regularly. A freight forwarder then picks up a large volume
of them and brings them to a distribution warehouse. If the shoes are being shipped internationally, there are several other steps involved (ports, ships, planes for both oceanic and longer
domestic flights, etc.), but if it’s a local shipment, the shoes can stay where they are — until a retailer or individual orders them.
In this distribution center is the commonly imagined maze of conveyor belts. Take UPS’s Worldport facility, for example:
“If you’ve seen the movie Monster’s Inc, you’ve seen a fair approximation of the sort. Packages are sorted into logical categories by moving along a series of conveyor belts that look, to
most people, anything but logical. There are 17,000 conveyor belts in the Worldport sorting facility. If stretched from end to end, they would reach 122 miles. These belts make a series of
loops and twists to fit the four million square feet of available space in Worldport.”
This organized chaos helps group different products that are going to similar destinations. Once in logical clusters, packages are shipped to more local or regional distribution facilities.
Employees scan package labels to print a Preload Assist Label, which tells them which conveyor belt will take each package to its proper vehicle.
Larger corporations own some of these vehicles, and some belong to mom-and-pop shipping companies. These trucks use routing software to deliver packages directly to customers’ homes, retail
locations, or other businesses.
How freight brokerage works
Ensuring products get where they need to be is a challenging endeavor, especially when people and places are so scattered. In our current system, freight brokers are necessary to schedule
routes, connecting approximately 15 million trucks in the United States to 250,000 manufacturers and 300,000 distributors of varying sizes. Direct communication between parties is
practically infeasible, so brokers have established themselves as indispensable.
Zipline Logistics describes how the process works: a shipper gives a broker as much relevant information as it can regarding its products and intended recipients. A 3PL (broker) then enters
the information into his or her freight management system to schedule both pick up and delivery times. Brokers in general “take the time to secure qualified transportation by selling, and
then booking, a skilled carrier on the order. A broker builds their network full of carriers they’ve vetted and can depend on.” Instead of testing drivers on their own, suppliers can “rely
on a broker’s experience and robust database to find the best option.”
Brokers stay in contact with drivers to handle dispatch (relaying handling requirements and double-checking pertinent information), loading (even after carriers have signed a Bill of
Loading), transit (for monitoring location and route progress), delivery (to ensure consignees signs a Bill of Landing, officially noting a delivery as complete), and billing. Many suppliers
outsource their brokers for access to a broader network of carriers.
Where it all goes wrong
Freight brokerage, however, is a field with high margins. Remember all of the information the supplier provided? Hardly any of it is given to drivers or recipients, which makes brokerage
very centralized and secretive. Brokers are incentivized to book as many shipments as they can with the cheapest carriers, so truckers drive billions of miles every year with empty or
partially full loads.
Also, due to the industry’s opaqueness, there’s a lot of room for fraud. Fictitious pickups, false documents, and “double-bind brokering schemes” that stick innocent drivers with stolen
goods are known to happen. This inefficient system wastes gas, time, and billions of dollars — and people’s orders may be lost or stolen without any way of finding them. Packages can be
late, too, because actors are left unaware of each others’ reputations that affect decision-making.
How Fr8 Network can help
A package’s journey should be a smooth one, not full of risk and frustration. With our blockchain-based platform, we decentralize the trucking industry by re-assigning brokers’ duties to
more representational roles rather than as intermediaries. We can also help carriers and suppliers coordinate directly with one another, ensuring that everyone involved is incentivized to
remain honest, and delivering packages to people punctually.