Dedicated Solutions Prepared for Supply Chain Fluctuations
A business’ shipping volume changes throughout the year based on customer demands, but shipping volume can also be impacted by unplanned events. These fluctuations in the supply chain can be challenging for businesses that operate their own private fleet or work with a smaller carrier. If a dip in demand occurs, you may be left with a fleet with nothing to move. Or, if a surge occurs, you may have to scramble to cover loads and miss a great opportunity to grow your business. If you needed to grow or shrink your fleet today, could you?
Our J.B. Hunt Dedicated Contract Services® team is prepared to help support our customers when they may need to flex or surge their fleet during fluctuations in the supply chain. Our size allows us to provide our customers with a stable supply chain through scalable solutions in times of both planned and unplanned demand changes.
Planned Demand Changes
Consider a customer like a major online retailer. They can plan for supply chain fluctuations throughout the year based on consumer buying habits. The peak season is usually around the holidays – lasting from the end of November and extending a week past the winter holidays at the end of December. But identifying seasonal peaks must accompany solutions for handling it, and that requires flexible capacity planning. A surge can be extreme, and planning needs to be dynamic.
J.B. Hunt works closely with our customers to plan for fluctuation, forming a surge and flex demand schedule using customized solutions. Some of our online retail customers need to increase their fleet up to 25% during their times of surge. We are uniquely positioned to expand their fleet and provide incremental increases that grow as product movement does. Support for this increase comes through being able to leverage our drivers and move them from one dedicated account to another, depending on other customers’ current needs.
Unplanned Demand Changes
But what about the changes we can’t plan for? Consider companies that sell groceries. When something like a natural disaster occurs, customers race to the store to stock up, driving up demand. Sometimes there will be unexpected circumstances that will impact the supply chain.
J.B. Hunt Dedicated can be quick-moving to adjust to the new needs of our customers. Instead of a setback, we can tap into our large pool of drivers and move support to those customers who are experiencing a surge. These actions also aid in driver retention and offer job stability because drivers can keep working through fluctuations rather than being furloughed.
The engineering support that J.B. Hunt offers is a huge advantage in this area, especially during sweeping distribution changes. We can re-engineer our shipment solutions for a customer based on the business’ needs. This gives our Dedicated Contract Services team the advantage of timeliness and adaptability in our response. As a result, our customers know we can be available to them even during unplanned circumstances.
Flexible and Stable Dedicated Trucking Solutions
At J.B. Hunt, we pride ourselves on our size, scale and density to be able to handle both planned and unplanned fluctuations in the supply chain. Each of these qualities allows us to provide custom supply chains solutions for our customers, no matter their size. Let us take on fleet management for you dedicated trucking fleet - contact us today!