Data2Logistics’ Friedman Featured in Journal of Commerce, US-EU Shipping Opportunities Focus

Nov. 19, 2012 - PRLog -- Global supply chain information and technology company Data2Logistics’ Harold B. Friedman, DLP, Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Development was featured in the Journal of Commerce article, Freight Payment Regulations Vary Widely Across the EU by David Biederman, originally published November 5th, discussing differences between US and EU region’s logistics, impact on supply chains and related opportunities for shippers.

Excerpt:

The U.S. freight audit and payment industry has been focused on transactional data and analytics for more than 20 years, said Harold Friedman, senior vice president of global corporate development for Data2Logistics, a Fort Myers, Fla.-based freight audit and payment company. Friedman sees the freight audit and payment business as ripe for domestic and international expansion. In the US, growth is tied to a company’s ability to provide international services. Customers led Data2Logistics overseas when they asked the company to help them leverage their transportation spend on a global basis. Data2Logistics has been operating internationally for eight years.

The global third-party freight audit and payment business is immature relative to the US. In the EU, shippers are just beginning to consider outsourced services and to recognize the value of transactional information and audits. “Shippers in Europe are learning from their US counterparts that with good information they can negotiate to reduce transportation and logistics expenses,” Friedman said.

Transactional data drives savings. It allows freight auditors to analyze and compare costs for modes such as less-than-truckload and parcel, to shift between modes and to identify optimal weights, routes and modes for various types of shipments. Data can be used to identify non-core carriers that may be more competitive than a customer’s preferred carriers. “If a carrier is supposed to ship a complete order and makes five partial shipments instead, you can identify those conditions and charge back the difference,” Friedman said.

Shippers can save a lot of money simply by having a routing guide, which is easily created using transactional data provided by freight audits. Not having one and allowing carriers to design routes is asking for trouble, Friedman said.

Data2Ligistics invests significantly in new technology development. The ultimate goal of freight audits is not to save money on isolated or exceptional transactions but to facilitate shippers and carriers working together to reduce repetitive billing errors. “Getting it right the first time is better for everyone,” Friedman said.

To read the article, visit http://www.joc.com/international-trade-news/freight-payme....

Data2Logistics’ services enhance organization’s logistics, supply chain, operations, finance and accounting processes, providing information needed to control costs for all modes of transportation both domestically and internationally via LTL, TL, parcel, overnight express, ocean, air and rail carriers. Having a full service operation in Rotterdam, Netherlands since 2004 enables Data2Logistics to support rapidly expanding companies throughout North America, LATAM, EMEA and APAC, with staff attuned to local cultures and unique business environments.

Data2Logistics assists Global 1000, Fortune 1000 and SMB companies to reduce their shipping costs by providing an outsourced opportunity to efficiently process, audit, account code and pay their freight at a significantly lower cost than internal processes. Clients also benefit from the identification of more carrier overcharges than their internal systems can identify. The company provides actionable information to better manage and control transportation cost. As a single source of information for all modes of transportation on a global basis, Data2Logistics identifies and reports opportunities for savings and the reasons for variances in trends. Savings opportunities can be derived from modal shifts, consolidation of shipments, improved carrier utilization, and adjustment to shipment size, as well as monitoring accessorial costs. Reviewing over $15 billion worth of freight bills from thousands of carriers annually, the company provides a single-source solution resulting in savings on average of 5%-15% of product shipping expenditures per year.

For Data2Logistics information and demonstration, contact Harold Friedman, +1 609 577 3756 or harold.friedman@data2logistics.com.

About Data2Logistics, LLC
Fort Myers, Florida-based Data2Logistics is a leader in supply chain logistics knowledge management, cost control and freight payment. The company’s Ship Smarter and Save actionable information, assists hundreds of clients in the Global 1000, Fortune 1000 and SMB categories, processing hundreds of millions of freight bills annually, valued in excess of $15 billion, saving clients an average of 5%-15% of their product shipping expenditures per year.

As an eight-time recipient of Inbound Logistics’ Top 100 Logistics IT Service Providers, their data mining capabilities creates actionable information for control of current and ongoing shipping cost savings. The company is the only service provider to work with clients and carriers to eliminate billing errors from recurring and to continuously improve and optimize their logistics networks and expenditures, domestically and globally. http://www.data2logistics.com/ + http://twitter.com/Data2Logistics