Case Study: During Freight Recession, BCB Transport Sees 19.6% Increase in Revenue Per Truck After Embracing Artificial Decision Intelligence

Introduction

In today’s highly competitive transportation and logistics market, embracing innovation that drives operational efficiency can be the difference between winning and losing. With rates at 2-year lows,  carriers need every advantage they can get to generate incremental points of profit and maintain a competitive advantage.  

For one customer, BCB Transport out of Mansfield, TX, this was the perfect opportunity to fully embrace such a technology by partnering with Optimal Dynamics. By implementing Optimal Dynamics' Execute solution, an operational system that proactively automates and optimizes truckload decisions, BCB has begun the journey of transforming their operations. 

And the results speak for themselves: during a recent period, BCB saw an increase of more than 19% in revenue per truck per week and an operational efficiency that has opened the door for the company to run their business with 16% fewer tractors, all during a period of depressed market volumes and rates. 

This customer spotlight details how BCB is using Optimal Dynamics’ artificial decision intelligence and the transformation their company is experiencing as a result.

“To hit the goals we wanted to achieve, manually executing load planning and dispatching decisions was proving to be an uphill battle.”

Like all carriers, BCB faced the complex task of optimizing operational decisions, such as making effective load acceptance and dispatching decisions, across their network while trying to maximize their unique KPIs. These tasks are fraught with uncertainty and require intricate manual planning, necessitating a solution that could handle these complexities while allowing BCB to plan for the unpredictable future.

“We move 150 loads per day and dispatch 130 drivers,” said Rick Larkin, Chief Information Officer at BCB. “To hit the goals we wanted to achieve, manually executing load planning and dispatching decisions was proving to be an uphill battle.”

When he first started talking to Optimal Dynamics, Larkin was immediately intrigued, if somewhat skeptical. “I told my team ‘if these guys can do even a fraction of what they’re saying, they’re going to 100% transform how we think about and operate our business.’”

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From Current State to Future State

As with most first-of-its-kind technology, adopting a transformative solution like Optimal Dynamics requires embracing a future vision of one's organization.  For BCB, this first meant turning over daily decisions to Optimal Dynamics’ Execute solution, which proactively automates and optimizes load acceptance and dispatching decisions across the entire network.  The system can forecast  load acceptance decisions up to three weeks in advance and automate corresponding dispatching decisions. This unique attribute of Optimal Dynamics’ solution, handling both tactical and real-time decisions, drives compounding efficiency improvements and vastly increases load planner and dispatcher productivity.

“It was daunting for the first time to let a system make the decisions we have been making manually for years,” said Larkin. “But after we worked through some iterations with the OD team we started to realize what a vastly more efficient system it could be.” It was during one of Optimal Dynamics’ “Dispatcher For A Day” onsite training sessions that the full potential of the system was readily on display.  

Letting go of past behaviors was a key for the dispatchers’ adoption. “After our team built trust in the decisions, our dispatchers are planning 60% more freight in the same amount of time, while even more importantly exceeding our operational efficiency goals,” continued Larkin.

Optimal Dynamics’ artificial decision intelligence engine, CORE.ai, enabled BCB to effectively navigate operational uncertainties, streamline their decision-making processes and ultimately create a better way to make decisions to drive more profitability. 

In parallel with load acceptance and dispatching, BCB was able to simulate a view of their network within the Optimal Dynamics Plan solution. The simulation enabled BCB to collaborate closely with the Optimal Dynamics team to fine-tune the Execute solution before the decisions were integrated into their daily operation. This collaborative approach helped BCB mitigate risk and identify areas of opportunity, maximizing the benefits of the Execute solution and further driving operational efficiency.

The Impact: Significant Increase in Asset Revenue and Efficiency

After Optimal Dynamics worked closely with the BCB team to validate recommendations, understand perceived discrepancies and battle-test the system until it was tuned to operate around their unique business goals and rules, Execute had an immediate and significant impact on their operations. During the evaluation period, the solution led to an increase of more than 19% in revenue per truck per week. 

“The results were seriously impressive,” said Larkin.

Moreover, given the impact of these results, it has uncovered the opportunity to reduce tractor count by 16% without impacting revenue, signaling a substantial improvement in operational efficiency. The summary KPIs for the recent period were:

• 19.6% increase in revenue per truck per week 
• 83% reduction in driver turnover
• 13% increase in mileage per truck

While BCB's team has not yet fully shifted their focus from operational decisions to customer service and strategic tasks, Optimal Dynamics has provided the opportunity for BCB to do so in the very near future. This potential for future optimization offers significant promise for enhancing BCB's operations and driving additional revenue growth.

Looking Ahead: Further Enhancements with Optimal Dynamics' Plan Solution

Following the successful implementation of load acceptance and dispatching, BCB is now planning to further leverage the capabilities of Optimal Dynamics' Plan solution. They aim to optimize their operations through strategic decision-making, especially by utilizing the powerful Bid Response functionality included in the Plan solution. This tool promises to provide BCB with a significant competitive advantage, enhancing their customer service capabilities and driving further revenue growth.

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Business Transformation Takes Time

BCB’s experience with the Optimal Dynamics solution underscores the transformative potential of artificial decision intelligence in the transportation and logistics industry. By embracing innovation, leveraging strategic partnerships, and focusing on operational efficiency, BCB has significantly increased their revenue and streamlined their operations. As they look forward to further optimizing their operations with Optimal Dynamics, they are mindful of the following:

• Proper change-management training and processes are just as important as the decisions themselves

• Standard KPIs might not be relevant anymore, and can lead to degradation of the solution. Example: There was an increase in long empty moves during BCB’s implementation

• Load Acceptance and Dispatching can be used independently of one another, but, for the most positive impact, they should be used in tandem as soon and as frequently as possible

• Users should not expect 100% recommendations 100% of the time. There are still circumstances that require manual intervention and these circumstances should be embraced as both a learning tool for the engine and a way to reinforce the value of the user/person to the organization

About Optimal Dynamics 

Optimal Dynamics was founded on over 40 years of research from Princeton University to build the decision layer of logistics. Today, Optimal Dynamics automates and optimizes planning, load acceptance, and dispatching decisions for truckload operations. Optimal Dynamics is based in NYC and has raised $56M to date.

Optimal Dynamics leverages a unique approach to offer a holistic decision automation platform, combining strategic, tactical, and real-time decision-making. To enable this, a groundbreaking unified artificial decision intelligence engine is used, called CORE.ai. This is drastically different from traditional transportation optimization systems that only provide simplified dispatching or strategic solutions. The Optimal Dynamics platform goes beyond typical operations to predict, plan, and execute, enabling the platform to balance immediate decisions with future uncertainties. The unique synthesis of strategic foresight, tactical analysis, and real-time response drives compounding benefits, which can fundamentally transform truckload operations. Go to www.optimaldynamics.com to learn more.