News: How Athletic Brewing Optimized Logistics and Cut Costs with ShipperGuide TMS and Opendock

Chicago, IL - February 5, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Loadsmart, a next-gen logistics solutions provider, is enabling Athletic Brewing, a pioneer in non-alcoholic craft beer on a mission to positively impact communities and the environment, to optimize its logistics operation and reduce costs with ShipperGuide TMS and Opendock.

Athletic Brewing faced logistical complexities and rising costs due to rapid growth. Their manual processes for tracking shipments, managing quotes, and coordinating with carriers made scaling difficult and time-consuming. They relied heavily on email and spreadsheets, lacked real-time analytics, and had limited visibility into carrier performance.

Athletic Brewing identified the need for a comprehensive Transportation Management System (TMS) to streamline logistics, improve efficiency, and control costs. By selecting ShipperGuide TMS and later adding Opendock, they aimed to centralize shipment management, simplify RFP processes, increase carrier options, and enhance dock scheduling capabilities.

Results

Better RFP Process - ShipperGuide TMS has enabled Athletic Brewing to expand its carrier and broker network to 30+ providers without adding effort. Now, RFPs are managed through the system on a quarterly basis. This regular RFP cycle allows Athletic Brewing to efficiently handle multiple bids and select the most competitive provider at the service level they need. With Loadsmart, Athletic Brewing is operating at about 7-8% below spot.

Process Improvements - Athletic Brewing’s day-to-day process for booking rates primarily involved manual data entry and tracking. With ShipperGuide TMS, Athletic Brewing is now able to provide all the shipment details and instructions to brokers in one spot. Dock appointments are scheduled online by the carrier based on the facility’s availability, eliminating the need for first-come, first-serve operations.

Customized Analytics - ShipperGuide TMS and Opendock have built-in analytics to help companies track their carriers’ and brokers’ performance. Athletic Brewing provides its network of 30 brokers with a performance review based on the analytics derived from Loadsmart. They are able to give their brokers indexed benchmark data on their rates compared with other brokers, as well as track key performance indicators including late arrivals, late pickups, and early pickups.

Ability to Scale - As Athletic Brewing’s business continues to grow, they’ve built a solid foundation with Loadsmart that is helping the company handle increasing demand. Improvements in everything from contracts to spot market rates and dock visibility have resulted in increased efficiency so the company can move more with less.

Read Athletic Brewing’s full customer story with Loadsmart here: https://blog.loadsmart.com/case-study-athletic-brewing

About Loadsmart

Loadsmart offers logistics solutions powered by industry experts and next-gen technology that lower costs, increase efficiency, and digitize transportation. From Planning, Optimization, and Execution to Gate, Yard, and Dock solutions, ending with Audit & Pay capabilities, we deploy the best mix of services and technology to empower your business to move more with less. For more information, please visit https://loadsmart.com.