About Pacific Southwest Container
Pacific Southwest Container (PSC) manufactures corrugated packaging, mostly specialty jobs producing high quality prints. They have 5 logistics employees scheduling 50+ FTL shipments monthly out of 4 different warehouses. Steve Bardonner manages transportation for outgoing products to their customers.
The Challenge
PSC had a time-consuming procurement process that required Steve to spend 4 hours a day gathering over a dozen different pieces of information on the location and load. He would copy/paste and send out emails one by one to each broker, not knowing when they would respond back. It was easy to lose track of emails, and it was a slog to get to a booked quote.
Steve worked with a few different brokers that PSC has been working with for decades, and although there was a decent relationship there, the brokers clearly weren’t always providing the most competitive pricing given the results with Portex.
The Solution & Impact
Before Portex, when Steve needed to schedule trucks he spent 4 hours, now it takes him 20 minutes, saving him 3 hours and 40 minutes a day. Time he used to spend tied to his inbox confirming the load with brokers, checking on where a load is, and updating PO numbers is quickly done in Portex’s Shipments Management tool. He’s able to step away, do other work, and come back when Portex notifies him it’s time to book a quote.
“I spend 20 minutes when it used to take 4 hours. I now spend time on tasks that matter to my boss and save money for the business. We’ve reduced our spend by $2+ million over the last 13 months.”
He’s now able to get competitive pricing because he uses 29 brokers compared to the 5 he used previously. Steve shared that the increased broker competition was the primary driver that led to a decrease in spend from ~$3M to less than $1M on transportation costs over the last 13 months compared to the 13 months prior. PSC was able to decrease their transportation spend by over 66%!
Steve has taken on more strategic work including using insights from the broker report to grade on performance. This visibility has led to better feedback loops with all his brokers and driven more efficiency in forging deeper broker relationships.
“Before Portex, if I needed a truck in a hurry, it was difficult. Now, with more brokers submitting pricing, we book loads more quickly and cost-effectively.”
The executives at PSC are elated by the positive impact to the company’s bottom line. Steve was celebrated for the value he drove for the business, and he was given the opportunity to take on more managerial responsibilities.
