What is a Core Carrier Program?
A Core Carrier Program is a group of carriers that have been specifically selected as the preferred carriers’ vendors should use to ship their products to the clients locations.
Typically, vendors prefer to choose and control their own carriers. However, sometimes a customer is large enough to the supplier that they can demand that their vendors comply with their requirements. This is the case with organisations such as Coles and Bunnings in the Australian retail environment.
Why are Core Carrier Programs Deployed?
Large organisations with wide ranging products can set up Core Carrier Programs in order to streamline deliveries to their many locations. Organisations like Bunnings struggled with having too many trucks vying for the time and space to offload their shipments at their stores and that was the main inspiration for setting up their Core Carrier Program. Now with a limited range of carriers, those preferred carriers can better manage the logistics of dropping off for Bunnings Vendors, leading to a more streamlined process and reduced costs for Bunnings.
Becoming a Vendor for a Core Carrier Program Customer
Becoming a Vendor to a large customer that has a Core Carrier Program in place means that you must set up agreements with those preferred or core carriers. This can be difficult to manage with your current set up for other customers. It often means that vendors swap their other independent customers over to those preferred core carriers in order to manage the efficiency of their own operations in freight pickups at their warehouses, and to gain a level of volume that triggers a more competitive contract.
It also means ensuring that you have a freight management system that has connections to the carriers that are on the Core Carrier Program list in order to automate your dispatch requirements.
How to Optimise with a Core Carrier Program
It may seem like implementing a Core Carrier Program to win a contract with a large customer such as Bunnings means losing the ability to optimise your freight management, however there usually is enough range of options within the program that you can negotiate to match carriers to your service level requirements as well as strike a deal that offers competitive rates.
At Freight Controller, we have been working with companies that are suppliers to organisations like Bunnings for over two decades and have helped customers to win their bids to become suppliers by managing the freight component on their behalf.
An example of how we can assist our customers in winning their bids to become a preferred supplier and with improved freight costs can be found here.
We are experienced in working with the carriers involved, and are up-to-date with any changes that are made to the Core Carrier Program, and therefore can advise our customers on new options as they arise. Our shipping platform, 2Ship, has API connections with all carriers utilised in the Bunnings Core Carrier Program as well.
Contact us if you would like to learn more about how to best manage a Core Carrier Program.