How McBride boosts routing guide compliance to 97%—and saves more than €1m annually—by improving transport data visibility

Company snapshot

Profile

• Industry: Household goods

• Headquarters: United Kingdom

Overview

Manufacturer of retailer-owned household products, ranging from dishwasher liquid to disinfectant sprays.

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For McBride PLC, a European manufacturer of household goods, managing logistics has historically been extremely complex. To distribute its array of products across Europe, the company relied on local warehouses to oversee transportation operations independently.

These warehouse teams primarily used manual methods within their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to manage shipment journeys, leading to significant inefficiencies. It would often take weeks to months to gather and cleanse data related to network wide routing guide compliance or transportation costs.

Enter Uber Freight

To address this challenge of limited data visibility, McBride turned to Uber Freight to conduct an audit of its historical supply chain performance. The ultimate resolution was to pinpoint areas where McBride could leverage the capabilities of an automated transportation management system (TMS) to unlock advanced levels of data visibility and control.

The analysis determined that McBride had an opportunity to reduce transportation costs overall while improving service, particularly in terms of routing guide compliance, otherwise known as a shipper’s set rules and regulations for inbound and outbound freight that preferred carriers are supposed to follow. By adopting Uber Freight TMS, McBride had an opportunity to streamline its data structure and processes to achieve real-time visibility into transportation journeys.

McBride tapped Uber Freight to be its TMS provider, leveraging the support of managed transportation service experts. The company’s ultimate goals for the partnership included driving long-term operational and cost improvements, maintaining high-quality service, and creating a culture of continuous improvement.

Prior to integrating a TMS, accessing any type of transport-related data was a tedious process. While McBride could pull shipment-level information—such as customer orders from its existing ERP system—it didn’t have a technology solution to easily access transport activity KPIs such as on-time delivery, fleet utilization, and overall order-to-cash process costs. Doing so without a TMS would require manually retrieving carrier invoices, a time-consuming process that delays the ability to get up-to-date insights.

After McBride adopted Uber Freight TMS in 2021, both parties collaborated on a phased implementation that concluded in 2023. During this time, the company’s logistics team integrated and leveraged the TMS to gather data from various sources, such as order management systems and warehouse management systems. This technology has allowed McBride to build rich datasets accessible in a single Control Tower view.

In the end, McBride achieved standardized data collection, automated data reporting, and accelerated productivity. By leveraging the Control Tower within the TMS, the company gained a centralized hub for real-time tracking of shipment progress across its supply chain. This resource now allows McBride to access the information it needs with a few clicks, enabling it to understand its pan-European transport network, service levels, and cost to serve. In turn, its logistics team is empowered with accurate real time data to make both tactical and strategic decisions to improve costs and service.

The partnership with McBride spotlights a significant use case for logistics teams struggling to gain up-to-date, actionable supply chain insights: By streamlining data collection processes and unlocking real-time visibility, a company can unlock multiple buckets of value across the supply chain.

In McBride’s case, its logistics team has seen significant upticks in cost savings and service levels, as well as a shift in how it uses data to make decisions:

• Improved routing guide compliance: The initial audit found that only 62% of McBride’s shipments were being shipped with their preferred carriers, likely due to having outdated data around rates, lane utilization, and market fluctuation. After adopting the TMS, routing guide compliance has increased and remained consistently at 97%.

• Reduced transportation costs: By improving service-related KPIs such as routing guide compliance, shippers are inherently able to reduce transportation expenses, as shippers are using their first-choice contracted carrier. McBride has been able to save over €1m per annum thanks to better routing guide compliance.

• Continuous improvement projects: As a result of McBride’s partnership with Uber Freight, the company is also unlocking additional ways to use data to inform ways to reduce costs. For example, by leveraging detailed data on accessorials through a continuous improvement project, McBride has been able to reduce controllable accessorial charges by 35%.

• Consistent performance reviews: Quick access to accurate data is vital, but understanding how to measure and use the data is equally important. Uber Freight conducts monthly savings reviews with McBride to determine if the company is hitting its goals, or whether it should focus on cost reduction strategies. Regular check-ins help McBride continually improve supply chain performance and maintain an efficient, proactive logistics program.