Blog
2025 trucking industry conferences
Discover the top trucking industry conferences of 2025 for networking, industry insights, and the latest innovations in transportation and logistics.
How Saia handled an influx of freight due to Yellow’s shutdown
Yellow shutdown
When rumors began to swirl that Yellow, a major player in the LTL space, could go bankrupt, shippers began preparing for the potential shutdown. With over 10% of the LTL market in flux, there was an opportunity for carriers to capture market share, if they could adapt in time and maintain service.
While the average LTL carriers saw a 5% increase in shipments from Q2 to Q3 2023, Saia saw an 11.3% increase in shipments while maintaining a claims ratio of 0.58% and on-time performance of 98%.
Named the winner of Q3 by FreightWaves, leading LTL carrier Saia navigated the complexities of adapting to this substantial surge in demand. The operational challenges included managing changes in volume, load density, driver schedules, and shippers.
The solution
In response to the complex challenges posed by the substantial surge in shipments, Saia, a long-time Optym client, strategically employed Optym's specialized LTL solutions, HaulPlan, DriverPlan, and RouteMax.
HaulPlan proved instrumental in understanding the changes in volume, load density, impact on their network and how they could adapt. With features that optimized load consolidation, Saia created more direct routes for shipments, minimizing rehandling and increasing load factor. This sophisticated tool allowed Saia to optimize linehaul plans efficiently, ensuring a seamless adaptation.
The solution
As a long time user of HaulPlan, Saia knew their way around the system when the unexpected struck. While purpose-built for linehaul planning and optimization, Optym’s technology enabled Saia to maintain advanced agility, which easily transferred over as an emergency planning tool.
Saia took advantage of various optimization modes, which allowed for studies for diverting shipments from one terminal to another specific terminal, selecting the next best terminal in hub skip mode. As terminals would quickly need to be dropped from the network, Saia was able to quickly adjust.
The solution
As a long time user of HaulPlan, Saia knew their way around the system when the unexpected struck. While purpose-built for linehaul planning and optimization, Optym’s technology enabled Saia to maintain advanced agility, which easily transferred over as an emergency planning tool.
Saia took advantage of various optimization modes, which allowed for studies for diverting shipments from one terminal to another specific terminal, selecting the next best terminal in hub skip mode. As terminals would quickly need to be dropped from the network, Saia was able to quickly adjust.
Results
The implementation of Optym’s LTL solutions yielded significant results for Saia. The company reported a remarkable 11.3% increase in shipments per day from the second to third quarters of 2023, setting a record for processed shipments and quarterly revenue.
Saia's proactive approach not only absorbed the surge in demand but also resulted in an incredible claims ratio remaining at an impressive 0.58%, while on-time performance held steady at 98%.
Results
HaulPlan allows carriers to thrive in the face of uncertainty, showcasing the effectiveness of technology in mitigating the impact of external disruptions.
With HaulPlan in place, Saia successfully prepared for an unexpected event and navigated the challenges brought about by COVID-19 in a way that best served employees and customers.
“HaulPlan has empowered our planners to easily see the network impact of our decisions, design temporary weather or COVID impacted alternatives, and seamlessly push our changes into our execution system, saving us and our customers time and money,”
Jeff Owen
Vice President of Linehaul Operations
We recognized quite early that these Optym’s tools gave us the ability to be more efficient and more productive. And early on, we saw that this was a game-changer for us on those fronts.”
Rohit Lal
Saia Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, SAIA
As Saia scaled its workforce, including drivers, Saia used DriverPlan to fine-tune driver schedules, addressing the challenges of managing changes in lanes and adding new drivers into their network. By optimizing schedule utilization, improving driver run consistency, and reducing variances in driver miles, DriverPlan played a vital role in maintaining efficiency with new growth.
On top of these challenges, planners and drivers were faced with new customers and shipments, which meant new pickup and delivery routes to meet customer needs. RouteMax facilitated end-to-end optimization of first, middle, and last mile.
Similar Posts
Blog
Balancing profit and people in trucking
Discover how balancing driver preferences with optimized freight selection can reduce turnover, improve efficiency, and boost profitability in the...
Jacob Eischen
Nov 22, 2024
Blog
How drop and hook freight can minimize dwell time
Learn how drop and hook freight can reduce dwell time, boost driver productivity, and optimize logistics efficiency in the trucking industry.
Optym Staff
Jul 29, 2024