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FreightWaves LIVE recap: Sustainability shapes shipper strategies

Reducing carbon emissions also can save money, says Loadsmart VP

(Photo: FreightWaves)

This fireside chat recap is from Day 2 of FreightWaves LIVE @HOME.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: How sustainability initiatives are driving shipper strategies 

DETAILS: Jim Nicholson and FreightWaves’ Zach Strickland discuss how shippers have modified their strategies over the past year with an increasing focus on sustainability and improving compliance.

SPEAKER: Nicholson is the vice president of operations at Loadsmart.


BIO: Nicholson leads the carrier team in servicing partnerships with more than 30,000 carriers. Prior to Loadsmart, Nicholson held various operations and commercial sales leadership positions at Schneider Logistics. 

KEY QUOTES FROM NICHOLSON:

“If we can consolidate and you ship fewer truckloads, if you can more effectively optimize with other shippers’ freight, it’s a lot less truckloads moved, it’s a lot fewer carbon emissions, it helps you hit your sustainability goals and it saves you money. I think the impacts are real, the impacts are immediate. I think you see it from the bottom line, but the other piece that I think is missing from this is … there’s a huge value creation opportunity here. And if shippers could open up more capacity to their network from these different modes, that’s a win for everyone.”

“Shippers are looking at their technology. There’s dozens and dozens of different TMSes in the marketplace. When we think of a key area to drive sustainability, mode optimization is a core tenant in our strategy that we see tons of potential in working to drive these sustainability results, but the TMSes are not consistent, some are better than others with mode optimization.”

“I have to plug Loadsmart in terms of [mode optimization because it’s] no cost, prebuilt and we can turn on instantaneously. We launched last year our new modes. It’s really building this future vision to be able to wire directly into the TMSes to optimize both for large enterprise shippers but also for the underserved shipper community.”

Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Alyssa Sporrer.

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Alyssa Sporrer

Alyssa is a staff writer at FreightWaves, covering sustainability news in the freight and supply chain industry, from low-carbon fuels to social sustainability, emissions & more. She graduated from Iowa State University with a double major in Marketing and Environmental Studies. She is passionate about all things environmental and enjoys outdoor activities such as skiing, ultimate frisbee, hiking, and soccer.