Business View Magazine | December 2018

262 263 TRANSPORTATION IMPACT skill, and ability and built this business. So, fast forward ten years, we have about 85 employees, almost 700 customers, and we’re really having a great time at doing this.” As a non-asset-based company, Transportation Impact doesn’t move packages, so it doesn’t com- pete with UPS, FedEx, or other carriers. Transpor- tation Impact helps high-volume shippers with three things, as Byrd describes: “First, we help them negotiate a better pricing agreement with the carrier, and we only get paid by sharing in the savings we generate. Second, we conduct ongoing invoice-based audits. So, if a guaranteed package arrives late, our home-grown technology goes out and secures that refund on behalf of the client. We also give them a best-in-class dashboard that provides business intelligence to help run their business better from a supply-side perspective. Third, there’s our new freight division, where we provide a TMS (Transportation Management Sys- tem) to automate the many manual parts of every logistics operation—printing bills of lading and shipping paperwork, communicating with carriers, and managing freight invoice audit. “About four years ago,” Byrd continues, “we had 400 customers that already trusted us coming to us saying, ‘Hey, you helped us so much with our UPS and FedEx, is there any way you could help us with our LTL and truckload?’We figured we were sitting on a gold mine, and that’s when we expanded into freight services and offering a TMS.We didn’t know anything about that then, because we were UPS small parcel people. So we hired a best-of-the-best team to go to market on the freight side.” Byrd says that many customers first get in touch with the company via its small parcel audits. Seeing success in securing refunds leads to rate negotiations for better pricing. “Another channel to market is we go to over 30 trade shows each year and meet CFOs, face to face, to pitch our sermon,” he adds. “Our main channel is referenc- es.When you’re saving a CFO $800K per year it doesn’t take long, with the circles they run in, for one to say, ‘Hey, would you go help my buddy in Michigan?’ It’s truly humbling when a CFO tells you that because of what you did, you have saved jobs.” Though there are a few competitors that do es- sentially what it does, Transportation Impact does possess some competitive advantages, including