Transportation.
Logistics.
Supply Chain.
Technology.

Whether you’re a global shipper with a multi-national footprint or primarily domestic operations within North America, MCG can support you on a variety of transportation topics and projects. We also advise leading global logistics service providers (LSPs), whether traditional freight forwarders, domestic freight brokers, 3PLs and 4PLs offering managed transportation services. We can perform strategic freight management assessments and evaluate against industry best practices.

Consulting on this topic includes a thorough assessment of existing operations, systems, integrations, and additional applications to support an active fleet. Whether your fleet consists of 1-5 trucks or more than 500 or 1000 units, as well as driver dispatch, mobile apps and real-time visibility, the required system capabilities will vary substantially. Let MCG help you determine what is critical for success and available in the market to enable and execute efficient fleet operations.

Supply Chain strategy depends on a number of factors within the client’s organization, including everything from operational assessments to digital transformations. Throughout this effort, MCG continuously considers the client’s ability to implement. Network scope and systems complexity will help determine whether to implement within the framework of a pilot project approach by region or mode, with successive waves, or to consider more agile methodologies. Much if this will also depend on the respective vendor . The critical element is to ensure proper “capability building” among key stakeholders to ensure the program’s long-term success.

MCG supports clients in executing annual or more frequent freight bids across all modes, including ocean, air, truckload, LTL, intermodal rail and parcel. We provide best-in-class web-based software that easily connects with your carriers (suppliers) and provides advanced analytics throughout the bid process (multiple bid rounds) as well as specific lane-level feedback in order to improve their position. We also offer rate management, rate search, and an easy-to-use reverse-auction spot request tool. onsider it a “private” load board. We can also incorporate industry rate benchmarks through globally recognized indices (ie. Freightos, Xeneta, Upply, DAT, etc).

This is an area that oftentimes requires the support of more sophisticated software applications together with knowledgeable teams that know how to run them. This effort goes beyond more straightforward load building and consolidation of shipments for “milk-runs” as an example, and incorporates the use of complex algorithms and heuristics over a higher volume of orders/shipments to arrive at more optimal outcomes while considering a myriad of SC constraints. Companies typically consider three levels of network & transportation optimization, whether “strategic” network optimization, done less frequently and even annually to effectively generate a network blueprint, then followed by “tactical” route and load planning based on both historical shipments and future forecasts (anywhere from 4-12 weeks prior to shipment), and finally “dynamic” optimization or operational planning, based on actual orders generated from your ERP system. MCG has identified a shortlist of software vendors/partners who are also seasoned supply chain experts who are then engaged together with MCG for this type of effort and analysis.

MCG helps our client perform digital transformations from either a holistic end-to-end transportation management approach, or looking at individual topics whether in freight sourcing, planning, execution, visibility, cost management, and/or analytics. It is essential to evaluate the client’s overall digital maturity and their ability and appetite to manage change, based on existing operations, process workflows, systems and data compliance as well as the team and resources currently deployed.

MCG will recommend what we consider a shortlist of “best-of breed” vendors in their respective category. We remain system and vendor agnostic, however part of our value is to help our clients navigate what can be a very crowded landscape.

Through the use of advanced network analysis and transportation management software, we can calculate across our client’s transportation modes, their carbon (CO2) footprint and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, as well as explore specific practices for potential reduction and avoidance. MCG will also look at practices that introduce greater resiliency which may include new sourcing and supplier arrangements, near-shoring, and alternative distribution patterns, among other improvement levers.

MCG has some early experience with autonomous vehicle technology and works with several hardware and software manufacturers to both identify the opportunities and continue to problem-solve the many challenges that still remain.

At MCG, we analyze your entire network whether inbound or outbound to identify opportunities to combine and consolidate common freight flows among shippers (ie. clusters within industry verticals) to reach greater economies of scale, combine purchasing power and thereby reduce overall direct costs.