DHL Supply Chain Partners with Emerge for Spot Market Offering

Global logistics provider DHL Supply Chain announced last week it had integrated with digital freight marketplace Emerge's Spot Marketplace platform to provide its customers with live spot market coverage through its Lead Logistics Provider (LLP) Control Tower and transportation management system.

Jim Monkmeyer, president of transportation for DHL Supply Chain North America, told FreightWaves the company's LLP Control Tower and TMS provide customers access to its network of carriers to procure transportation for all modes of shipping, execute shipments, handle expectations, audit shipments, and plan payments.

Monkmeyer said throughout COVID-19 his team has been working on a sport market offering through its suite of technology as many customers were having difficulties keeping previously procured and contracted carriers to move their freight. 

After researching more than 100 digital freight marketplaces, Emerge quickly became a powerful partner, he said. 

"Our partnership with Emerge really took off instantly," Monkmeyer said. "The management team was outstanding, they were very responsive, and most importantly, working with Emerge came with industry experts. We were actually getting the ability to have our own carrier providers participate in the marketplace as well as their huge network of carriers to support our customer needs as well. It was the best of both worlds."

Jake Papa, senior vice president of enterprise at Emerge, explained to FreightWaves why the partnership between the two companies had worked so well.

"Since the very beginning, DHL was very open to trying new [ways of executing shipments], which can be hard for such a large organization with a lot of moving parts. Even though we are a relatively new technology, they trusted us with piloting and demonstrating the value of our Spot Marketplace," said Papa.

For DHL, this partnership gives the company a chance to take advantage of the spot market, bringing their customers more competitive rates.

"There's more opportunity in the spot market that we traditionally have not taken advantage of because we didn't have the technology to do real-time pricing without the network of carriers that Emerge has now built. … There are going to be lanes and more challenging shipment volume issues that are going to require a much more dynamic marketplace," said Monkmeyer.

Monkmeyer explained that the integration has been tested and proven through a small number of retail and consumer goods customers, those with historically high volumes that are experiencing challenges with finding the capacity to move that volume. DHL Supply Chain will slowly begin offering Emerge's Spot Marketplace to its other customers to help cover their full truckload shipments.

"From an innovation standpoint, we do think we are a leader in this space," said Monkmeyer. "We use this buy-and-integrate strategy in order to provide that for our customers. We see a lot of our competitors deeply invested in their own technology and it works for some, but it can be more of a challenge to stay up to date with the latest capabilities that are out there. 

"Partnering with someone like Emerge, someone whose primary focus is staying in tune with technology, we can move much faster, pivot when need be and continue to move forward and focus on operational execution for our customers."

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