How Toshiba achieved a damage-free shipment rate of over 99% while slashing LTL fees.

The headwinds.

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Toshiba America Business Solutions manufactures and sells sensitive electronics—such as their award-winning e-STUDIO™ multifunction printers, label and receipt printers, and digital signage—for businesses across the Americas.

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Toshiba originally shipped their products through the less
than truckload (LTL) network because their ship-to-order model resulted in small shipments that seldom filled a truck.

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However, transloading through the hub-and-spoke system frequently damaged Toshiba’s delicate machine shipments, which are expensive to repair and replace.

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Full replacements were needed 75% of the time, and if repairs were not possible, they paid for:

• Storing, then shipping damaged product to a scrap facility

• A scrap facility to dismantle and dispose of the product

• Entirely new product pulled from inventory

• Shipping the replacement product after filing a freight claim

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Reweighs, linear-foot cutoffs, additional services, and accessorial fees ballooned an extra $880,384 in 2020, significantly impacting their bottom line.

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On top of the damages, LTL shipping provided other challenges, including:

• Significant delays

• Inspection fees and strictly enforced accessorials

• Split shipments, causing products to arrive without accessories and thus making customers unhappy

• Shrinking linear-foot and cubic-capacity cutoffs, meaning costs to surpass these could exceed paying for a full truckload (TL)

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Recognized as a Wall Street Journal Top 100 Sustainable Company, Toshiba wanted a better way to ship their freight
more efficiently that would also have a positive impact on 
the environment.

The solution.

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Toshiba came to Flock Freight with the goal to find a smarter, more cost-effective solution that would keep their sensitive electronics intact with minimal touchpoints.

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The Flock team recommended our FlockDirect® service, 
which guarantees load-to-ride (terminal-free) shipping—
ideal for sensitive shipments that don’t take up a full truck.

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With FlockDirect®, Toshiba’s shipments are matched and combined with other freight going in the same direction to create a full Shared Truckload. The freight stays on the same truck, with the same driver, all the way to its destination, and Toshiba only pays for the space they actually need.

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Together, Flock and Toshiba achieved a 99.3% damage-free
rate while avoiding $560K in costs. In addition, they skipped 918 terminals and avoided 334.76 metric tons of carbon emissions.

Toshiba’s Flock Freight experience.

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Empowering better customer service ↘

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“Delivering the highest levels of quality and consistency to our clients is core to our business, which is why Toshiba made the shift to Flock Freight as it enabled us to improve shipment success rates while simultaneously reducing costs.”

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Robust reporting ↘

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“Flock Freight provides me with periodic reporting. The quarterly business reviews they present me 
with are relevant, and the cost savings along with the on-time performance are top-notch.”

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Dedicated customer-first support ↘

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“With Flock Freight, my team’s questions receive prompt replies. 
With other providers, it’s easy 
to feel like you’re just an account number, but Flock Freight has a customer-first mindset that fosters strong interpersonal relationships 
with its shippers.”