James Mead
If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that transport uncertainty is the order of the day. Following covid, which was one of the biggest shocks our industry has ever experienced, we’ve endured interest rate hikes, we’ve endured double-digit inflation, we’ve had to contend with rising geopolitical tensions and, in Ukraine, all-out war, tariffs have been enlisted, and a relatively stable period in the middle-east has fallen away.
Rather than stalling (as many industries might), the transport industry has instead become interested in building immunity to volatility. One of the levers many are pulling is that of operational agility.
Operational agility: a definition
At its simplest, operational agility refers to an ability to scale operations up or down rapidly, reacting to swings in customer demand. In practice, that usually means reducing 3PL reliance on a large, owned fleet plus several long-term external carrier contracts and instead partnering with a very large number of external carriers dynamically, such that operations can be reduced and increased instantaneously.
Until relatively recently, for large enterprises, the practice has been elusive. With the TEG platform, that changes.
A platform built to facilitate agility
Ever since our company’s inception in 2025, we’ve always sought to increase logistics collaboration and, by extension, efficiency. One of the ways our platform does as much is through making it easier for carriers and 3PLs to work together. Here’s how it works:
In the traditional sense, 3PLs have their owned assets and their external carriers, usually as a list in a spreadsheet. It’s a relatively small list; anything large would become unusable.
With the TEG platform, all your vehicles and carriers exist in your own digital hub, and you can see their live positions on an interactive map, as well as their capacity status.
That’s step one: more control over what you’re already doing, to optimise the efficiency of your existing operation. However, you can also see, via your live map, thousands of potential carriers, who meet your compliance requirements (more on this below), who you can work with dynamically on a short-term basis as demand swells.
These external carriers are key because, armed with such a safety net, 3PLs are no longer tethered to an inefficient model. No longer must they have idle vehicles ‘just-in-case’. No longer must they agree to long-term external contracts with carriers. They can work with good carriers on a short-term basis, and thus become more agile
Overcoming the obstacles of onboarding and compliance
The elephants in the room are, of course, onboarding and compliance. It has been possible to work with external carriers on-the-fly for a long time. 3PLs, however, have rarely been able to grasp the opportunity – for two reasons. The first: they need to onboard all their external carriers, which is cumbersome. The second: they need to audit all external suppliers annually, which is costly. Both prevent 3PLs from working with a large number of external carriers, and force 3PLs into a rigid business model. As the TEG platform is built to facilitate collaboration, it eliminates both obstacles.
First, onboarding. The TEG platform uses advanced – and yet widely adopted and available – technology to remove onboarding friction. Carriers who wish to work with a 3PL (or, indeed, carriers that a 3PL would like on their books) self-onboard. That means they upload their compliance documentation to the TEG platform digitally. Expert, external verification checks (some of which are automated – such as biometric selfies), mean checks can be complete in a matter of minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks.
Better still, external carriers available to you via the TEG must all upload all their documentation for verification – and 3PLs can check said documentation. So, where onboarding reduces agility, with the TEG platform, your external carriers can be instantly onboarded.
And auditing? Through APIs with sources such as the DVLA, the TEG platform monitors carrier compliance not once a year but continuously. So there’s no risk: you know, at all times, you can work with external carriers who meet your desired standards.
Responding to changes in market rates
With the TEG platform, you therefore have the ability, when necessary, to work with a vast number of external carriers on demand. Come peak season, scale up. Come January, scale down. No letting customers down. No idle trucks.
As a final flourish, the TEG platform protects margin erosion – because it ensures 3PLs are always aware of market rates. In real-time, the platform uses data from more than 250,000 monthly transport transactions to reveal transport prices, broken down by lanes and vehicles.
One of the biggest 3PL inefficiencies is being contractually obliged to pay certain fees for transport when prices contract. The TEG platform ensures that doesn’t happen: should transport prices fall, you gain.
The bottom line
The logistics industry shows no signs of becoming a great deal more predictable. And while demand oscillates and prices swing, in the background, customer expectations continue to move in a single direction.
Operational agility offers 3PLs resilience. It ensures you can continue to satisfy contracts and please customers while growing despite a particularly uncertain environment. Those interested are encouraged to get in touch. We’ve been helping the industry for 25 years. We’re probably well-positioned to help you, too.
