“I see demand for this skill growing because shipments are getting smaller and more frequent, while lead times and delivery windows shorten as well,” he told Fleet Owner.

For example, Whicker said many retailers and wholesalers are now typically shipping a two to three day supply of goods to their stores, whereas they previously sent a week’s worth of goods.

“That means the transportation part of this process has become far more dynamic with a much tighter planning window,” he explained. “Where a few years ago you could have a shipment arrive at a location on a certain day, now it must be there at a certain hour during that day. That means more precise load planning has to take place.”

It also means more information has to come into play, Whicker added, including the cube and weight of a shipment, the work and drive hours available to each truck driver on a given day, the traffic situation on the highway route the truck takes, and the amount of fuel needed to make a delivery.

“Fuel in particular is a big issue in the load planning puzzle,” he said. “As fuel prices go up, load planning has to consider where it’s cheapest to refuel. In the end, this may only make a penny per mile difference in operating costs, but that’s huge in terms of trucking’s thin operating margins.”