Meridian Foods
Meridian Foods is a regional food and beverage manufacturer shipping temperature-sensitive freight to distributors across the Midwest.
Industry
Food & Beverage Manufacturing
Company Size
220 Employees
Timeline
6 Months
How Meridian Foods cut transportation costs 22% while lifting on-time delivery to 99%.
The challenge
Rising reefer rates and inconsistent carrier performance were eating into margins on every load.
Meridian was relying on a small handful of regional carriers for its refrigerated freight, and when one fell through, shipments were booked last-minute on the spot market at a steep premium. Late deliveries were becoming common enough that a major distributor threatened to reduce order volume.
The approach
WayFinder rebuilt Meridian's carrier network from the ground up and put a dedicated team on the account.
We sourced and vetted a broader base of reefer carriers across Meridian's core lanes, negotiated committed capacity agreements to reduce spot-market exposure, and stood up weekly performance reporting so both sides could see on-time rates, cost per mile, and claims in one place.
The Results
Meridian Foods cut transportation cost per shipment by 22% and lifted on-time delivery to 99%, largely by moving spot-market freight onto committed capacity.
Transportation cost per shipment dropped 22% within six months
On-time delivery improved to 99%, up from 91%
Spot-market bookings fell from 30% of loads to under 5%
Claims and damage incidents dropped by half
Zero missed pickups in the last three months of the engagement
WayFinder didn't just find us trucks — they gave us a network we can actually count on. We went from firefighting every week to knowing our freight would show up on time.
Rachel Nguyen
VP of Supply Chain
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