Last month marked the launch of Ryder TranSync™, the industry’s first automated technology tool that enables seamless planning across all transportation providers and modes. The patent-pending tool — designed to revolutionize your transportation network — provides a competitive advantage by giving you full visibility, enhanced business intelligence, and the network analytics needed to drive out transportation inefficiencies.
This Q&A with Chris Scharaswak, Ryder’s director of product development and innovation, and the project manager for Ryder TranSync, explores the reasons behind the development of the new tool and its potential to transform your transportation network.
We’ve heard about Ryder’s new technology tool, TranSync, can you tell us about what it does?
TranSync is a new automated technology tool that compares for-hire carrier and fleet costs taking into consideration fixed costs, fleet availability, and backhaul opportunities to optimize transportation networks to the lowest effective operational cost. No other tool in the industry can do this today – which is why our tool is patent-pending. TranSync supplements traditional Transportation Management solutions by providing business intelligence and analytics that enable seamless planning across all transportation providers and modes, and maximizes asset utilization.
How did the idea for TranSync come about?
Over the past 18 months, we noticed that more and more transportation managers were using for-hire carriers to supplement existing private or dedicated fleets as a means to better access and control capacity. As this trend became more pervasive, however, we also noticed that the majority of transportation managers are making fleet capacity decisions manually, with limited information, and based on models that don’t accurately reflect what is happening in the marketplace. We partnered with the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute, and their team helped us by conducting a survey of a group of Fortune 500 companies that are members of their advisory board. Not surprisingly, their survey found that transportation networks are heavily strained by increasing costs and customer service requirements, capacity constraints and an acute driver shortage. And as a result, the opportunity to address this gap in decision making was enormous. The survey findings led to Ryder’s consulting with both UT’s Supply Chain and Industrial and Systems Engineering Departments to begin development work of what would become Ryder TranSync.
How long did the development process take? What was the process like?
From the idea being generated, to market validation, to the creation of the tool, TranSync took about a year to develop. But our work will continue to make sure that we are constantly leveraging cutting-edge technologies and improving TranSync for the benefit of our customers. One of the advantages to developing TranSync in-house was that we understand the business constraints and what our customers need to address their challenges, and our developers have this deep knowledge as well. Once we validated the logic and the requirements, TranSync was a natural fit with some of the other tools that we have developed ourselves.
What do customers receive with TranSync that they don’t have with their current process?
By using TranSync, customers receive information that helps them better manage their for-hire carriers, as well as make adjustments to the coverage and size of their fleet. Over time, the data gives you the ability to make strategic decisions that will continue to extract more value from your network.
What has been the response to TranSync so far?
The interest we have seen from companies since we launched the tool last month demonstrates that we’re on to something in terms of helping solve the very real challenges facing transportation networks today. Customers are reaching out to us and asking questions, wanting to know if TranSync would apply to their network. There are many conversations addressing how TranSync adds value to transportation networks and who can use it. It’s available to both new and existing Ryder Dedicated Transportation Solutions or Transportation Management customers.
To learn more about how Ryder TranSync can optimize your transportation network, watch this short video or visit ryder.com.
Authored by Chris Scharaswak
Chris Scharaswak is Director of Product Development and Innovation for Ryder Dedicated Transportation Solutions. Chris joined Ryder in 1995, and has extensive experience with product development initiatives across industries and geographies, including warehouse designs to support BTB and BTC, integrated transportation, Total Cost of Ownership, consolidation and deconsolidation services, and supply chain optimization.
