The company
Discount Tire is one of the largest independent tire and wheel retailers in the country, with import volume to match.
The challenge
For years, Discount Tire ran drayage through a single domestic 3PL. Because the dray providers sat under that 3PL, the team was a step removed from the moves happening in their own network. As import volume grew, they wanted to take those carrier relationships direct and run more of the operation in-house, without building a costly new internal function to manage it.
The approach to drayage cost reduction and operational control
Discount Tire partnered with EDRAY to take their ocean and dray contracts direct. The team converted to direct dray contracts without adding a single head, and EDRAY picked up the day to day shipment management. As Principal Transportation Analyst Dustin Ellis puts it, EDRAY operates as an extension of the Discount Tire team. An easy to use dashboard gave them live visibility and the leverage to hold carriers accountable. For smaller lanes, EDRAY’s marketplace added brokerage capacity, and the annual drayage bid ran through the Emerge platform.
The results
- 22% lower base drayage and fuel costs
- 16% lower ocean spend
- 13% fewer drayage accessorials
- 8-day container throughput, held steady
- 4 new markets opened, with no added headcount
Productivity was the engine behind that last number. With the team freed from manual oversight, Discount Tire could import directly into new markets and keep growing while capital expense stayed low and service stayed high.
David Davis, Vice President, Distribution and Transportation at Discount Tire, put it simply: “EDRAY enabled us to transition to a new business model and provide cost out to our organization.”
The takeaway
Going direct gave Discount Tire more control and the room to grow into it. If your team is ready to take the final import mile direct, we would love to talk it through!
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