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Upcoming benchmarking studies seek to create a pathway for trucking profitability

A trailer being pulled on a highway and tractors parked at a rest stop

When John Stephenson, founder of Stephenson & Company, started researching the transportation industry, he was stunned by how little data was available for the trucking industry.

This lack of information – combined with ongoing inefficiencies in the industry – inspired Stephenson to found his own management consulting firm and start collecting his own data.

“With operating ratios in the high 80s and even in the 90s, clearly there is room to move, and there are lessons to be learned,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson & Company is poised to launch three new benchmarking studies in order to better understand what metrics drive success in the transportation industry. These studies will focus on LTL, truckload and small package delivery operations.

While Stephenson & Company was founded last year, Stephenson brings many years of equity and research background to his work. This informs how he approaches his work.

“What we do differently is we don’t look at things like shipper perceptions of a carrier. We are looking at profitability and what drives profitability on an operational basis,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson & Company’s benchmarking studies aim to compare participating companies to their peers on about 1,000 metrics, helping them better understand what is and is not working in their own companies.

Stephenson spoke to the importance of collecting a wide array of data points in order to identify the most important metrics. In his upcoming studies, Stephenson plans to gather data about everything from labor to length of haul to tonnage.

Gathering data about several different topics is especially important in the transportation industry. Stephenson has noticed that companies are often surprised by which metrics stand out as the most important.

“We have an industry here that really isn’t all that transparent,” Stephenson said. “We intend to shine a little light on that.”

Stephenson & Company’s studies are designed to get to the heart of what executives care about: Are we making money? How can we make more money? How can we better serve our customers better?

Once companies are able to pinpoint the most impactful metrics, they can work to make their operations more efficient. This means companies have an opportunity to drive operating ratios down and drive profitability up.

Stephenson & Company invites industry leaders representing companies of all shapes and sizes to participate in one of three upcoming roundtables to discuss the upcoming benchmarking studies.