A national signage company was struggling to manage the logistics side of its high-volume store installation projects. With over 2,600 annual shipments and nearly $3M in freight spend - missed deliveries, damage claims, and inconsistent visibility were eating into budgets and delaying key install dates.
Recognizing the need for a more controlled and proactive freight strategy, the company partnered with Kingsgate Logistics to overhaul their approach - transitioning from a fragmented LTL model to a dedicated, project-managed solution designed to reduce risk, improve visibility, and control cost from end to end.
The signage company's pain points were familiar to many businesses coordinating time-sensitive, multi-location rollouts. Their existing model, relying heavily on traditional LTL carriers, created a range of issues, including:
1. Missed Install Dates and Delivery Failures
Because LTL networks often involve multiple touchpoints and handouts, shipments frequently arrived late or damaged. When installs had to be rescheduled, the client faced penalties of up to $5,000 per day for each missed appointment
2. Unexpected Freight Charges
With a consistent freight management structure in place, the company was routinely hit with unexpected accessorial fees - reclassses, liftgate charges, detention, and more. These unplanned costs made it difficult to forecast or maintain budgets on large-scale projects.
3. Lack of Real-Time Visibility
Shipment status updates were provided only once per day through manual reporting. There was no easy access to documents like BOLs or PODs, and the internal team often had to chase down carriers to answer standard operational questions.
4. Rigid Scheduling and Limited Support
Pickup requests had to be finalized by early afternoon to move the same day, leaving little room for flexibility. With no 24/7 support, after-hours issues went unresolved until the next business day, often too late to prevent downstream delays.
5. Limited Data for Decision-Making
While the company could see total project costs, they lacked access to performance metrics like on-time delivery rates, per-store costs, or project progress. That left logistics teams operating reactively, without the insights needed to improve outcomes.
Kingsgate designed a customized program to address the signage company’s unique operational and timing requirements. The solution included:
1. Project-Based Freight Planning
Rather than shipping piecemeal via LTL, Kingsgate established a shipping cadence that grouped deliveries by region and install schedule. This not only created efficiencies but also ensured freight arrived in sync with installer availability.
2. Dedicated Truckload Equipment
Kingsgate deployed dedicated box trucks to carry the client’s freight from origin to destination - eliminating cross-dock handling and the delays and damage that often come with traditional LTL moves.
The dedicated approach also removed accessorial surprises, providing cost consistency across projects. Installers could rely on shipments arriving in full and on time, allowing them to work without disruption.
3. Full Visibility Through Compass
Kingsgate gave the signage company access to Compass, its proprietary logistics platform. Compass provided:
With Compass, the company could stop chasing updates and start managing shipments with confidence.
4. Data-Driven Reporting and Analytics
Beyond visibility, Kingsgate delivered robust analytics tailored to the client’s operations. Using over 120 available data points per transaction, the client gained new insight into:
This enabled better forecasting, faster issue resolution, and smarter logistics decisions overall.
By shifting to a dedicated freight model supported by real-time tracking and advanced analytics, the signage company achieved:
What was once a reactive, high-risk freight environment became a dependable, cost-controlled operation - aligned with the company’s project timelines and customer expectations.
This case study highlights a challenge many shippers, especially those managing high-touch, time-sensitive deliveries, can relate to: when freight fails, it’s not just logistics that suffer. Project timelines, labor costs, and customer experience are all impacted. Some valuable lessons include:
With over 40 years of experience supporting shippers through complex logistics challenges, Kingsgate Logistics has seen firsthand how dedicated freight programs and better visibility can transform project execution. For companies facing similar challenges - tight delivery windows, limited visibility, and high install costs - rethinking the freight model may offer a clearer path to consistency and control.
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