FourKites® Recognizes Supply Chain Visibility Leaders At 2019 Visibility Conference

CHICAGO (PRWEB) September 19, 2019

At its second annual Visibility Conference, FourKites®, the leader in predictive supply chain visibility, today recognized four companies that are leveraging real-time visibility to improve customer satisfaction and achieve greater business results. From a pool of Fortune 500 applicants covering a range of industries - including manufacturing, food and beverage distribution, and consumer packaged goods - this year’s inaugural Golden Kite Awards went to C&S Wholesale Grocers, PetSmart, Ryder and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. Winners were determined by votes from FourKites’ network of shippers, carriers and 3PLs.

• C&S Wholesale Grocers, the largest wholesale grocery supply company in the U.S, was the winner of the Golden Kite Customer Experience Award. Under the stewardship of Transportation Technology Manager Meghan Reilly, C&S Wholesale Grocers reported a 65 percent reduction in internal “Where’s my truck?” calls within three months of deployment, and began their rollout of FourKites ETA push notifications to customers. 92 percent of participating customers reported high satisfaction scores and improved overall customer experience. .
• PetSmart, the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets, took home the Golden Kite Award for Innovation & Technology. According to PetSmart’s Dawn Goudie, Senior Manager, Supply Chain, the pet retailer achieved tracking consistency above 83 percent; onboarded over 95 percent of carriers for outbound freight; and created a push notification system for stores with six, four, two and one-hour ETAs.
• Ryder, a leader in commercial fleet management, dedicated transportation, and supply chain solutions, won the Golden Kite Award for Driving End-User Adoption. Transportation Manager Erin Starliper reports the organization achieved a 32 percent increase in compliance, and a 30 percent increase in consistency via a comprehensive program that managed communications between operations, account teams and FourKites. In addition, Erin and team restructured onboarding and enhanced automated scorecards for carrier management and procurement engagement. Today, Ryder has hundreds of active FourKites users, has achieved 82 percent overall compliance, tracks 40,000-plus loads monthly, and has onboarded 300-plus carriers to the platform.
• Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., won the Golden Kite Award for Value Realization. The platform has been especially powerful in Cracker Barrel’s partnership with transportation and supply chain management company Averitt Express. According to Logistics Manager Jim Burnett, with FourKites the company’s retail managers can better maintain the delivery window required for planning flexibility, while providing greater certainty of ETAs for delivery. Because Cracker Barrel’s customer service team can leverage FourKites’ messaging feature to interact directly with retail managers, Cracker Barrel has reduced time-consuming phone calls used to alert stores of late deliveries, and can now keep store associates aware of important events.

In the year since FourKites last convened its comprehensive network of Global 1000 companies and third-party logistics firms, the company has experienced tremendous growth in its carrier network and international load volume, including a nearly 260 percent increase in the latter and 3x growth in the number of countries in which it is tracking loads. In addition, FourKites introduced several industry-first innovations, including Appointment Manager(SM) for more efficient appointment scheduling; Lane Connect(SM) for predictive capacity management; Facility Manager(SM) for improved warehouse operations; Network Visibility(SM) for insight into inbound vendor-managed freight; Recommendation Engine(SM) for better on-time delivery; and DynamicETA(SM) for more accurate arrival predictions. These innovations have helped FourKites’ entire ecosystem of supply chain partners – shippers, suppliers, retailers, 3PLs and carriers – collaborate in real time to create more efficient, transparent and sustainable supply chains.

“FourKites’ success is inextricably linked to our customers’ success,” said Mathew Elenjickal, FourKites’ founder and CEO. “Customer feedback and collaboration fuel our innovation and our roadmap. In that spirit, I’d like to congratulate our first batch of Golden Kite Award winners, and acknowledge the entire FourKites ecosystem for its indispensable contributions to the supply chain visibility movement.”

FourKites, Lane Connect, Facility Manager, Network Visibility, Recommendation Engine and Dynamic ETA are service marks of FourKites, Inc.

About FourKites
FourKites is the largest predictive supply chain visibility platform, delivering real-time visibility and predictive analytics for the broadest network of Global 1000 companies and third-party logistics firms. Using a proprietary algorithm to calculate shipment arrival times, FourKites enables customers to lower operating costs, improve on-time performance and strengthen end-customer relationships. With a network of more than four million GPS/ELD devices, FourKites covers all modes, including truckload, LTL, ocean, rail, intermodal, last mile and parcel. The platform is optimized for mobile and equipped with market-leading end-to-end security.

To learn more, visit http://www.fourkites.com.