Collaborative Transportation Management

10. Summary of Lessons Learned and Best Practices

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Those beginning their trek down the CTM road can take comfort in knowing that others have set out on the journey and achieved the intended success of their collaborative efforts. Prospective collaborators can also benefit from the best practices to emerge from pilots and full implementation of CTM. These include:

• Mindset -- The mindset of the individuals participating on the CTM team has to be one of collaboration. A willingness to share information and jointly manage the process is critical to success.
• Unbiased Guidance -- In order to keep the process focused, and to enable the interaction among companies in the process development stages, third-party unbiased guidance is recommended.
• CTM Readiness -- Once there is commitment to the concept of CTM, it can be used by each individual partner as a tool to build relationships with other business partners, where the existing relationships may not be as strong.
• Face-to-Face Meetings -- The value of face-to-face meetings seems crucial to maintaining the momentum of the project, and to ensuring the quality of the CTM process that is developed.
• Values of Interaction -- As a result of face-to-face, telephone, and e-mail communications, companies tend to encounter unanticipated opportunities along the way, even if there is not 100% follow-through on some initiatives.
• Scheduling -- To ensure participation in face-to-face meetings, scheduling the sessions a month in advance compels participants to make them a priority.
• Commitment to Supply Chain Improvement -- While CTM is focused on "transportation" management, its impact is spread throughout the supply chain.

What's important to recognize with any collaboration is that there must be a driving motive for all parties involved in the relationship to work together to achieve something greater than any individual company acting in isolation could achieve on its own. To that end, participants become a committee of "equals" - there is no room for "lesser members". While the magnitude of each partner's "win" will vary, everyone must find value in the collaboration to ensure its long-term viability.

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