The 4 'R's of Logistics
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Image Description: an overhead image of a pirate ship on the sea
Ahoy, mateys, and listen well! September 19th was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Aye, when we heard the news, we said “Well, blow me down! We almost missed it!”
Don’t ye worry, buckoes*, we won’t leave ye marooned. That would be mutiny! So, avast! Batten down the hatches and all hands on deck. In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, here be the four arrrrrrghs (uh, Rs) of logistics.
*Yes, “buckoes” is pirate slang. We looked it up.
1. Road Freight
image description: a small box of gold coins
Call it the coffer, the booty, or whatever ye like. Road freight is what we call the goods that carriers haul across the country in trucks. It may be a landlubber’s way of transportation, but we’re pretty fond of it. After all, we couldn’t have major sporting events without it.
2. Reefer
image description: a ship on icy water
A “reefer” is a refrigerated trailer for haulin’ grub, including all the produce you need to prevent scurvy on the high seas. Without reefer trailers, drinking milk that’s been hauled with a truck might send you straight to Davey Jones’s locker. Reefer trucks also haul medical supplies, certain electronics, and anything else that needs to be kept cool.
3. Route Planning
image description: hands holding a treasure map
On the high seas, route planning is when the captain of the Jolly Roger chooses the fastest way to reach and plunder the Queen Annne’s Revenge. Side note: We looked up the names of famous pirate ships for this post. Did you know that there was a ship called The Squirrel?
Anyway, here on land, planning a route means finding the most efficient way to get your coffers from one point to another. Without it, you may belay the trip or need to get bailed out.
4. Rate Negotiation
image description: a hand holding a toy pirate
Without solid rate negotiation, you might as well be shark bait, savvy? You want to avoid getting pillaged or hornswoggled, right? It’s not just a bunch of scuttlebutt, which we’ve just now decided is our favorite pirate slang term. So, how do you make sure that you’re striking a fine bargain? By working with a logistics provider, or course.
Fair Winds to Ye!
Well, we’ve certainly learned a lot from this post. For example, last week, we never would have guessed that you could find a list of pirate slang terms on a website that ends with .gov, but here we are.
And if you’re still getting your sea legs when it comes to the world of logistics, we hope you learned something about how it all works.
Meanwhile, if you’re an old salt who’s already savvy about the world of trucks, maybe because you’re a freight agent yourself, feel free to get in touch with us here at Pearce Worldwide.
We promise we don’t usually talk like this.
