Increase your truckload operation’s profitability

SMC³’s Cost Intelligence System provides comprehensive insights

The Costing Challenge

Experience in the industry has helped develop your instincts and methods for pricing, but as your operation grows, most approaches simply can’t scale and account for all the factors that go into evaluating the cost of moving each load.

With so much to consider, success come with putting data to work in ways that matter, most enhancing visibility and satisfying customer expectations while increasing profitability.

For a true understanding of your costs, you need the right tool.

Truckload CIS is the only activity-based costing tool designed to allocate the cost of all related loads as a single operating event for the purpose of evaluating profitability.

A 360-degree view of load costs

Optimizing your truckload business requires a true understanding of whether a load resulted in profit, requiring carriers to evaluate all other loads or empty miles that brought the equipment and driver back to the origin domicile.

SMC³’s Cost Intelligence System is the comprehensive cost and profitability solution for truckload carriers.

  • Improved profitability
  • Enhanced visibility
  • Higher customer satisfaction

Our unique approach

The system recognizes specific activities to provide intelligent insight into the profitability of individual loads.

With this approach, the Cost Intelligence System for Truckload carriers provides clarity and visibility into what moving truckload freight really costs.

  • The cost of moving individual loads
  • The cost of handling entire customers
  • The cost of making specific trips
Cost Intelligence Sytem

Developed by SMC³

With more than 87 years of experience as a trusted industry partner, SMC³ knows freight transportation.

How it works

The Truckload Cost Intelligence System is a model of your cost structure and operations that enables both current and prospective individual load cost calculation. By reconciling to your actual expenses and interfacing with mileage and tolls programs, the Truckload CIS model simplifies the complex equation of costing.

XTL Transport

A 5% increase in operating ratio with SMC³’s Cost Intelligence System

Photo of a shipping yard with a XTL truck in the foreground and shipping containers in the background.
Read our full case study
  • Truckload carrier operating in Canada and the US
  • 375 tractors hauling dry vans, reefers and heated trailers loaded with consumer goods

Illustration of an arrow sticking out of bullseye in the center of a target. Goal

XTL wanted to offset empty miles, the leg of the trip that incurs cost without pulling in additional revenue.

Illustration of a bar chart with an arrow on top showing the trend changes. The change with Truckload CIS

After five years of trying to build a DIY cost and profitability analysis program, XTL turned to the experts — SMC³’s Truckload Cost Intelligence System solution.

  • XTL had previously focused on revenue-per-mile or revenue-per-hour when sizing up route costing and profitability.
  • With the Truckload Cost Intelligence System solution, XTL is able to hone in on their operating ratio. Revenue for each round trip is measured against joint cost to help determine profitability.

“The activity-based costing was a really big step forward for us. We hadn’t approached costing that way before.”

– Dan MacKenzie, Vice President of Pricing and Credit

Illustration of a page with a list of items and each has a checkmark next to them. Results

XTL has seen a 5% improvement in operating ratio with Truckload CIS.

Elevate your operations

Turn data into insights with actionable intelligence based on your actual loads, operations, services, revenues and expenses.

Analyze your freight costs from almost any perspective:

Groendyke Transport

Increased Visibility & Profitability

Photo of a building with Groendyke sign on it and truck in the foreground.
Read our full case study
  • One of the larger tank-truck carriers in the nation
  • 900 tractors, 1,420 trailers, 925 company drivers, 30 terminals

Illustration of an arrow sticking out of bullseye in the center of a target. Goal

Groendyke Transport wanted to be able to identify an operating ratio for each customer and standardize their methods for rating loads to increase profitability.

Illustration of a bar chart with an arrow on top showing the trend changes. The change with Truckload CIS

Groendyke Transport chose SMC³’s solution to help them develop the cost of moving individual loads, making specific trips, and handling entire customers on a historical or prospective basis.

“SMC³’s Cost Intelligence System solution adds to the depth and value of the information we have. With SMC³, Groendyke Transport now has the ability to effectively address cost issues specific to tank and bulk carriers.”

– Christopher Bush, advanced business data analyst, Groendyke

Illustration of a page with a list of items and each has a checkmark next to them. Results

SMC³ generates reports for Groendyke Transport to distribute to each of their terminals for a holistic view of their own performance, costs, and profitability.

This approach has helped them improve profitability, optimize pricing, and increase customer satisfaction across the board.

“With the truckload Cost Intelligence System for SMC³, we are improving profitability by having visibility into the data we need to make better operational and pricing decisions. TL CIS enables a highly scientific approach to identifying unprofitable business by validating our market knowledge, associating costs with actual operations, and documenting conclusions and projected outcomes.”

– Mike Barnthouse, CFO, Groendyke Transport Inc.

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Maximize profitability. Eliminate uncertainty.

Contact the truckload costing experts at SMC³ to request additional information or a demo.

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