Founded in 1983, Watco operates a diverse network of short- line railroads, terminals, and ports across North America and Australia. The company’s fastest-growing sector, its logistics division, was established in 2014 and has positioned itself as among the top service providers due to its customer-centric culture and operational scale.
Success story
Watco enhances productivity and customer relations with Blue Yonder
Resourcing and labor management, Transportation modeling
The company
The business challenge
Watco aimed to improve the management of freight rates for its carriers, moving away from manual processes to sort through market rates.
The solution
Blue Yonder Dynamic Price Discovery enables Watco to offer real-time market rates to customers, processing over 1,500 freight rate loads monthly. This enables a fast turnaround of spot quotes with guaranteed capacity to meet customer needs. With Blue Yonder Transportation Modeling, the company is experiencing improved daily processing capabilities, optimized routing for complex logistics, and is reducing carbon emissions
"We see the relationship between Watco, our customer, and Blue Yonder as a collaborative effort, where we all sit at the table together to find efficiencies and boost performance. Logistics is a team sport, and Blue Yonder helps us work seamlessly with our customers”
–Chase Downing, Senior Director of Logistics Sales, Watco.
Transforming manual processes to advanced logistics operations
Watco is a very customer-centric organization, and they have always focused on meeting customers where they are. By integrating with Blue Yonder, the company is always ready to serve its customers in real -time, every minute of the day.
Watco leveraged Blue Yonder Dynamic Price Discovery to offer its customers real-time market freight rates, with guaranteed capacity to fulfill customer demands and giving it a significant edge over its competitors. Watco has improved productivity significantly, processing over 1500 rate requests a month with increased rate accuracy, allowing it to respond to market volatility instantly and save time spent on generating freight loads.
To optimize its own freight network, Watco uses Blue Yonder Transportation Modeling to adjust its freight routes in real-time. This allows it to increase cost effectiveness, improve efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions and fuel burned by shortening truck routes. The company can simulate digital transportation routes with speed, streamlining driver capacity, optimize freight loads, and bring mindfulness to sustainability in its operations.
Shifting to a streamlined business approach
After gaining experience with serving customers through Blue Yonder, Watco is excited about what’s next. The company feels empowered to continue this great growth story with Blue Yonder, expanding into new relationships, and simplifying high-touch tasks. This gives Watco more time to focus on customer care and strategic conversations with customers.
“Blue Yonder is empowering our logistics strategy, streamlining our operations and enabling us to serve our customers better. We've seen tangible improvements across daily tasks and strategic engagements.”
–Chase Downing, Senior Director of Logistics Sales, Watco.
