Chris Caplice

Cambridge

Dr. Caplice serves as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL).

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Articles

Who’s Afraid of a Big Black Box?

5 days ago | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

You can’t escape it. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic of every conference you attend and for every supplier you meet. Heck, even your co-workers are talking about it. People use AI to make recipes, write songs, synthesize reports, chat with customers and everything in-between. Yet no one talks about AI the same way. Some use it as an umbrella term for any technology that mimics human intelligence. Others go a step further, diving into machine learning (ML) or generative AI.
When Tendering Loads, Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

2 months ago | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

Transportation procurement has two phases or “moments of truth” — a strategic phase, where shippers develop a long-term plan and select a group of carriers to handle freight for that period, and an execution phase, where loads are actually tendered. Over the last few years, shippers have focused on improving the first phase. They recalibrated supply chains during the pandemic. They invested in technology to help forecast demand and costs.
Four Truckload Procurement Strategies for 2025

Dec 8, 2024 | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

The truckload transportation market has finally completed its latest business cycle. While this cycle followed the typical pattern of inflation and peak, then deflation and valley, the coronavirus pandemic profoundly affected its duration and amplitude — and the way transportation procurement pros should view future pricing trends. The COVID-19 cycle began in spring 2020 and lasted 48 months, a half year longer than each of the previous three cycles.
Recent Disruptions and Preparing Your Supply Chain for the Unforeseen

Sep 16, 2024 | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

From droughts that reduced the capacity of the Panama Canal to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore to missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea, this year has brought a lot of global supply chain disruption in a short period of time. In fact, global organizations are constantly adjusting to unforeseen events. Recall the 2010 eruption at Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, which interrupted air travel across Western Europe for weeks.
Pesquisa em aquisição de transporte de carga: uma revisão, modelo e agenda de pesquisa futura

Aug 29, 2024 | tecnologistica.com.br | Angela Acocella |Chris Caplice

Journal of Business Logistics. 2023;44:228–256. Angela AcocellaChris Caplice 29 de agosto de 2024 às 8h00 Resumo A literatura sobre decisões de aquisição de transporte de carga pesada por parte de empresas (expedidores) e dos seus prestadores de serviços de transporte (transportadoras motorizadas) tem sido impulsionado por desafios do mundo real enfrentados por um grande e importante segmento da economia.
Great Expectations: The Moderating Effects of Supplier Service Model and Market Dynamics on Relational Contract Performance

Aug 19, 2024 | journals.sagepub.com | Angela Acocella |Chris Caplice |Yossi Sheffi

1. IntroductionThe buyer–supplier relationship plays a critical role in performance when contractual terms are loose and terms are not court-enforceable (Bernstein, 1992; Taylor and Plambeck, 2007). Both parties uphold informal agreements because there is value placed on expected future business (Baker et al., 2002).
Connecting Truckload Business Cycles, Capacity and Rates

Jul 15, 2024 | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

Ancient strategy games like Go are often described as taking “minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master” — meaning the rules are simple to understand, but a winning strategy can be elusive. This maxim also applies to the truckload market. It’s intuitively understood that when available truck capacity exceeds demand for trucking services, rates will drop, and the opposite occurs when demand exceeds capacity. The challenge is knowing when the market will shift from one state to the other.
Viewpoint: Transportation Procurement Involves Evolving Processes

Jun 11, 2024 | ttnews.com | Chris Caplice

Business Technology Logistics Perspective June 11, 2024 1:01 PM, EDT What Carriers Should Know About the When, What and How of Truckload Procurement (NAN104/Getty Images) [Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] From a carrier’s perspective, the way shippers procure transportation can seem arbitrary, with limited thought or imagination. Run a bid and pick the lowest rates. In reality, their approach has become far more sophisticated.
Transportation Procurement Evolves, But Objectives Remain the Same

Jan 15, 2024 | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

Being in the truck transportation industry for several decades offers the benefit of perspective. You’re not shocked when yesterday’s hot-button issue seems less important today. Or that best practices from an earlier time may prove detrimental. We see this in our annual surveys of shippers. DAT Freight & Analytics (and previously Chainalytics) has been measuring, monitoring, and benchmarking shipper behavior, practices, and service levels — in addition to freight rates — for more than 20 years.
Ride the Pricing Wave, Without Getting Swamped

Oct 2, 2023 | ismworld.org | Chris Caplice

The old 80/20 rule — the Pareto Principle — is alive and well in trucking, although the scale is even more out of balance in full truckload freight. Studies at DAT Freight & Analytics show that about 80 percent of a shipper’s truckload volume moves on just 15 percent of its lanes. It’s relatively easy to procure truckload services for core high-volume lanes because the freight traffic is so predictable. But what about the other 85 percent?