Asset-light less-than-truckload provider Roadrunner announced Tuesday a new program that waives the total shipment cost when freight is not delivered on time.
Smart Guarantee gives customers the option to pay a 25% fee, subject to a $75 minimum, for day-specific guaranteed delivery. The fee is calculated on net freight costs, which excludes fuel expense and accessorial charges. Customers will now have an option on some lanes to select “guaranteed” when booking shipments. If Roadrunner fails to meet the delivery date, it will waive 100% of the freight bill.
Unpalletized and overlength freight is excluded from the program as are shipments handled by its agents and interline partners.
Lori Blaney, Roadrunner’s senior vice president of sales, said the option is an alternative to “expensive expedited or air service” as customers can now “use Roadrunner’s direct metro to metro long haul network and guarantee it.”
Roadrunner (OTC: RRTS) is currently operating its long-haul network at an on-time rate of more than 93%.
Other LTL carriers offer versions of speed service guarantees. However, most typically only refund the fee itself — not the entire cost of the shipment — when a service failure occurs.
“Compared to other offerings in the industry, our Roadrunner Smart Guarantee is simple, transparent, and very shipper friendly,” Blaney said in a statement to FreightWaves. “While other carriers have multiple offerings with varying levels of fee reimbursement and complex rules, we opted to keep ours as straightforward as possible — if it doesn’t arrive on the day we say it will, it’s 100% free.
“We are highly confident in the New Roadrunner after several years of significant service investments, and the shipper-friendly terms of this guarantee reflect that.”
Earlier this year Roadrunner announced one-day service between Southern California and Chicago for shipments dispatched on Fridays. It has also been adding new lanes and reducing transit times throughout its network.
The company also said it will soon add new services in Kansas City, Missouri, and Portland, Oregon.
Roadrunner specializes in long-haul LTL transportation across a network that has national capabilities and terminals in 39 major markets. It completed a financial restructuring two years ago and has improved delivery times on 279 freight lanes since.
“Our strategic improvements to our Smart Network build upon one another,” stated CFO Jack Korslin. “After several years of investment in technology, automation, data analytics and personnel, we’re excited to put our money where our mouth is.”
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