This month, Saia launched REV, a company-wide initiative designed to advance freight performance through faster transit times, enhanced service capabilities, and greater shipment visibility.
REV, which stands for Rapid, Expanded and Visible, brings together a series of strategic investments across the Saia network focused on three core areas:
Rapid: Faster transit times and enhanced guaranteed delivery offerings
Expanded: Broader logistics, expedited and final mile capabilities through Saia Logistics
Visible: Enhanced real-time tracking and customer visibility tools designed to reduce friction and improve transparency
Together, these enhancements are designed to create a faster, more connected, and more seamless customer experience while reinforcing Saia’s broader “It’s a Yes” commitment to helping customers solve increasingly complex transportation and logistics challenges.
The initiative reflects growing customer demand for greater speed, predictability, and transparency in today’s freight environment, as well as Saia’s continued investment in technology, network optimization and customer experience.
Below, Saia Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Ray Ramu discusses the thinking behind REV, how shipper expectations are evolving and where Saia sees the future of freight performance heading.
Q: What changes are you seeing in shipper expectations that led to the launch of REV?
Ramu:
REV is really the culmination of a multi-year evolution for Saia. If you go back to 2017, we had no coverage in the Northeast. Customers were asking us for national service, so we started investing heavily in facilities, network expansion and logistics capabilities to build out that footprint.
At the same time, customer expectations have evolved significantly. Customers want more visibility, more reliability, and less friction when they do business with a transportation provider. They want partners that can help solve increasingly complex transportation challenges, not just move freight.
REV stands for Rapid, Expanded and Visible, and it’s our way of bringing those investments together under one initiative. It’s really about continuing to find more ways to say yes to customers.
[Credit: Saia]
Q: What does a great customer experience in freight look like today?
Ramu:
Honestly, customers want less friction. They want freight picked up when it’s supposed to be picked up, delivered when it’s supposed to be delivered and invoiced correctly. They also want transparency throughout the process.
A lot of the investments we’re making are centered around making transportation feel more seamless for the customer. Whether that’s faster transit times, better visibility tools or expanded service capabilities, the goal is really to simplify the experience and remove uncertainty.
That commitment is also reflected in Saia’s cargo claims performance, with a first-quarter claims ratio of 0.50% demonstrating the predictability and care customers can expect when their freight moves through our network.
Together, these results underscore Saia’s focus on delivering the consistency, reliability and confidence customers need to move their business forward.
Q: What do you think transportation companies still get wrong about customer experience?
Ramu:
I think a lot of the tension customers experience today is still treated as just part of doing business, and understandably customers don’t want to accept that anymore.
Customers expect accurate invoices, proactive communication, real-time updates, and fewer exceptions. They want transportation providers that are transparent and responsive, especially when something unexpected happens.
For us, customer experience is no longer separate from operations. It’s part of the service itself. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in customer experience leadership, technology, and tools that help create a more seamless process from pickup to delivery.
Q: Speed has always mattered in in the less-than-truckload (LTL) industry, but expectations seem to be changing. What are customers demanding today?
Ramu:
Customers still want speed, but they also want predictability and consistency. It’s not enough to move freight quickly once in a while. Customers need to know they can count on that performance every day because their own operations depend on it.
That’s why we’ve made significant investments in our network and linehaul operations to support faster and more consistent transit times. The final phase of our network design was recently implemented, creating a network better positioned for growth, superior service and replicable daily performance.
We invested heavily in technology, including optimization, simulation, and analytics software, to develop the data and insights needed to guide these changes. The result is a network design that supports service standards based on actual operating metrics, which enables many of the service enhancements being introduced through REV.
You’ll see lanes move from five-day to four-day service, from four-day to three-day service and in some cases even faster.
Because of the consistency of our transit time performance, we have automated our Guaranteed 10 a.m. delivery service, further strengthening our existing guaranteed offerings with increased delivery precision to support an earlier delivery window. While other carriers offer morning delivery as a custom solution, Saia is offering a standard guaranteed 10 a.m. service, which is the earliest by any nationwide LTL carrier in the industry.
Q: Visibility has become a major expectation for shippers. What are customers really asking for today?
Ramu:
Customers are asking for more certainty and less guesswork. They want to know where their freight is, when it’s going to arrive and whether there are any issues before those issues impact their business.
A big part of customer experience today is transparency. Customers don’t want to spend time making calls, tracking down updates or reacting to surprises. They want visibility that allows them to plan ahead and operate more efficiently.
That’s really where the industry is heading toward more proactive, real-time communication and fewer blind spots throughout the shipping process.
Q: How is Saia bringing that visibility to life through the new tracking experience launching as part of REV?
Ramu:
As part of REV, we’re launching a new real-time track-and-trace experience that delivers turn-by-turn visibility throughout a shipment’s entire journey – from assigned pickup through final delivery – not just at dispatch.
Customers will be able to opt in and see exactly where the truck is – in real time – receive updated ETAs and even share those updates internally with other stakeholders. There’s also a communication feature built into our platform so customers can interact directly with Saia through the tool.
Saia is leading with proactive, real-time visibility, delivering instant pickup and delivery updates, eliminating uncertainty.
For customers, this means less guesswork, fewer calls, and a much greater ability to plan their own operations around freight movement.
Q: Beyond tracking, how is technology shaping the broader customer experience at Saia?
Ramu:
We’ve invested heavily in digital tools that give customers a more complete view of their shipping activity. For instance, we added predictive tools that can identify accessorial requirements like liftgate needs or limited-access delivery locations. Additionally, we’re currently working to refresh Saia.com to better reflect our evolving capabilities and the customer experience. The focus is really on making shipping easier, more proactive, and more transparent.
[Credit: Saia]
Q: How does Saia Logistics fit into the REV initiative?
Ramu:
Saia Logistics is a major part of REV because customers are increasingly looking for providers that can support broader transportation and logistics needs beyond traditional LTL.
Earlier this year, we rebranded LinkEx to Saia Logistics to create more clarity in the market around the full range of services we provide.
Today, Saia Logistics offers truckload brokerage, expedited services, warehousing, international freight forwarding, and on-site transportation management solutions.
We’re also combining our expedited operations into one centralized offering to make it easier for customers to access time-critical solutions through a single point of contact.
The goal is simple: if a customer has a transportation or logistics problem, we want to be able to solve it.
Q: Why has final mile become such an important extension of the customer experience?
Ramu:
Big and bulky final mile delivery is one of the fastest-growing segments in transportation currently. Customers increasingly need partners that can handle more than dock-to-dock freight movement.
As part of REV, Saia Logistics is launching expanded final mile capabilities that include residential delivery, white glove service, room-of-choice delivery, debris removal, and two-person delivery teams.
Again, it goes back to finding more ways to say yes and helping customers solve increasingly complex delivery needs.
Q: Looking ahead, what should customers expect next from Saia?
Ramu:
Customers should expect continued investment in speed, visibility and customer experience.
REV is not a one-time announcement. It’s an ongoing rollout of new capabilities, technology and service enhancements that will continue throughout the year and beyond.
Customers today expect more speed, more transparency, and more flexibility than ever before. REV is about building a network and customer experience that keeps pace with those expectations and continues evolving alongside them.
And ultimately, that’s what “It’s a Yes” is all about.
Click here to learn more about Saia.
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