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Transport mode decisions default to incumbent patterns even when economics or service requirements have shifted. A Transportation Mode Selection Playbook reads lane data, shipment profiles, mode costs, service requirements, and emissions factors to recommend the optimal mode per lane and shipment.
The Challenge
A lane defaulted to LTL ground when ground capacity was loose. Capacity has tightened, LTL pricing has climbed, and intermodal or full truckload may now win on the lane economics. The default persists because no one is continuously evaluating each lane against the alternatives.
The lane uses premium air because the customer needs 2-day delivery, even though many shipments on the lane could meet the commitment at lower cost via expedited ground. Without shipment-level mode evaluation, the premium pays on shipments that did not need it.
Sustainability programs target Scope 3 emissions reductions. Mode decisions drive a large share of transport emissions but rarely get evaluated against the emissions impact alongside cost. The trade-off goes unmade and the corporate ESG number absorbs the gap.
How eyko Solves It
A Transportation Mode Selection Playbook reads lane data, shipment profiles (weight, dimensions, value, service requirement), mode costs (LTL, FTL, intermodal, air, parcel), service performance per mode and lane, and emissions factors per mode. It recommends the optimal mode per lane and per shipment balancing cost, service, and emissions, and surfaces lanes where the current mode mix is materially off-optimal.
The Playbook analyzed 184,000 shipments across 28 lanes and 4 modes over the past year. Current mode mix runs 11% above the optimized cost baseline at the same service level. 8 lanes show large mode-mix opportunities where intermodal or FTL would replace LTL with both cost and emissions savings. Premium air usage on 4 lanes exceeds the service requirement by 24% of shipments.
| Metric | Current | Benchmark | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary indicator | Flagged | Target | Action needed |
| Secondary indicator | Monitoring | Within range | On track |
| Trend direction | Declining | Stable | Review required |
Transportation Mode Selection recommends the optimal mode per lane and per shipment balancing cost, service requirement, and emissions. The Playbook reads lane data, shipment profiles, mode costs, service performance, and emissions factors to surface lanes where the current mode mix is materially off-optimal and individual shipments where premium modes pay for service the shipment did not need.
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FAQ
Everything you need to know about Mode Selection Map.
Transportation Mode Selection is an AI-driven recommendation of the optimal mode per lane and per shipment balancing cost, service requirement, and emissions. The Playbook reads lane data, shipment profiles, mode costs, service performance, and emissions factors to surface lanes where the current mode mix is materially off-optimal and individual shipments where premium modes pay for service the shipment did not need.
The Playbook reads from your transportation management system (lane data, shipment profiles, mode mix, carrier rates), order management system (service requirements, delivery commitments), shipping cost data per mode and lane, and emissions factor data per mode. At least 12 months of paired shipment-and-cost data anchors the recommendations in real lane economics.
Standard carrier selection picks the carrier within a chosen mode. Transportation Mode Selection picks the mode itself (LTL, FTL, intermodal, air, parcel) before the carrier decision. The two are complementary: mode selection sets the broad cost-and-service envelope; carrier selection optimizes within that envelope. Without mode evaluation, carrier selection optimizes within an already-suboptimal mode choice.
Yes. The Playbook computes emissions per shipment per mode using standard emissions factor data and includes the emissions impact alongside cost in the recommendation. On decisions where cost and service are close, emissions become a useful tie-breaker. On lanes where mode shifts cut both cost and emissions, the Playbook surfaces the dual-win opportunity explicitly.
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