{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Freight Show","title":"Enterprise Shipper Paul Estrada on Designing a Low-Cost-to-Serve Freight Network","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3296,"description":"If you sell into enterprise shippers, here’s the uncomfortable truth: your differentiator isn’t your pitch deck, your coverage story, or even your rate. It’s whether you can deliver predictable service and predictable economics inside a network built to eliminate volatility.This episode pulls back the curtain on how a large enterprise shipper actually runs transportation procurement. Paul Estrada has spent nearly two decades leading procurement at scale, and he breaks down what most providers miss: the internal “cost vs. service” tug-of-war, why procurement lives on a scoreboard, how routing guides stay intact when markets swing, and what it really means to be a low-cost-to-serve partner. We get into radical data transparency, carrier enablement, index-based pricing, and why the best providers don’t just quote lanes—they explain the math behind sustainable pricing.What you’ll learnHow enterprise supply chains are actually organized: Why procurement, operations, manufacturing, and customer teams optimize for different goals—and how those tensions are managed.The two metrics that matter more than all others: Getting product where it’s needed, when it’s needed, at the lowest sustainable cost.Why procurement lives on a scoreboard: How performance is measured in dollars and cents—and why market cycles can make teams look like heroes or villains overnight.How enterprise shippers manage cost volatility: Dedicated capacity, portfolio mix, and risk mitigation as insurance—not ideology.Why carrier-agnostic procurement wins: How decisions are made across brokers, asset carriers, and dedicated fleets based on utilization and economics—not labels.What shippers actually look for in brokers: Sustainable pricing, operational intelligence, and the ability to explain how rates work—not just what they are.Why deep data sharing creates better pricing: How transparency around volumes, seasonality, and operating constraints leads to routing guides that hold up.How carriers are...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/f0lw4441guZC8PqbG1LeEKiz-6dFl98YZjNUQNRMTjU/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80M2Vl/NThjZmRkZTYyNWU2/YzkyNGYyZmNiZjU2/ZWIyOC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}