Background
When Jeff Korb was working as a freight broker, he regularly had to deal with frustrating shipping issues. Although the challenges varied, most resulted from a lack of visibility.
“I always knew there were difficulties in the transportation industry that could have been avoided with simple tracking devices,” says Jeff Korb, Oversight services specialist, cargo solutions for Emerson’s Cold Chain Business. “Dealing with claims and lost freight was a cumbersome process that never seemed to have a solution. There’s a lot of product waste and wasted time.”
After years of grappling with these obstacles, Korb jumped at the chance to help create a solution when he joined the Emerson team in 2019. Building on the foundation of Emerson’s GO real-time trackers and loggers and Oversight 2 platform, he helped to pioneer the development of Oversight cargo services, a full suite of next-level resources capable of driving significant operational improvements in the cold chain.
“I saw a lot of opportunity and value within the industry I had come from,” Korb said. “I could utilize many of my connections from previous industry with a new service platform that could add significant value to their business.”
Realizing the vision
The launch of Oversight cargo services comes at an ideal time to help carriers deal with sudden and dramatic changes in consumer buying behavior. The COVID-19 pandemic caused demand spikes for a wide variety of products, playing havoc with supply and demand forecasts throughout the world’s transportation networks. Climatic change issues and ongoing driver shortages are also major concerns that have no letup in sight.
These changes have exposed many flaws in the archaic methods much of the industry has relied upon for decades. The ability to get accurate real-time data — and use it to identify actionable insights — is seriously lacking at a time when it’s vital to the survival of any cold chain operation.
“The biggest problem in transportation and distribution right now is cost,” Korb said. “You can’t make money unless you can ship product out. So to be able to identify the key players that are actually providing good services that are getting the job done is not only critically important; it gives companies a great way to really engage in leveraging rates.”
Data that delivers
Oversight cargo services is a suite of upgraded services that provides easy and convenient solutions to the problems of tracking shipments, getting accurate temperature data, compliance, and other challenges that have plagued the transport industry for decades. They provide confidence that you’re getting the right data and insights you need to make informed decisions that positively impact the quality of your products — while helping you to avoid future losses.
One service within the suite that Korb is excited about is Reports & Scorecards, which offer the ability to cut through “finger-pointing” when loads of perishable freight are rejected, spoiled by high temperatures or stolen. “Early conversations about the Scorecards suggest that customers are very interested in understanding which carrier outfits are achieving the success rates that are in their contracts, such as on-time deliveries and keeping products at agreed temperature levels,” he said.
“The great thing about data is it’s not biased,” Korb said. “It’s going to show you what’s going on, regardless of your feelings, and then you can make an educated decision based on real events rather than a subjective point of view.”
About Jeff Korb
Jeff is a former freight broker and supply chain oversight expert. Prior to joining Emerson, he spent 12 years working for several major third-party logistics (3PL) companies. Jeff brought his extensive supply chain expertise to Emerson in 2019, where he now serves as the company’s Northwest regional sales manager and Oversight services specialist.
