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Client Requests to Suppress a Carrier

If a customer asks for a carrier to be suppressed, start with empathy, then work through discovery, impact assessment, and the suppression steps below.

Client Discovery

Start with empathy, then ask a few questions to understand the situation before making any changes:

      • What's brought you to this point with them?
      • What locations have been impacted thus far?
      • Are you thinking this could be permanent?
      • Would you like us to analyze the cost impact before making this change?

Next, open the customer's analytics and do some quick research on the carrier in question.

 

Assess the Impact, Then Choose a Path

Use the customer's volume and least-cost carrier (LCC) data to decide which conversation to have next.

Path A — High-Impact Carrier (Revenue Risk)

Use this path if the carrier is handling more than 10% of the customer's business AND is the least-cost carrier the majority of the time. Because suppressing this carrier impacts AFS revenue, lean in to find a temporary solution rather than suppressing outright:

      • "Looking at your volume by carrier, they handle ____% of your volume and spend."
      • "Are you okay if we contact our carrier's Corporate Accounts Rep and let them know we're turning off their volume until we have a meeting to root-cause and fix the problem?"

Path B — Lower-Impact Carrier

Use this path if the carrier is handling less than 10% of volume, OR is not the customer's least-cost carrier the majority of the time. It's safe to proceed with the suppression right away:

      • "Got it. I can make that change effective today."
      • "Do I need to help communicate this to your other locations? How do you want to handle the communication?"

 

Steps to Complete the Suppression

Once the client conversation is complete and a path forward is confirmed, complete the suppression in this order:

      • Suppress the carrier in SmartTMS, THEN
      • Suppress the carrier in SmartAudit, THEN
      • Send an email to the LTL Startup distribution list notifying them of the change

Need the SmartTMS field-level setup steps? See How do I set up Carrier Suppression in SmartTMS? in the Tools & Systems section of the internal KB.

 

Notification Email Template

Send this to the LTL Startup distribution list immediately after suppression is complete in both systems:

SUBJECT: (Client name and ID) – (Carrier name) suppressed in SmartTMS, SmartAudit

BODY: (Client name and ID) has requested that we remove (Carrier name) from their approved carrier lists in SmartTMS & SmartAudit LCC reporting. This means the carrier will no longer appear in LCC reporting, which means the client is missing out on reported least-cost carrier savings. I recommend a conversation with our Corporate Accounts Rep to ensure they know this has occurred due to (issue).

 

Quick Reference

Scenario

What To Do

>10% of volume AND least-cost majority of time

Lean in for a temporary fix — loop in the carrier's Corporate Accounts Rep before suppressing.

<10% of volume OR not least-cost majority of time

Proceed with suppression today; confirm client communication needs.

Ready to suppress

SmartTMS → SmartAudit → notify LTL Startup distribution list.

📎Related article: How do I set up Carrier Suppression in SmartTMS?