As a shipper, you probably feel like the words “reliable” and “freight” go hand-in-hand. If you use freight to move your goods, it has to be a reliable service. There’s too much on the line.

But what does “reliable” even mean? There really is no uniform definition, which makes sense. With such a diverse set of shipping needs among businesses come varying interpretations. Reliability for a farmer shipping his avocados up the west coast is inherently different from a sports retailer trying to get her load of hockey pucks up to New England.

To shed some light on it, we asked a simple question to shippers on the Amazon Freight Forum* to get their opinions: “When thinking about freight shipping, what does the word ‘reliability’ mean to you?”

Timeliness…but more
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top characteristic of reliability is being on time. 68% of respondents defined it as meeting the originally scheduled delivery time and 57% selected that it means meeting the originally scheduled pickup time (respondents could select multiple choices). These were the number one and number two responses, respectively. In other words, shippers care more about getting their loads to the final destination when expected and less about whenever the journey started.

Simply put by one respondent, it’s all about “how shipping companies are able to deliver your products on time, as planned, and as expected.” Some put such a premium on timeliness they said they would even pay more for it.

There’s nothing too shocking there, but looking deeper at the results reveals other definitions beyond speed.

There is a level of frictionless and accommodating service shippers expect of today’s freight providers. When their trailer doors close, they want the peace of mind to know it is being handled properly and don’t want to sweat the details. Or, says respondent, they don’t want to “play 20 questions” to figure out what is going on with their load.

The numbers prove it. 38% say accurate communications about disruptions are key and 30% want effective resolution of issues. And handling shipments with care, having helpful account managers, and frequent tracking updates each received 19% of responses.

Or, as one shipper put it, “’Reliability’ means more than just having something shipped or received as planned from a starting or ending location. In today's environment, it means doing so in a hassle-free manner where the experience is problem-free.”

What also emerges is the idea that reliability from a freight provider cannot be won overnight. It is earned over time through consistent performance and weathering the ups and downs together while keeping an eye on the future. “Being able to rely on a freight shipping company over and over again,” is vital says one shipper. Top performance is derived from anything that fosters a long-term relationship with “the ability to scale services to meet growing demand or handle fluctuations.”

Reliability is everything
Whatever your definition of reliability is, Amazon Freight can meet it. That’s because we are shippers ourselves and treat your freight like our own. With our more than 60,000 trailers and the swiftness of the Amazon network, we can meet your freight needs coast-to-coast. If you’re interested in seeing how Amazon Freight can help, create your shipper account to get started.


* The forum is our community of shippers that we tap into to stay abreast of their needs and the freight industry overall. You can join here if you’re interested (note that the forum is hosted by Material, a market research agency).