Among the biggest things that will affect the freight markets this year are the return of pricing power to carriers and the re-shoring/nearshoring phenomenon, according to CarrierDirect's semi-annual forecast on the state of the domestic freight industry.

Across industries, manufacturers pride themselves on quality but put top emphasis on reducing overall costs. And while these may seem like conflicting priorities, they can be explained by the concurrent demands of the internal economic drivers of an organization and the external customer requirements for quality and efficiency. As such, these priorities are here to stay, especially as the consumer becomes increasingly empowered and publicly vocal. In recent years, product quality and safety have become tightly integrated with traceability and supplier scorecards. But for manufacturers with foresight to proactively implement a comprehensive traceability system before a contamination problem occurs, there is an opportunity to provide their organizations with the ability to dramatically improve response time, implement corrective measures, and minimize repercussions to the bottom line and the brand, should a problem arise.

As head of IT for Global Supply Chain Solutions at Ryder, a major third-party logistics provider, Gregory Knott well understands the issues surrounding technology integration between third parties and customers. Here he offers useful advice to outsourcing partners on both sides of a contract.