Dental Products Manufacturer Recovers $840K After Consolidating a Decentralized Carrier Network

How replacing fragmented location-level carrier relationships with centralized pricing and TMS visibility eliminated undetected overpayment across LTL and FTL.

TL;DR: The world’s largest dental products manufacturer was running freight across nine locations with no centralized pricing, TMS, or consolidated carrier data — and overpaying as a result. After partnering with Haversack to consolidate carrier pricing and deploy a TMS integrated with their ERP, they recovered $840,200 in the first twelve months: a 30.41% reduction in LTL costs and 23.2% in FTL.

Many dental product manufacturers operating across multiple locations run their freight the same way: each facility manages its own carrier relationships, books its own shipments, and negotiates its own rates. The result is often overpayment spread across locations that compounds quietly over time.

The world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies was in exactly that position when they partnered with Haversack, an insource logistics management solution for dental product distributors and medical device manufacturers. The client had accumulated a patchwork of carrier agreements across nine facilities shipping dental equipment, implant systems, and consumables to practices, labs, and clinics nationwide, that was costing them an estimated annual freight spend of $3 million.

In twelve months, they restructured pricing across their entire LTL and FTL network and recovered $840,200.

Challenge 1: Fragmented Carrier Relationships Across Nine Locations Drove Undetected Overpayment

Each facility had built its own carrier relationships over time, with no way to consolidate them or enforce a consistent rate standard. A carrier the company had worked with for years had a different negotiated rate at each location and was significantly overcharging, a fact that went undetected because freight was managed location by location with no consolidated view.

Furthermore, routing guides were distributed as hard-copy documents or Excel spreadsheets. Booking was manual and decentralized.

What Changed

Haversack ran a full Less than Truckload (LTL) RFP, re-bidding the market against the company’s aggregate volume rather than the location-by-location volumes carriers had been pricing against. The process ran 28 days from bid issuance to activated pricing. Full Truckload (FTL) booking was standardized across all nine locations in 6 days.

The rate gaps were significant. LTL was running at $41.87/CWT against a market target of $24–29/CWT. FTL was running at $2.63/CPM against a target of $1.93–2.02/CPM. Closing those gaps required not just better contracts but replacing the habit of defaulting to familiar carriers regardless of price.

The result was a 30.41% reduction in LTL freight charges and a 23.2% reduction in FTL — $608,200 and $232,000 respectively.

Challenge 2: A Lack of Centralized Visibility Made It Impossible to Manage Freight Across the Network

Freight operators could not easily see what was being shipped from which location, at what rate, with which carrier. Decisions that should have been made centrally were being made locally, based on personal relationships rather than data. The personnel responsible for oversight were managing across nine facilities without the tools or leverage to impose order from the top down.

What Changed

Haversack deployed a TMS integrated with the company’s ERP system, giving operators a unified view across all nine locations for the first time. For an organization that had been operating off paper routing guides and spreadsheets, the shift from decentralized to consolidated visibility changed how decisions were made.

Haversack also supported white glove delivery to dental clinics for sensitive equipment and instruments requiring careful final mile handling, and managed logistics for dental tradeshows — an operationally complex move type that had previously been handled without a defined process.

Results

In the first twelve months, the company recovered:

•      $840,200 in total freight savings

•      30.41% reduction in LTL freight charges ($608,200) through competitive re-bid and consolidated carrier pricing

•      23.2% reduction in FTL costs ($232,000) through standardized booking and rate discipline across all nine locations

•      Centralized TMS visibility deployed across the full network, integrated with their ERP, that replaced paper routing guides and manual booking

•      Structured white glove delivery for dental equipment and sensitive instrument shipments requiring careful final mile handling

•      Standardized tradeshow logistics for large-format moves that had previously been unmanaged

Now, a two-person freight operations team runs a consolidated nine-location network with Haversack’s carrier pricing, TMS, and operational support behind them.

Haversack works with medical device manufacturers, dental product distributors, and pharmaceutical wholesalers shipping to hospitals, surgical centers, and specialty clinics. For a closer look at results across the medical devices, see how a surgical robotics manufacturer recovered $7.9M in freight savings.If your freight profile includes mixed equipment and consumables managed through separate location-level carrier relationships, contact us for a historical freight data audit to uncover where you could be saving.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do dental product distributors typically overpay on freight?

Without a centralized TMS or consolidated carrier pricing, each facility negotiates its own rates independently. The result is the same carrier charging different rates at different locations, with no invoice audit process and no visibility into total spend across the network. Haversack client data shows this pattern routinely produces 10–25% freight overpayment.

What does it take to standardize carrier pricing across multiple dental distribution locations?

The process starts with an LTL RFP run against aggregate network volume, not location-by-location volume, to restore pricing leverage. From bid issuance to activated pricing, the process typically runs 21 to 28 days. FTL booking standardization across locations can be completed in four to six days.

What is white glove logistics for dental equipment?

White glove logistics for dental equipment involves selecting qualified carriers for sensitive final mile delivery to dental clinics and practices, ensuring careful handling of precision instruments and equipment installations. Haversack manages carrier selection, pricing, and documentation for these moves through a dedicated white glove load board.

How does a TMS integration help dental product distributors manage freight?

A TMS integrated with the company’s ERP gives freight operators a unified view across all shipping locations: what is moving, with which carrier, and at what rate. It replaces paper routing guides and manual booking with a single platform and enables invoice audit controls that catch overcharges automatically.

What is the difference between a freight broker and an insource logistics solution for dental distributors?

A freight broker adds a markup layer to every LTL move and manages shipments on your behalf without building internal visibility or infrastructure. An insource logistics solution like Haversack gives your team the carrier network, TMS, and pricing controls to run the operation themselves, with Haversack’s support behind them rather than in place of them.