Committed Truck Capacity Case Study: Supporting Maersk’s End-to-End Inland Strategy

Sherpa’s founder supported Maersk’s rollout of a committed truck power model designed to improve inland execution, strengthen service reliability, and support the company’s broader end-to-end logistics strategy.

The pilot focused on the Southeast United States, including Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Tennessee. The model was tied to import/export drayage moves connected to cargo Maersk was already moving over the water, creating a more integrated inland extension of the ocean product.

The work required customer portfolio analysis, lane evaluation, commercial modeling, internal alignment, carrier negotiation support, and product rollout planning.

Project Scale at a Glance

Southeast U.S. pilot
Focused on Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Tennessee

Hundreds of customers evaluated
Portfolio reviewed to identify lane and customer fit

Import/export drayage focus
Capacity tied to Maersk-controlled ocean cargo

Committed truck power
Guaranteed truck capacity for qualified customer flows

End-to-end strategy
Designed to strengthen Maersk’s integrated logistics offering

Margin and service improvement
Focused on profitable growth and higher service reliability

The Challenge

Maersk was advancing its end-to-end logistics strategy and needed a more reliable inland capacity model to support import/export cargo moving through its network.

The opportunity was clear: if Maersk could secure committed truck power in the right markets, it could offer customers a stronger inland service, improve execution reliability, and capture more value across the full ocean-to-inland supply chain.

But the model could not be rolled out broadly without discipline.

Not every customer, lane, or geography would support committed capacity. The business needed to identify where volume density, lane balance, customer fit, service requirements, and margin potential justified the go-to-market approach.

The key questions were:

Which customers had the right import/export drayage profile?
Which lanes could support committed truck power?
Where could Maersk match customer flows to improve utilization?
Where would guaranteed capacity improve service reliability?
Where could the model improve margin rather than simply add cost?
How should the service be positioned as part of Maersk’s end-to-end logistics strategy?

Sherpa Founder’s Role

Gareth Dobbs, founder of Sherpa Supply Chain, supported the rollout of the committed truck power model as part of Maersk’s inland product and capacity strategy.

His work focused on the practical commercial and operational questions that determine whether a new transportation model can succeed.

He helped evaluate hundreds of customers across the portfolio, looking for lane patterns and business flows that could support secured truck capacity. The goal was to identify customers and geographies where the model could improve service reliability, support customer retention, and create profitable inland growth.

His role included:

Customer portfolio analysis
Import/export drayage lane evaluation
Southeast U.S. pilot planning
Commercial fit assessment
Margin opportunity analysis
Internal alignment across product, sales, and operations
Carrier and product-term negotiation support
Go-to-market planning for committed capacity
Support for Maersk’s broader end-to-end logistics strategy

Scope of Work

Customer Portfolio Analysis

The work began with a broad review of Maersk’s customer portfolio.

Hundreds of customers were evaluated to identify where import/export drayage activity created enough density, consistency, and strategic value to support committed truck power.

This was not a generic trucking exercise. The analysis focused on customers whose inland movements were connected to Maersk-controlled ocean freight, making the model a natural extension of the end-to-end offering.

Southeast U.S. Pilot Design

The pilot focused on the Southeast U.S., including Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Tennessee.

This geography offered the potential to match customer flows, create more efficient truck utilization, and test the model in markets where inland execution mattered to Maersk’s broader customer offering.

The pilot was designed with future expansion in mind, targeting a model that could later be applied to other key customer consolidation areas around the country.

Import/Export Drayage Capacity Strategy

The capacity model focused on import/export drayage moves tied to cargo moving over the water with Maersk.

This created a stronger connection between ocean freight and inland execution.

Rather than treating trucking as a purely transactional add-on, the model evaluated where secured truck power could become part of a more controlled end-to-end service offering.

Lane Matching & Utilization Analysis

A key part of the work was identifying lanes that could support committed truck power.

The analysis looked for business flows that could be matched across customers or geographies to improve truck utilization, support profitability, and justify the operational commitment.

This was critical because committed capacity only works when the network logic is strong enough to support it.

The goal was not just to secure trucks. The goal was to secure the right trucks for the right freight in the right markets.

Commercial Evaluation

The model had to make financial sense.

Gareth supported evaluation of where committed truck power could improve margin, strengthen customer retention, and enhance Maersk’s ability to sell a more reliable inland service.

The commercial work required balancing customer value, truck utilization, cost structure, carrier commitments, margin potential, and go-to-market positioning.

Service Reliability & Driver Quality

The model was designed to improve the customer service offering by providing higher-quality drivers and more consistent time commitment performance.

For import/export drayage customers, service reliability is not only about pickup and delivery. It affects port flow, cargo availability, warehouse planning, customer confidence, and the credibility of the broader end-to-end logistics solution.

Committed truck power gave Maersk a way to offer a more controlled inland service to customers who fit the model.

Carrier & Product-Term Negotiation Support

The rollout required support around carrier and product-term negotiations.

This included helping evaluate how the committed truck power model should be structured, what commitments were needed, how the service should be positioned, and how commercial terms should support both reliable execution and profitable growth.

The work helped ensure the product was commercially viable, not just operationally appealing.

The Outcome

The work advanced a more disciplined inland capacity model for Maersk’s Southeast U.S. market.

The pilot helped identify where committed truck power could improve service reliability, strengthen customer retention, support margin improvement, and create a more compelling end-to-end logistics offering for import/export customers.

The model was designed to expand beyond the initial Southeast pilot into other key customer consolidation areas around the country where truck power could be optimized.

The result was a more practical framework for moving from transactional drayage procurement toward a controlled capacity strategy in the right markets.

Why This Matters for Sherpa Clients

This case study directly supports Sherpa’s work in freight procurement, inland logistics strategy, transportation model design, and carrier negotiation.

Many companies know they need better transportation reliability, but struggle to determine where dedicated, committed, asset-based, contracted, or spot capacity makes the most sense.

Sherpa helps clients make those decisions with commercial and operational discipline.

For shippers, this experience helps answer questions like:

Where is guaranteed capacity worth paying for?
Where does the spot market still make more sense?
Which lanes justify committed truck power?
How should carrier commitments be structured?
How can inland service reliability be improved without overpaying?
For logistics providers, this experience helps answer a different set of questions:
Where should a new inland product be launched?
Which customers and lanes fit the model?
How should the product be positioned commercially?
How can secured capacity improve both service and margin?
How do you avoid rolling out a capacity model too broadly before proving the economics?
Sherpa brings practical experience evaluating the customer fit, lane logic, service requirements, and commercial structure behind a successful capacity strategy.

Evaluating your inland capacity strategy?

Sherpa helps companies design transportation models that balance cost, reliability, flexibility, service quality, and commercial execution.

Whether you are evaluating committed truck capacity, improving import/export drayage, redesigning a carrier strategy, or launching a new inland logistics product, Sherpa can help turn the strategy into a workable operating model.

Schedule a consultation to discuss your capacity, drayage, or inland logistics challenge.

When This Experience Is Relevant

This experience is especially relevant for companies that need to:

Evaluate committed truck capacity
Improve import/export drayage reliability
Design a secured capacity model
Reduce dependence on transactional trucking
Improve inland logistics performance
Evaluate dedicated versus flexible capacity
Identify lanes suitable for guaranteed truck power
Support carrier negotiation strategy
Improve customer retention through better service
Launch a new inland logistics product
Connect ocean freight with inland execution
Build a more reliable end-to-end logistics model

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