Resource Logistics Group, Inc. – Empowering Clients with State-of-the-Art Logistics Expertise and Innovative Solutions for Optimal Cost Savings and Strategic Efficiency

In an era where every dollar counts, businesses need more than just a logistics partner—they need a strategic ally who can drive substantial savings and streamline operations. Resource Logistics Group, Inc. (RLG) is that transformative partner, redefining the way companies handle transportation management.

RLG excels at turning complex logistics challenges into opportunities for cost reduction and efficiency. As a leading advisor in transportation and logistics, the company is dedicated to slashing transportation expenses through strategic negotiations and in-depth market insights. Their mission is straightforward: to put money back into their clients’ pockets by addressing the intricacies of transportation management without taking control of their operations.

With a powerful combination of professional expertise and advanced technology, Resource Logistics Group delivers exceptional value. They convert raw data into actionable intelligence, enabling businesses to make smarter logistics decisions and stay ahead of the curve. They are not merely a service provider but a critical resource offering current transportation cost intelligence, data-driven insights, and innovative cost-saving solutions.

At CIO Bulletin, we had the privilege of interviewing Steve Huntley, President of Resource Logistics Group, Inc. He offered profound insights into how his company delivers unparalleled expertise and cutting-edge solutions, establishing themselves as a vital partner for businesses seeking to optimize transportation management and elevate their financial performance.

Interview Highlights

What inspired the founding of Resource Logistics Group, and how has the company evolved since its inception? 

We were founded in 2009 under the name SCML Logistics (Supply Chains Made Logical) to reach out to different clients. In 2018, we updated our name to Resource Logistics Group, Inc. (RLG) as it better represents our business as a “Resource” for our clients to utilize for all “back office” logistics management functions.

As the Founder and President of RLG, I bring a deep background in logistics and supply chain management, with a focus on negotiating transportation contracts and pricing. My team and I have extensive experience in analyzing various types of transportation data to find ways to cut costs across all modes.

After working in the corporate world for over 15 years, I realized that the skills we had developed could help many companies reduce their overall transportation and logistics spending. Since then, we’ve successfully assisted our clients in saving over $185 million on transportation expenses, while ensuring that they haven’t experienced any degradation in service from their chosen suppliers.

Can you provide an overview of the key services that Resource Logistics Group offers and how they benefit your clients?

The different services we offer are as follows. These are what we call “back office” logistics management and support, as they do not involve day-to-day management of shipments:

1. Benchmarking of current transportation contracts, pricing, and accessorial charges.
2. Managing the complete bidding/RFQ process for all modes of transportation. We also help implement the new contracts and pricing that we and our clients negotiate with their chosen carrier partners.
3. Assisting our clients with managing their transportation contracts and pricing once in place.
4. Providing monthly logistical reporting to our clients so they can see where they are spending their money and look for ways to further reduce transportation expenditures.
5. Offering a full Transportation Management System (TMS) to our clients at a very low cost.
6. Resolving freight invoicing issues for our clients when carriers do not bill properly based on the contracts and pricing that we helped negotiate.
7. Managing freight claims for our clients.
8. Performing all types of logistics analysis and reporting beyond basic monthly reporting.

You mention a “15 step process” in RFQ and bid management. What makes this process unique, and how does it ensure the best outcomes for your clients?

First, our proprietary LTL bid analysis software is the fastest analytical tool for LTL bid analysis in the market. This software allows clients to perform many “what if” scenarios in seconds and minutes, NOT days or weeks.

What makes our RFQ and bid management 15-step process unique is that we strive for as much transparency as possible to understand the clients’ and their customers’ needs in order to communicate to carriers the overall opportunity so that they can analyze and provide an aggressive and profitable pricing structure. The other part of our process that makes it unique is that we ensure that we understand our clients’ internal operations as well as their customers’ requirements when receiving shipments.

We also want to understand any nuances related to handling the clients’ products so that these can be clearly articulated to the carriers when responding to the bid. Being transparent with the carrier as well as providing them with detailed shipment information is crucial to ensuring that the client gets the best pricing at the end of the day.

Out of the 8-week/15-step process to conduct the bid, our clients only need to take a total of 2-3 DAYS of their time for the entire process. RLG does all the “heavy lifting” during the bid process. What is also unique is that we allow our clients to be the face-to-face negotiators with the carriers they interview and move forward with once the analysis is complete.

Our proprietary bid analysis software helps us manage the entire process as well as create all final documents that need to be signed by both the client and the carrier to implement the negotiated agreements and pricing. This software helps to finalize the entire process in a matter of a few hours, not days or weeks.

With technology playing a critical role in logistics, how does RLG’s expertise in TMS platforms like Mercury Gate and 3G TMS enhance transportation management for your clients?

Many shippers these days want to have full supply chain visibility; however, transportation management systems are very expensive to purchase and take a long time to implement if you’re starting from scratch. The staff at Resource Logistics Group has the expertise in these systems to help implement a full TMS for a client in as little as five weeks. Not only do we assist our clients in getting set up with the TMS so they can have visibility into their outbound shipments, but we also help to educate and train their vendors to utilize the TMS when shipping raw materials to these clients.

Another important aspect of a TMS is making sure that you have experts managing the users, pricing, carrier contracts, etc., and RLG handles all of this “back office” TMS management.

By partnering with MercuryGate and 3GTMS, we alleviate a lot of the implementation headaches that typically go along with TMS deployment. We also have the expertise in ensuring that these systems can be set up quickly and that clients can start seeing the value of having supply chain visibility in place within their organization.

Managing freight claims can be a herculean task for many companies. How does Resource Logistics Group streamline this process, and what benefits do clients experience by outsourcing this to you?

As we all know, anyone can file a freight claim; however, following up and ensuring that it is paid is the true goal of filing and managing freight claims. RLG has developed proprietary software that helps streamline the freight claim filing and management process. We have worked with carriers to implement a system that is easy for us to use and ensures that carriers receive all the pertinent information to review and finalize the claim as quickly as possible. We use this software internally, and we also license it to shippers so that they can easily file and manage their own freight claims.

Building trust with clients is crucial. How does Resource Logistics Group maintain and strengthen relationships with its clients over time?

Everyone’s goal at RLG is to not only satisfy the customer but to “delight” the customer. Our main rule at RLG is that we return all phone calls and emails within 12 to 24 hours. We also ensure that we clearly understand what our clients need and strive to satisfy those needs above and beyond their expectations. We believe in full transparency and open communication with our clients. We strive to have monthly and/or quarterly meetings to review their overall transportation spend and the logistics patterns that they are seeing within their organization. These meetings help to strengthen our relationships and look for ways to further reduce transportation/logistics expenditures. Our clients trust that we understand how to manage the data so that we’re producing credible information for them to make important transportation/logistics decisions.

How does Resource Logistics Group’s approach to ongoing logistics analysis contribute to both cost savings and sustainability for your clients?

As we all know, data is essential in understanding what is going on with any company’s supply chain. We make it a very meaningful point with our clients that we need to have access to their data so that we can turn this data into “information” for them to make better decisions going forward. Our approach to gathering data varies in many ways, and RLG does all the heavy lifting and gathers that data on a monthly basis so that we can then turn it into meaningful information for clients to make better logistics decisions in the future. It also helps guide us in our relationship with the client and their carriers to look for ways to further reduce transportation/logistics costs.

What future innovations and developments can we expect from Resource Logistics Group in the coming years?

We plan to further enhance our LTL bid analysis software as well as our freight claims management software to provide better and more streamlined bids and claims management in the future. We are also looking into the role Artificial Intelligence will play in our sector so that we can utilize the latest technology to help clients analyze their data faster and make future decisions in a timelier manner.

Steve Huntley | Founder & President

Steve founded Resource Logistics Group (RLG) back in 2009, which at that time was known as Merclog Holdings, Inc. dba SCML Logistics. In addition to working with his own direct shipper clients, Steve has partnered with several logistics and freight audit/payment companies to offer their clients substantial transportation/logistics cost reductions. Steve has helped his clients save over $185 million in transportation expenditures.

Steve holds an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). He also holds a dual Undergraduate Degree in International Business and Transportation/Logistics Management from Northeastern University. He has completed a Graduate Certificate in Logistics/Supply Chain Management from Northeastern University. He graduated with honors in all three degrees.

Steve has been a guest speaker at various undergraduate and graduate Supply Chain Management classes at Northeastern as well as other events in the logistics and supply chain area.

In 2004, Steve won the “One Tyco” Strategic Sourcing Award for the sourcing project that saved the most money, had the greatest impact across all of Tyco, and was 98% implemented at 1,500+ locations in just 3 weeks. This project was the single sourcing of Tyco’s small parcel provider throughout Tyco’s network and yielded savings of just over $11 million annually.

RLG has also been published in Yahoo! Finance, Bloomberg, and MarketWatch.

Steve is an active member of CSCMP/Nasstrac, the South Florida Manufacturers Association, the Golden Key National Honor Society, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society for MBA/Graduate Students.

“Everyone’s goal at RLG is to not only satisfy the customer but to ‘delight’ the customer.”

“Our proprietary LTL bid analysis software is the fastest analytical tool for LTL bid analysis in the market. This software allows clients to perform many ‘what if’ scenarios in seconds and minutes, NOT days or weeks.”

“We allow our clients to be the face-to-face negotiators with the carriers they interview and move forward with once the analysis is complete.”