How Alliance Shippers streamlined intermodal operations with Blume Asset Management

For over four decades, Alliance Shippers Inc. has carved out a strong position as one of North America’s premier intermodal marketing companies. With a reputation for delivering the “perfect shipment” – on time, damage-free, and accurately billed – the company has long prioritized service and consistency. But behind the scenes, coordinating thousands of container assets across a vast network of railroads posed operational challenges that manual, disconnected systems and processes couldn’t keep up with. 

The hidden cost of manual operations 

Before digitization, these operations were weighed down by paper-based processes, siloed systems, and a lack of end-to-end visibility, which slowed teams and left room for error. Reconciling invoices, tracking down billing discrepancies, validating shipments, and even locating the container itself often involved multiple departments and hours of manual effort. 

“It was very tedious,” mentioned Becky Swint, Accounts Payable Manager. “I remember long days, trying to find maybe two discrepancies. And I also would have to pull in other people to help me... it would take us three, four hours sometimes, you know, and multiple people.” 

This fragmented approach not only affected internal productivity but also limited Alliance’s ability to provide timely insights and consistent service to its customers. 

Unifying intermodal operations with smart workflows and visibility 

To tackle these challenges, Alliance turned to Blume Asset Management, a platform purpose-built to simplify and scale rail and intermodal operations. With more than 30 years of experience working with Class 1 North American railroads, Blume’s solution offered Alliance a unified interface for managing equipment bookings, billing, invoice reconciliation, dispute resolution, real-time container visibility, and communications with rail partners – all powered by integrated IoT and automated workflows. 

“It helps us have a centralized group to go to and work with the railroads,” said Rick Plieninger, Vice President of Pricing & Business Strategy. “If not, we would have to work with each railroad independently... that would again, take a lot of time and effort for us.” 

IoT-powered real-time visibility enhances service and security  

A key feature of the Blume Asset Management platform is its integrated IoT and GPS tracking, which offers real-time insight into container movements. This feature has significantly enhanced Alliance’s ability to meet service commitments, improve billing accuracy, safeguard cargo, and address customer needs. They have used IoT data to streamline operations across multiple scenarios. 

• Recovering stolen containers with GPS tracking 
  When containers go missing, Alliance has been able to locate and recover them using GPS data directly from Blume. 
  
  “We had two stolen containers… we were able to locate the containers through the GPS,” said Jamie Holford, Operations Coordinator. “Years ago, we would have never been able to do that.” 
  
  
• Resolving customer disputes with proof of arrival 
  When customers question whether deliveries happened on time, Alliance can pull up GPS timestamps to provide definitive proof. 
  
  “We obviously have issues sometimes with a customer who claims we weren’t there on time,” Holford said. “We just went right back and pulled the GPS, and we were able to prove like, we were here.” 
  
  
• Monitoring container movement through rail gates with geofencing 
  Blume’s integration with rail systems and use of geofencing allows Alliance to verify when containers are gated in or out, helping them trace movements and validate charges. 
  
  “Blume gets data directly from the railroads,” said Terry Estes, Credit, Collections & Accessorial Manager. “We can see when the container came into the gate, when it went out... It's another form of tracing.” 
  
  
• Reducing per diem charges and improving margin  
  With clear visibility into container dwell time and return status, Alliance can minimize costly delays and avoid unnecessary fees. 
  
  “The extra visibility would definitely help us with our margins,” Holford noted. “We would be able to zero in on our per diem… kind of keep that to a minimum for ourselves and for our customers.” 
  
  
• Helping customers track their own containers at destination 
  Some customers rely on Alliance to provide updates because they can’t easily track containers at their yards. 
  
  “I have a large customer… they want to keep track of containers,” said Holford. “We are always using the GPS because they are unable to locate things in their yard.” 

Blume's IoT-backed visibility doesn’t just show where containers are; it enables Alliance to act on the data, deliver better customer service, and run operations more confidently and efficiently. 

Delivering operational efficiency across the board 

The shift to Blume Asset Management delivered measurable improvements across multiple functions at Alliance: 

• Streamlined invoice reconciliation and faster exception handling
  Paper-based reconciliation gave way to automation. What once took multiple people hours to complete now takes a single user less than an hour. 
  
  “Now, I can find the discrepancy myself within an hour,” said Swint. “Whereas before… it would take 3 or 4 hours, trying to find one problem.” 
  
  
• Scalability for high-volume account management 
  With Blume’s system handling bookings and data workflows end to end, operations staff can manage larger customer accounts without missing a beat. 
  
  “I have two pretty large accounts, so I'm in there all day,” said Holford. “Every load I have, my equipment comes from Blume.” 
  
  
• Improved data confidence and operational accuracy 
  Teams now rely on the platform for daily tasks like shipment tracing, knowing the data is consistent and reliable. 
  
  “We’re comfortable that both systems are accurate,” noted Estes. “So… I use Blume sometimes as a tracing tool, rather than logging independently to the railroad.” 
  
  
• Customer enablement through insights 
  With centralized data, Alliance can deliver actionable insights that improve customer operations, like optimizing their dwell time. 
  
  “They were concerned about their dwell at origin,” said Estes. “So, we ran one of the origin dwell reports… It gave them data to go back to the warehouse and say, ‘Hey, you’re not following procedure.’ It’s a cost savings to them as well.” 

Meeting the evolving demands of intermodal logistics today and tomorrow 

Blume Asset Management has become an essential part of how Alliance Shippers runs its business. 

“If we did not have access to Blume, I think it would add a good few hours to our daily workdays,” said Holford. 

Looking ahead, Alliance plans to integrate Blume with its new Transportation Management System (TMS) to eliminate duplicate data entry and further automate workflows. 

“Those tools will help us be incredibly accurate with what we’re able to bill,” said Estes. “It’s going to be another tool in our arsenal to keep everybody honest.” 

By combining centralized data, real-time visibility, and operational automation, Alliance Shippers is well-equipped to meet the evolving demands of the intermodal industry and deliver the perfect shipment, every time.