Furniture
Fríant Breaks Free from Freight—and Lets Wilson Take the Wheel
Wilson & Fríant
Friant started in a garage in Oakland in 1989 and grew into a global furniture manufacturer with operations stretching from California to Virginia—and customers spanning the world. With so many shipments moving between plants, warehouses, and dealers, coordinating LTL and TL freight became a daily balancing act.
Wilson, Cartage’s AI logistics coordinator, stepped in to bring order to the chaos. He handles every consolidation opportunity across Friant’s network—combining loads, reducing empty miles, and ensuring shipments move efficiently and sustainably. The result: less waste, lower freight spend, and a supply chain that’s as polished as the products they ship.
How Wilson is Integrated at Fríant
Friant keeps things simple on the front end and powerful behind the scenes. Planners export their shipment plan as a CSV; Wilson ingests it and orchestrates the rest.
Hands-off tendering: For LTL moves, Wilson auto-tenders to the right carriers using Friant’s preferences and routing guides.
Smart FTL procurement: When truckload makes more sense, Wilson sources and books capacity, with Cartage’s operations team monitoring exceptions and market shifts.
Lightweight consolidation: Wilson groups compatible orders using practical signals—linear feet, origin/destination proximity, delivery windows—to reduce touches and empty miles.
Price negotiations within guardrails: Wilson negotiates within pre-set thresholds and carrier tiers, protecting service standards while driving cost discipline.
Reporting & carrier intelligence: Maintains a full LTL quote ledger for transparency and leverage, while building a living database of carrier stats (win rates, on-time %, claims signals) to inform who gets the next award.
The net effect is a workflow that is beginning to feel invisible to Friant’s team: upload a CSV, review suggested moves when needed, and watch shipments flow with fewer emails, fewer trucks, and fewer surprises—without exposing proprietary processes or playbooks.
Moving Forward
Consolidation and coordination are just the beginning. Friant’s next chapter is all about automation—streamlining not just how freight moves, but how the entire operation runs.
Wilson is at the center of that vision. By taking weight off busy people, he keeps Friant’s logistics running smoothly in the background. Every process, every document, every decision lives in one place—no spreadsheets, no manual updates, no extra logins.
As we continue to integrate Wilson deeper into Friant’s existing systems, the goal is simple: make logistics so seamless that the team never has to think about it. One day soon, booking a complex LTL shipment might be as easy as sending an email—and Wilson will take care of the rest.
