A Holiday Tale of Freight, Futures, and Finding Help

“DELETE !!!” beamed Ebenezer Scrooge to himself. He hated holiday emails almost as much as he hated surprise accessorial charges.

So when his inbox chimed late on Christmas Eve with a subject line reading, “This Holiday Season, Let Direct Logistics Help Carry the Load” – he was ready to punch the button. Then he scoffed and leaned back in his chair while announcing to an empty office, “If people ran their own logistics properly, they wouldn’t need strangers with dashboards and shipping reps telling them how to do what they should know for themselves.”

Scrooge & Co. prided itself on doing logistics the hard way. They booked and tracked freight by phone. They argued billing and routing passionately with calculators and highway maps. They they did it all themselves, because that’s how Scrooge believed real businesses (and employees) proved their worth. And as S&C employees departed for holiday dinners and well-earned holiday rest, Scrooge stayed late, reconciling carrier invoices that stubbornly refused to reconcile themselves. “Bah,” he muttered. “Humbug. Christmas just gets in the way of business.”

Moments later, in the deepening dark of another lonely Christmas eve, lights began flickering, the air grew cold, and the frightening sounds of a tormented soul began echoing through the office.

Marley and the Cost of Doing Everything Yourself

Jacob Marley appeared directly in front of Scrooge’s desk, translucent, unmistakably irritated, and most certainly… dead. He wore a familiar suit, tightly wound about with stretch-wrap and barely able to move. “Scrooge,” Marley said solemnly.

Scrooge jumped back. “You’re dead.”

“Yes,” Marley replied. “And now I’m paying detention fees on life.” Marley raised a glowing ledger. Pages flipped furiously, each filled with dollar signs bleeding red. “Do you recognize these?” Marley asked.

Scrooge squinted. “Carrier invoices?”

“Overpayments,” Marley corrected. “Missed deliveries. Lanes you ran spot when contract would have saved thousands. Expedites caused by poor planning. Peak season premiums you accepted because you had no leverage. And practically zero controls on FSC.” And as he spoke, the room transformed into a swirling nightmare of numbers, errors and complaints.

“You thought refusing help saved money,” said Marley. “But a competent 3PL would have consolidated volume, benchmarked rates, negotiated capacity, and tracked shipments all while you slept.” Scrooge watched the negative totals climb alarmingly. “I am condemned,” Marley said, “to wander forever, dragging inefficiencies I refused to fix. But YOU… you still have a chance.” Marley leaned closer. “This night, you will be visited by three spirits. Ignore them, and you’ll spend eternity reconciling freight bills.”

With that, Marley vanished — leaving behind the faint smell of burnt coffee and regret.

The Ghost of Logistics Past and the Time That Slipped Away

The first spirit arrived quietly, calm and unassuming, like a senior operations manager who had seen too many peak seasons to panic anymore.

“I am the Ghost of Logistics Past,” it said. “Come.”

Scrooge found himself in an office he recognized from long ago, watching a younger version of himself pacing across the floor, phone wedged between shoulder and ear, manually tracking shipments on a chalkboard.

“Remember this?” the spirit asked. Scrooge nodded reluctantly as the scene emerged. They watched Scrooge miss family dinners to chase down late trucks. They watched him spend hours building loads that could have been optimized in seconds. They watched him personally onboard carriers, one by one, with spreadsheets that grew more fragile by the day.

“You believed time spent suffering proved your determination to succeed,” the spirit said. “But time is often the most expensive cost of all.”

The scene shifted. In this alternate past, Scrooge partnered early with a capable 3PL. Technology handled estimating, tendering, routing and reporting. Capacity was secured dynamically. Exceptions were flagged before becoming emergencies. And young Scrooge went home on time.

“You could have scaled faster,” the spirit said gently. “You could have led better and lived more.”

Scrooge felt a pang of something unfamiliar.

“Efficiency may be doing things right,” the spirit added, “But effectiveness means doing the right things. Besides, accepting qualified help with business critical freight is not laziness. It is leverage!!!”

The Ghost of Logistics Present and the Daily Headaches

The second spirit burst into the room with unmistakable energy and holographic phones, alert notifications, and emails marked URGENT spinning around the spirit in a vortex of confusion.

“I am the Ghost of Logistics Present!” it boomed.

Scrooge was thrust into an out-of-body vision of his current operations. Reps chased down carriers and customers. Warehouse teams scrambled to recover from bad planning. Someone yelled about a missed pickup. Someone else yelled louder.

“Observe!” the spirit cried. “This is what happens when you insist on controlling everything!”

Amidst the chaos appeared another vision. In it, a tall control tower monitored operations calmly. Shipping exceptions were managed before customers even noticed. Carrier communications were handled instantly via secure APIs. Reports appeared without anyone begging for them. And clear, correct invoices were paid on time.

“Your people are capable,” the spirit said, lowering its voice. “They’re just buried under work that shouldn’t be theirs.”

Scrooge watched his staff in the vision intently. No one looked panicked. Someone left early, and work loads seamlessly flowed to others. Everyone seemed happy with their work

“Logistics should enable your business,” the spirit said. “Not consume it.”

The noise faded, leaving Scrooge standing quietly, uncomfortably aware of the differences he could be affecting right now.

The Ghost of Logistics Future and What Could Be

The final spirit arrived without announcement. Silent. Hooded. Impossibly calm.

A long arm slowly rose and pointed to a calendar on the wall, as the pages began flying off into the future. But it wasn’t the future Scrooge expected. It was a new future version of Scrooge & Co. — larger, brighter, and humming with confidence. Clients praised reliability. Employees spoke of balance. Systems worked together seamlessly. But one person was missing from the vision.

“And me?” Scrooge asked softly. The spirit gestured again to a corner office. Scrooge saw himself — older, calmer, respected. He spoke not of micromanaging lanes, but of building partnerships. He found value in dashboards, and people. And he slept through the night peacefully, knowing his company and employees were on the right track.

Then the vision darkened back into the current trajectory of his company. Lost clients. Burned-out staff. Competitors who embraced smarter logistics strategies pulling ahead. And a closed sign on the S&C front doors.

“No,” Scrooge said urgently. “I can change.” The spirit shrugged, then nodded approval — and vanished.

A Christmas Morning Reroute

Scrooge awoke at his desk to silence and the first beams of sunlight over the horizon. Christmas morning. He opened his laptop and searched his deleted emails and there it was: Direct Logistics.

This time, he read it carefully – then started one of his typical “emergency Zoom meetings.” Cell phones lit up across the city, with moans and groans to boot.

As the last person joined the call – with families and presents in the background – Scrooge scowled into the laptop camera and said, “We’ve been far too proud lately, and that must STOP!!!”

Then his face softened into a smile as he continued calmly, “and it begins with ME.”

“It’s time we stop we stop doing thing right, and start doing the RIGHT things,” he continued, “beginning with outsourcing our logistics to a qualified and trusted provider, so that we can all get back to what’s most important for us. From now on, we work to live. We do NOT live to work. So give it some thought over the holidays, and let’s hit the ground running with a new success partner asap.”

A raised-hand icon popped up on screen as a small voice spoke up. It was Tiny Tim, a junior analyst with a gift for dashboards and an optimism Scrooge had never quite understood. “Sir,” he said, “if we’re going to work with the best 3PL in the country… shouldn’t we start with Direct Logistics?”

Scrooge smiled — a genuine one, recalling the email that had started it all.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I believe that’s exactly where we should start.”

Happy Holidays from the entire Direct Logistics team.