Why ‘Shipper of Choice’ is a MUST in Chemical Logistics

Why ‘Shipper of Choice’ is a MUST in Chemical Logistics

FreightWaves Staff

Fri, July 31, 2026 at 3:38 AM GMT+3 24 min read

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In the cutthroat world of chemical logistics, building strong carrier relationships isn't just nice-to-have – it's a strategic imperative. Rob McRae from Univar Solutions shares how their 'shipper of choice' mentality, especially in niche liquid bulk hazmat, helps them secure capacity and navigate erratic markets. Discover why long-term partnerships are key to resilience.

With capacity tightening and fuel surcharges turning erratic, Univar Solutions is doubling down on carrier relationships as its primary strategy for securing liquid bulk hazmat trucks. Rob McCray, vice president of transportation at Univar Solutions, told FreightWaves at the company's annual carrier kickoff event in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that the approach costs more upfront but delivers measurable returns when the market turns against shippers.

Roughly 90% of Univar's volume moves in the liquid bulk hazmat space, a niche that severely limits the pool of eligible carriers. About 50% of that volume moves via third-party carriers by design, McCray said, allowing the company to reach customers outside its private fleet's normal delivery zones. Specialty chemicals such as hydrochloric acid require rubber-lined 53-foot tankers — expensive, low-utilization assets that few carriers are willing to acquire without a reliable shipper committed to consistent volume.

"When it contracts and it gets really difficult to find a truck, it's all about — there's a limited number of them. You have multiple customers or shippers calling into a carrier to say, 'I need an asset,'" McCray said. "And we operate with ninety-ish percent of our volume in the liquid bulk hazmat space. So it's a very small niche of the registered DOT carriers."

McCray said Univar was the first chemical distributor to receive the FreightWaves Shipper of Choice Award, an recognition he said the company did not actively pursue. The carrier kickoff — a significant annual investment he acknowledged is "not cheap" — is designed to put faces to names, visit carrier terminals, and engage drivers directly. Some carrier partners at this year's event had no hazmat experience before working with McCray at a previous employer and have now followed him to Univar for nearly six years.

On the operational side, McCray outlined a disciplined route-guide strategy that balances cost and service. Margin saved on flexible lanes is reinvested to secure capacity on high-service lanes. Underperforming carriers receive a 90-day improvement window with a formal rack-and-stack performance review. If metrics don't recover within that period, the partnership ends. "Directionally, it's long-term partnerships," McCray said, "and it's partnerships with people that we want to do business with, people that take care of our customers."

McCray flagged rising tender rejection rates as a leading service indicator and a growing concern heading into the second half of the year. He said capacity is becoming an issue again after a couple of years of relative ease, and called current fuel surcharge behavior "erratic." Univar has already adjusted its fuel surcharge policy in response to carrier feedback gathered at events like the Chattanooga kickoff. His market outlook: carrier-favorable conditions will likely persist through the balance of 2025 and potentially into the first half of 2026, with geopolitical uncertainty and elevated fuel prices as the key wildcards.

Beyond market dynamics, McCray framed Univar's logistics operation as a full multimodal platform — encompassing air freight, river barges, ocean vessels, LTL, rail, a fleet of 3,500 railcars, and service to the North Slope of Alaska — that attracts logistics professionals drawn to complex, high-stakes supply chains. His hiring formula prioritizes data aptitude, emotional intelligence, and a genuine passion for logistics. "We hire good cooks," he said, "and the good cooks are fantastic logisticians."

• About 90% of Univar's volume moves in the liquid bulk hazmat space, limiting the carrier pool and intensifying competition for assets during tight markets.

• Univar runs roughly 50% of its volume through third-party carriers by design, using long-term partnerships — some spanning nearly six years — rather than spot-rate chasing.

• McCray expects carrier-favorable market conditions to persist through the rest of 2025 and potentially into early 2026, citing erratic fuel prices and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.

Speaker 1 [0:00] But now entering Freeways Today, we're going to have the one and only Mr. Rob McCray, the VP of Transportation here at Univar Solutions. Rob, hello, sir. How's it going?

Speaker 2 [0:12] Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 [0:12] Appreciate you.

Speaker 2 [0:13] Glad to be here.

Speaker 1 [0:13] Glad you're here. How's, uh, first off, thank you so much for having us here. No, this is great.

Speaker 2 [0:18] We're in Chattanooga in your backyard, so it's, uh, it's the right move.

Speaker 1 [0:21] It's awesome. It's fantastic.

Speaker 2 [0:23] Yeah.

Speaker 3 [0:24] So tell us, uh, The event is underway.

Speaker 2 [0:27] Yep.

Speaker 3 [0:28] First of all, how do you feel it's going so far? Great attendance.

Speaker 2 [0:31] Really well. Surprisingly, this is actually a little bit smaller of a crowd this year by design, but, but it's going, going really well. As you can see, it's all about getting everybody out mingling and talking to one another, and that drives that whole shipper of choice mentality. We want people to have the face-to-face connection.

Speaker 3 [0:49] Tell us about the carrier kickoff. For people who aren't familiar, haven't been here, why do you guys do it?

Speaker 2 [0:55] Sure.

Speaker 3 [0:55] Do it every year, right?

Speaker 2 [0:57] It's a— it's, it's not cheap. It's a big investment, as you can imagine. We, you know, the term Shipper of Choice, you guys give the great award out every year. It's almost become synonymous with, you know, what's your rating online and how many carriers, you know, look and want to do business with you. But the real, the real kind of connection for us is how we treat our carriers, right? So there's, there's typically 2 approaches. You can treat it as a commodity and just kind of chase the rate and go with wherever the wind is blowing, or you can establish some longer-term partnerships. And that last way is typically a little bit more expensive and it takes a lot more investment on the shipper's part, but it pays dividends in markets like right now. When it contracts and it gets really difficult to find a truck, it's all about all right. There's a limited number of them. You have multiple customers or shippers calling into a carrier to say, "I need an asset," and we operate you know with ninety-ish percent of our volume in the liquid bulk hazmat space. So it's a very small niche of the registered DOT carriers. It gets very competitive. You know to get those those. those assets. And for us, being able to know who you're talking to, for us as well as the carrier, putting a face and a name, it's almost like you're talking to a friend, you know, or you're talking to somebody you've done business with and you know who they are, you know about their family, and you see them on a regular basis. And it makes it easier to get that asset when other companies, our competitors, aren't necessarily investing in the carriers. And so when it's that choice, do they make the short-term chase after rate and a higher margin load? Or do they say, you know what, this has been a long-term partnership for half a decade. These guys were always here consistently paying, you know, a small smidgen of inflation every year, even in deflationary markets. You know what, we're going to give these guys the asset and it protects our customers and our suppliers. So that's why we make the investment.

Speaker 3 [2:58] Talk more about why it's even more important, so important with Baltic Chemical and It's a bit of a different market than regular van truckload.

Speaker 2 [3:08] Yeah. You know, coming from the CPG space, you know, prior to my time at Univar, I can tell you trying to procure capacity in the liquid bulk space is a completely different animal. Most of the players are in that, you know, 10 to 50 asset range. And the commodities that we move, some are just standard steel drum tankers and you've got to worry about housing which are hazard placating, which limits the number of registered carriers, of course, first and foremost. But then as you start to get into your more specialty chemicals like hydrochloric acid, which requires a rubber-lined 53-foot tanker, you know, these are exceptionally expensive assets that require, you know, high utilization rates and require consistent business. And a lot of companies don't want to make that investment because the market is cyclical. You might have a boom year, and then, you know, 2 years of a bust year, you know, 2 bust years in a row. And that's very difficult to pay back the investment on that asset. So for us, you know, that's one more reason why we wanna invest and we wanna make sure that, hey, we're treating our carriers as best as we possibly can and inviting them here.

Speaker 3 [4:13] Right.

Speaker 2 [4:14] And it does, it does give us a bit of a competitive advantage when we're going out to our customers. And you know what? Everybody's competing for that asset. We have a large private fleet. They are fantastic for us, you know, but about 50% of our volume still moves carrier. And we do that by design.

Speaker 3 [4:31] Yeah.

Speaker 2 [4:32] So we can reach out and touch, you know, customers that are outside our normal delivery— excuse me— delivery zones. And the carriers, you know, that we do do business with love our modding.

Speaker 3 [4:42] I really have always believed this, and the older I get, further I get in my career, you really do prefer like actually having a face to put with the person that you're working with. Sure, wholeheartedly. Absolutely. And meeting them in person makes a big difference, especially When exceptions and issues arise, they're going to, right? That you have someone you can have a conversation with and you know well enough to be transparent and talk about the path forward and the solution instead of an email that just lays out the problem, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 [5:12] I want to pick up on that because the intentionality was so easy to lose in this market that we've had the last 3 or 4 years. How have you been able with your organization to keep That relationship, like, hey, regardless of win or lose, I'm here because I want a good relationship, an outstanding one where it's business, but also there's a care at the end of the day as well.

Speaker 2 [5:33] So I'm going to give a shout out to those in small parcel where I started my career 20-something years ago. Tell me a time you guys or anybody in the audience, you've ever seen a UPS driver outside of brown.

Speaker 3 [5:46] Outside of?

Speaker 2 [5:47] Outside of wearing brown.

Speaker 1 [5:48] Outside of wearing the color brown. I can't name a time. Zero.

Speaker 2 [5:51] Never exists, right? And that perception, you know, as a customer leaves you to like, oh, okay, you notice that. And then you start to talk to the individual and it's the same driver on that same route over and over and over again. Now, it's not to say that the other LTL— excuse me, small parcel providers aren't good, but there's that consistency of the same driver on the same route, always in uniform. And you begin to establish that rapport and you just begin to trust when you ship that package, you know, that contract or whatever it is that you're shipping through UPS, you know it's going to deliver. We try to do the same thing here where we don't view our carrier partners as anything other than an extension of our brand.

Speaker 3 [6:34] Okay.

Speaker 2 [6:34] We don't want our customers or suppliers to say, ah shoot, they sent in a carrier as opposed to Rob McRae, the delivery driver for Univar. We want them to say, Oh yeah, it's James. You know, he's with you know Univar Solutions, or it's Rob. He's with you. They don't need to know whether it's a private fleet or a carrier. So we intentionally partner. Yes, we have some partnerships with very large carriers, but you can see by the crowd behind us, we go after these small mom-and-pop companies. We want to do business. We want to be leveraged with them. We want to be an important part. We visit their terminals. We want to talk to the drivers. We encourage the drivers to tell us. Do you see opportunities here? Yes or no? And if so, what are they? Or is something, you know, dangerous that we need to be aware of? It's all about being the extension of the brand, and that's helped us grow share.

Speaker 3 [7:21] I think that is wonderful. You'd be surprised by how many executives on either side of the fence, right, that especially shippers will not actually, when they make it to your levels, sir, they've not spoken to a driver.

Speaker 2 [7:35] It's critical.

Speaker 3 [7:37] When I was doing dedicated operations and I would go on site, occasionally I would see that in the office there'd be a sign that drivers can use the bathroom. Like crazy things, right? And so actually understanding that drivers' lives and what they're doing and then being able to put a face to you guys—

Speaker 2 [7:53] Absolutely.

Speaker 3 [7:53] And the load that they're delivering makes them bought in and they wanna provide you a better service. So I think that's amazing. So on that topic, So let's talk like very tactically and practically for our viewers who also want to learn from this. What does it mean to you to be a Shipper of Choice? And what are some tactical things that you do that make an employee at the top?

Speaker 2 [8:16] It means the world to me, you know, and, you know, don't let this raise the ego, but being the first chemical distributor to receive, you know, the Freightways Shipper of Choice Award was an enormous accomplishment. And truth be told, we did not seek this whatsoever years ago when we were initially awarded. It just kind of happened. And I would tell the audience, that's the best way to go about it. Don't try to get it. Just, just do the right things and follow the right processes. And I will say there is a process. This is a recipe. This isn't, you know, it's a little bit of art to it, but it's— it starts with hiring the right folks, right? They got to have the right attitude and the right aptitude. And part of that Part of that attitude is, you know, being a service-minded and servant leadership approach and being okay talking to a blue-collar employee, wanting to engage the drivers, not just the sales rep at these companies, wanting to go out and meet the carriers at the facilities, not just bringing them here. Then it's all right, build the route guide. How are you building that route guide? Is it just cost-focused or is it service-focused? Talk to your commercial counterparts as a shipper. I need to know what lanes I can have a little bit of flexibility on service and chase some price. That price or that margin I then use to offset and buy a lane that I need to have higher service on, right? And then consciously choose those service providers. There's a stick to it as well, a discipline. If a carrier is not performing at the level you need to, you need to have the heart-to-heart conversation. We do a rack and stack if a carrier gets off track. We give them 90 days to kind of get that positive glide path back. If they don't, thanks for playing. It's been wonderful. We'll move you on. But directionally, it's long-term partnerships and it's partnerships with people that we want to do business with, people that take care of our customers. We want to grow with them. You look around this room, some of these carriers in this room had never moved the hazardous material before, but had worked with me at a previous employer, and they've now been over here for almost 6 years. they just want to follow. And, you know, a shout out to Shelley Simpson and JB Hunt. You know, I was a young transport manager and did a walkthrough of their facility. This is many years ago. And there's a sign down there over the owner's head and it says, good business partners attract good business partners. And I have my career tried to emulate that saying, that little quote, because it works. You want to do business with people that want to do business with you.

Speaker 3 [10:42] I'll also say I love the racket stack. Like, well, I was over customer success for a long time and it creates like inherent competition. You'll want to see yourself at the bottom of the rack and stack like guys to service and 10 to 30 seconds, all the things that your shipper is cranky about. So I love a rack and stack.

Speaker 1 [11:01] I agree. Now, a question for you, because chemical is its own ballgame.

Speaker 2 [11:06] It is.

Speaker 1 [11:07] It's like I'm a sports guy, so it's like the Euroball versus The NBA. Yeah. How do you get success like this given chemical and just what comes with that? Because there's so many different things, so many variables that can go left.

Speaker 2 [11:23] I mean, you have to be good before you can be great.

Speaker 1 [11:26] When you step into the chemical space, like, you have to be here. There's so little room for error.

Speaker 2 [11:33] Turn around, look at the employees that are here. Go on LinkedIn, look at who's working at Univar Solutions. Univar is a wonderful place. It is a— if you're a logistician, it is a cornucopia of logistics. We've got air freight, we've got river barges, we've got ocean vessels. We service the North Slip of Alaska. We've got liquid tank, we've got LTL, we've got package truckload, we've got rail, we've got 3,500 railcars that we like to We do business across every mode of transportation. I don't know if we have a mule and a donkey somewhere, but we might, right? But it attracts logisticians and we have a very strict vetting process of who we hire. And again, we target folks that have the right aptitude, which is first and foremost, are you data-centric? Can you understand data? Can you apply it? Do you understand math? But are you a people person and can you also have good emotional intelligence and engage? With not just your other supply chain folks, but cross-functionally, right, with our commercial partners or, you know, PMM folks that are purchasing from our suppliers. And then lastly, it's that attitude. Do you have that drive? Do you love logistics? Like, is this what you want to do as a career? And if you have that passion and you have the aptitude to go along with it, this is a great fit. And fundamentally, that's how we get the recipe to work that we're doing. We hire good cooks and the good cooks Our fantastic logisticians.

Speaker 1 [12:59] That is one of the best answers. Julia, I'm so sorry. That was such a good answer.

Speaker 3 [13:02] It is so great. Yeah, I was just thinking, like, not only do I want to work— like, if I'm watching, do I want to work with Univar? Now I want to work for Univar. Okay, so obviously great event, really great attendance. What kind of feedback do you hope to get out of today's event?

Speaker 2 [13:18] First and foremost, I want to know if the folks like Chattanooga. I love it here. One of my favorite cities.

Speaker 1 [13:22] Best city in the world.

Speaker 2 [13:23] Yeah, shout out to my son in Macaulay. He's getting ready to start his freshman year there. So we're genuinely attracted to the market here. It's a growing town with a lot of logistics in it. Yeah. So, so first, first and foremost, we want to make sure our carrier partners are okay coming here as opposed to Houston or as opposed to Chicago, where historically we've done it. The next thing is, you know, we want to understand what's driving the lower load tender acceptance As you heard me in my opening remarks, that is an issue for us. It's the leading indicator of service, right? Service for our customers is our differentiator. It's, it's our lifeblood. Without, without a product to sell, right, and without a customer to purchase that, there is no logistics department, right? No, this is— we are not the tail that wags the dog. No, the dog tells us where to go. We have to approach the business through that kind of that, that lens. So for us, It really is putting a name to the face. It's understanding what are the issues. And you've heard it, you know, driver issues and capacity is becoming an issue again. It really is. After a couple of years of not being an issue or factor, it's definitely an issue. And the fuel surcharges, it is hyperinflated right now. And dynamic isn't the right adjective to use. I mean, it's, it's erratic right now where the fuel prices are going. We have to do better. You saw that we adjusted, you know, our fuel surcharge policy and our other asset sales. To try and accommodate the feedback that we are getting, we use this event to solicit additional feedback how we can become a better partner. Because at the end of the day, when we are competing with our you know competitors for that asset to deliver to our customer, we want the trucking company, that carrier, to give us that capacity. And when that happens on a consistent basis, the customer says to our one of our competitors, you know what? We know we can get a truck from Univar Solutions. We're going to shift the load over here. And now we grow share. With more share means more profit. More profit means we can pay more to our carriers. And it's that flywheel effect. So any feedback we can get from our carrier partners to help continue that is gold to us.

Speaker 3 [15:28] Sorry, I have a million more questions. So Malcolm, you're going to have to just interrupt me if you're going to want to get one in.

Speaker 1 [15:33] All good.

Speaker 3 [15:34] All good. Do you think having a competitive fleet helps you better understand your providers?

Speaker 2 [15:41] Yes, and I think managing on the private fleet side makes you a better logistician as well. And we've got a very kind of defined process in how we go about, you know, our progression through the logistics ranks here. You got to know the systems first. You really do. You know, the best private fleet folks, you know, start off as good planners, know how to procure freight and understand, you know, exactly how it flows through that system. They make the best private fleet managers typically. They understand the blue collar. They understand what the fleet drivers are impacted. And then we get into carrier procurement.

Speaker 3 [16:16] You mentioned tight tender rejections, or higher tender rejections, fantastic. So because of full demand, your read on the market currently, do you think the rest of 2026, 2027 should look like?

Speaker 2 [16:28] Man, I am not Nostradamus. I don't know. What I believe, this is just Rob McRae's perspective, I believe it's going to be tight. I believe it's going to be carrier favorable for the balance of the year. You know, anybody's guess is as good as mine. But, you know, the geopolitical events that are going on right now seem like they're going to kind of continue on at least through the midterms. That basically puts you into Q4. Now you're rolling out the end of the year. The $10 million question to me is, does this continue on through the first half of next year? The higher and erratic fuel prices, does that continue on? And if it does, what does that do to the large shippers as they're posting Q1 and Q2 earnings and they're taking price to try and accommodate all of the supply chain hikes that they're seeing? And then ultimately, what does that do longer term for the marketplace?

Speaker 3 [17:16] Yeah, I think it's going to remain tight. I just, I don't see capacity entering. Yeah.

Speaker 1 [17:21] No, no. Rob, is there anything that we need to be aware of? I mean, about this event, anything you'd like to plug about just how awesome this is? I mean, the West, it's jumping behind us right now.

Speaker 2 [17:31] You can see it. You know, it speaks for itself. We've got a fantastic transportation, you know, team here. I would tell you, if you're, you know, a carrier and you're looking for a place to potentially get into, reach out to me, reach out to one of my teams and, you know, make your sales pitch. And if there's a need, we'll absolutely squeeze you in.

Speaker 3 [17:51] Okay, so I have one final question that I can't not ask. I know you got a hard out. But you hear from a lot of our customers, you see that many shippers have never been through this sort of market cycle before. They've never been through a carrier's market.

Speaker 2 [18:07] Yeah.

Speaker 3 [18:07] So how do you train your team to deal with Adam Hibbett?

Speaker 2 [18:12] It's like running a marathon. It truly is. It's not just difficult for the carriers when you're on our side and you truly are trying to maintain that partnership relationship. It is exceptionally difficult to continue to pay higher rates and to do what's right by the carriers when your finance team, your organization is desperately squeezing you for additional capital. It becomes very difficult. So again, it's like running a marathon. We need the market to swing from time to time just as much as the carriers do.

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