The challenge of operational visibility

In recent years, rising consumer expectations and market volatility have put pressure on both B2C and B2B supply chains. Demand for more efficient delivery and increasing economic uncertainty require supply chain professionals in every industry to continually audit their processes and identify inefficiencies in order to stay competitive. 

Yet today, many businesses lose visibility of their freight as soon as a load leaves the docks. Incidentals are incurred without the ability to identify root cause. Operational issues often go unnoticed without a process for identifying patterns in problematic facilities. Key performance metrics including on-time pickup (OTP) and on-time delivery (OTD) are frequently inaccurate due to manual reporting. Carbon emissions go unchecked without an accurate approach for measuring their impact. And without consistent means for drivers to provide feedback, businesses have no way of knowing how to invest in a better delivery experience. 

The result? Inefficiencies that add up to millions of dollars in incidental overspend, tens of millions of pounds of wasteful carbon emissions from empty truck miles and driver dissatisfaction that leads to longer booking times and higher prices. 

Data and analytics provide a solution, they shed a light on hidden inefficiencies and arm logistics teams with insights to improve supply chain operations. Gathering this data at scale requires a different type of delivery management system, one that’s rooted in technology and offers the tools and services to provide visibility into every step of the delivery process. 

Looking back on the year that was 2020, businesses have jumped through hoop after hoop to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, conquering a surging demand in the panic buying days of the crisis, encountering record freight rates when the trucking market rebounded and navigating an uncertain economy all year long. These challenges, combined with 2020’s volatility, have influenced our predictions for 2021 and beyond.

2021 Australian logistics predictions

Confidence

Businesses have to stay nimble to adjust to the new customer’s preferences and government mandates. In addition, with ever evolving COR compliance, driver and vehicle safety requirements, predictive modeling tools and the right software enable businesses to think through potential issues in advance and maintain not only operations, but also quality services if unexpected trouble arises. In the long run, this efficiency helps businesses to be confidently prepared whilst able to stay nimble and ultimately competitive.

On demand delivery

On demand delivery means a company’s supply chain can scale based on demand without requiring capital investment. Companies that implement digital logistics processes, along with new technologies, can expand and shrink delivery activities as needed, achieving optimal outcomes, such as right-sizing inventories and making the best use of resources (warehouses, shipping containers, trucking methods, etc.). With crowdsourced driver apps such as Subtrux Marketplace, companies can now offer 2-4 hour same day deliveries without having to expand their own fleet and without losing control of the last mile transparency and exceptional customer experience they pride themselves on.

Visibility

Companies have a number of reasons to increase supply chain transparency: Complying with government regulations, communicating shipment status with customer delivery timelines, tracing lost or missing packages, understanding overall supply chain impact and fostering sustainability, to name a few. By knowing the processes of every link in the chain and communicating it ensure businesses can address any hiccups that crop up and implement best practices.

In addition, with the ever growing concern around carbon emissions and sustainability, the transport sector is seen as a sizable contributor to climate change. Being responsible for your impact is key to further building a relationship with your customers and can also provide an opportunity to back load empty vehicles maximising fuel consumption and offsetting carbon.

Clarity

Making decisions in real time is essential when it comes to mitigating risk and maximising profits. Knowing the cost per delivery and cost per delivery item can completely transform a company’s view of their freight and delivery pricing model and create the opportunity to view where the organisation is hemorrhaging money and enable new alternative strategies to be considered in real time.  

Supply Chain Integrations

Lower costs and the promise of more customer support are two perceived benefits of partnering with third parties. With these perks in mind, businesses are contracting out supply chain processes to external firms. As a result, supply chains will have more components in the future that will need to provide further transparency. To prevent logistics processes from getting too complex and managing partnerships with ease, businesses will leverage up-and-coming digital integrations to enable both organisations to speak to each other in real time to provide up to the minute information on the whereabouts of all freight movements and costs.

Future proofing your freight and delivery needs requires the ability to step into the digital age with a system that fully integrates all aspects of delivery and supply chain management. Are you confident that your current delivery management system is providing all this and more? If not, contact Subtrux for a free demo of their Delivery Management System today to see where your business could go tomorrow.