2 IMPORTANT T’S OF LOGISTICS – TRANSPORTATION & TRACKING
The most important asset of a company is its product and the sale of the product to the customers. What lies between these two is the 2 important T’s of Logistics – Transportation & Tracking. Transportation simply means the movement of goods from one place to another. Tracking helps one gain visibility over this movement of products beyond the Company’s control zone. Thus, using the right combination of transportation & tracking can help optimize costs and make the best out of your business. Let us start exploring these two areas individually.
Transportation
Transportation is a stand-alone component of Logistics management. It needs its own manpower, planning, strategy, goal, and budget in order to keep the operational costs in control. And the first step towards transportation management is deciding on the strategy. The following are the most popular strategies for managing fleets for both, inbound & outbound transportation.
Own/Private fleet
In order to gain complete control over the supply chain and transport operations, some shippers tend to have their own fleets to transport products. High-value product or brand companies opt for this choice as they have the resources to manage fleet operations. Pepsico, Frito-lay operates the second-largest fleet in the US.
Outsourced fleet with leasing
For companies who want the exclusivity of the fleet without getting into its handling & maintenance can opt for the option of leasing. This option is perfect for companies that produce and dispatch a higher number of items on a daily basis and who have a clear mindset of not venturing into a logistics company.
Outsourcing fleet on a contract basis
Another option similar to leasing is having a contract with the logistics service provider on the basis of mutually agreeable terms like a share of the business, location of services, cost of trips, etc. This helps companies save on logistics costs by paying only for the pre-decided factors of the services they use.
Approaching Market vehicles
If a company doesn’t want to get into any kind of contract for transportation with LSPs, they can opt-in for market vehicles as and when the need arises. Using this cost-saving strategy may backfire due to market fluctuations influenced by external factors such as government regulations, fuel prices, and peak season demands, resulting in increased expenses.
Combination of these
All the above-mentioned strategies have their pros and cons (described in the table below). Depending on the business goals and policies, a company can choose to go with a combination of any two, three, or all four of these.
Tracking
Technology advancements and product demands require end-to-end logistics visibility and control. Thus, tracking has a significant influence on deciding on the right transportation strategy for your business. A proactive tracking solution helps companies identify and fix problems at the source before they impact business costs.
Benefits of a tracking solution-
- Real-time location of shipments in transit
- Timely updates of delays/break-downs
- Help monitor and optimize the routes
- Minimizes theft risk
- Monitor driver performance on factors like overspeeding, timely deliveries and shortest routes
- Improve fuel cost efficiency by monitoring routes followed
- Record trip-wise information
- Quick decisions in case of any breakdowns, road-blocks or other unforeseen situations
- Maintain reports and dashboards to monitor vendor performance
- Improved trust with customers
- Increased customer satisfaction due to timely deliveries
- Complete visibility to all the stakeholders
Elixia’s solution for transportation & tracking
Whether you have a private fleet, an outsourced one, or a mix of both, Elixia’s Transport Allocation System can help you manage your orders, perform allocations, negotiate with the vendor, maintain tracking details, and record the status of shipments at all times. The product also helps you extract past performance reports of vendors/drivers/trips. This further enables you to rank and analyze your contract terms with the transportation firm.
The scope of tracking and tracking solutions varies with the kind of transportation business one selects. Elixia provides a wide range of products that can help you track your shipments in transit irrespective of your preferred strategy/norms of transportation. Here’s a brief overview of Elixia’s product mix to help you track & trace your shipments.
Elixia Tracking – GPS-based, SIM card-based, and mobile tracking solutions to have end-to-end visibility & control over your vehicles in transit. This helps you track and trace your shipments 24*7 without hardware installation, smartphone, or internet connection needed. The shipper can choose the frequency of location alerts and only pay as per the usage.
Elixia Allocation – This module improves the transparency, lead time, and efficiency of the transporter allocation process by logically allocating your indents to the most suitable transporter using predefined algorithms or a real-time vendor auction platform.
