Poor logistics planning and decision-making can result in excessive expenditure, missed delivery deadlines and damaged goods. This being the case, optimizing operational efficiency and reducing logistics costs is among the top priorities for any logistics service provider that strives to sustain his or her business in a cutthroat freight environment.
The challenge
Given today’s high customer demands and a fluctuating global business climate, logistics managers are facing more challenges than ever before. Cutting transportation costs makes the top of the list, followed by:
- Meeting growing demands for on-time delivery
- Achieving end-to-end visibility across the supply chain
- Achieving customer satisfaction (through customized solutions and efficient and reliable services)
- Adhering to compliance and emission reduction regulations imposed by authorities
Additionally, staying on top of new advances in business processes has become an increasing challenge for logistics managers.
Consequently, a constant commitment to drive down costs is vital to survive in this hyper-competitive marketplace. To succeed, LSPs must rely on smart logistics management practices.
The solution
The only way to reduce logistics costs and supply chain expenditures is to utilize your resources in a better way. In other words, the energy use throughout the end-to-end journey of freight needs to be lowered. You can optimism the use of resources by:
- Filling trucks and other load units as much as possible, throughout the chain
- Seeking collaboration with other shippers (if your own volumes are not sufficient to fill load units)
- Increasing your volumes by improving customer satisfaction (using digital customer experience feedback)
- Increasing volumes by providing better visibility and transparency
- Using digital information to increase productivity in hubs