Traditional freight forwarding companies that are into the trucking business are not known for using innovative technology. Nevertheless, the challenges brought about by the pandemic along with the stiff competition from the multinationals have prompted traditional trucking companies to update their operations by embracing technologies that are key to the digital transformation of the supply chain industry. The application of technology in the road freight industry will allow the industry to survive in the face of competition and prepare itself better for any future disruption.
What does the digitization of the trucking industry encompass?
Trucking companies need to adapt themselves to the up and coming technologies for speedy and effective execution of the delivery process. More importantly, digitization is the first and foremost way to keep a laser focus on the customers. In addition, it can also help a great deal in keeping the employees more engaged and productive.
Digitization of the road freight industry primarily focuses on 4 major areas- automation and optimization of operation, expenditure optimization, network strategy and people management. Trucking companies are achieving automation and process optimization by means of online tools such as route optimization software and fleet management software. Supply chain predictive analytics tools can also help with online management of drivers and other service providers across the company. They can even help with predictive demand forecasting for additional workers during peak season, or task allocation for your crew. Moreover, the predictive maintenance planning systems can also help with optimizing expenses, workforce management, and end-to-end sourcing.
Route Optimization Software and Fleet Management Software: The two primary pillars of digitization in trucking
Route Optimization Software
Some of the obvious benefits of using route optimization software are cutting costs, saving time and using proper resources. Manual route planning entails a lot of error since it is not always possible to take everything into consideration while planning a route. Route planning systems, on the other hand, use complex algorithms for the optimization of the delivery routes. By planning the sequence of stops for the fleets they allow trucking companies to seamlessly conclude the delivery process. Additionally, while planning routes, the system takes various factors into account such as time frame, vehicle capacity, number of trucks in the fleet, weather conditions, historical traffic data and more. This allows the truck drivers to identify the fastest and most commercially viable route to reach the destination on time even with several stop-points.
Route planning systems identify the most cost-effective routes for delivery. Well-planned routes can help road freight forwarders to lower their fuel costs by up to 30%. The trucking companies catering to the e-commerce sector need to implement a route optimization system for multi-drop route planning. This in turn makes the delivery process way more cost-effective. Mismanagement of time when it comes to delivery can have a disastrous effect on the freight forwarding companies. Route planning software can help to deal with this problem by monitoring the actions of the truckers via GPS tracking and other methods. Real-time monitoring of the drivers allows the logistics managers to improve their productivity by taking necessary actions.
Fleet Management Software
Fleet Management Software that was once used mostly by logistics multinationals with a massive fleet of vehicles is now a fast-growing trend. Trucking companies of all sizes are utilizing these systems for more effective management of their nationwide delivery services while reducing their expenses at the same time. Fleet Management systems are used to monitor a fleet of vehicles with special focus on maintenance, budgeting, and safety. Managing a vast fleet of trucks can be a challenging and tedious task and therefore streamlining this job with the help of automation has become a very popular option for road freight companies.
Fleet Management Systems helps to improve driver safety by including a video recording feature. Simply put, it monitors the habits of the drivers to prevent accidents and enhance safety. Additionally, its in-built GPS tracking tools allow logistics managers to track every truck in real-time and even redirect them when needed. They also provide fleet managers with all the data required to create a preventive maintenance schedule for the fleet. It includes data such as miles travelled, fuel usage, engine hours etc that can be use to manage the maintenance cost of the fleet. Among other things, it also greatly helps to increase customer satisfaction by providing them with enhanced ETA accuracy via GPS tracking information.
Ways in which digitization has impacted the trucking industry
Enhanced integration
The use of software is helping logistics companies to integrate their trucking fleet into their logistics chain. This has become possible by the availability of real time data about location, shipping requirements, estimated time of arrival and other external information like weather or road conditions. All of these integrations make sure that the customers receive their products on time while receiving constant updates about their shipment status. They are giving more flexibility to every stakeholder in the shipping process who can now access the shipping data with just a few taps on their tablet or phone.
Greater level of utilization
Digitization of trucking has made way for greater level of asset utilization. It is eliminating the level of expenditure by minimizing empty run of vehicles. Moreover, technology is also allowing for better fuel utilization which is of primary importance in our time when prices of fuel are skyrocketing. Top-of-the-line supply chain platforms like SAP can even connect the trucking companies with forklift operators for moving particular items. Additionally they can also communicate required details like volume, weight or destination.
In other words, elimination of manual processes is allowing the fleet managers to better focus on other tasks like finding new channels of business expansion. Lastly, better asset utilization will also lower the chances of vulnerabilities and untoward incidents.
Enhanced productivity
Digitizing the trucking operations implies an enhancement of your staff in terms of management. It encourages your team to become more involved in the entire shipping process the natural outcome of which is improved customer experience. Furthermore, the emphasis placed on cost-cutting and safety awareness automatically results in greater productivity thereby leaving provisions for international growth of the trucking companies and enhanced workplace morale.