Capacities and Benefits of Shipment Tracking
More and more businesses are investing in better tracking of their shipments. However, still today many remain unconvinced and reject the practice. Knowing the capacities and benefits of shipment tracking is essential before deciding whether or not to invest in this field. If you dismiss the usefulness of tracking your deliveries, you will lose out on many beneficial effects. On the other hand, rushing in without knowing the basics of how shipment tracking works can quickly become overwhelming.
Better route optimization
Route optimization is one of the best examples of how the capacities and benefits of shipment tracking shine. Professional logistics providers need to work on optimizing their shipment times constantly. Being able to track shipments effectively massively helps with this. After all, computers are not perfect at their job, even with all the GPS and route prediction apps currently available. They can offer some predictions and offer quality advice on optimal routes. But, live support personnel can often catch onto major highway blockages faster and alert their drivers who are about to encounter those sections to switch routes. This will, of course, greatly help optimize efficiency and eliminate problems that blocked routes would otherwise cause. By mapping potential routes, you also increase your future options since you will always know the ideal way to redirect your fleet and avoid trouble spots.
Quickly catching and eliminating delays
Another way the capacities and benefits of shipment tracking show themselves is through catching and eliminating delays. If a truck stops moving, it is relatively straightforward to notice. Then, you can contact the driver and see what's wrong. After all, vehicle troubles are one of the most common causes of logistics delays, and while it is best to work on preventing them, being able to respond quickly is just as valuable. One of your drivers can also suffer from a medical condition that forces them to stop. Noticing and trying to contact them, even if it fails, may be what saves the driver's life. Therefore, it's best to send someone there to check out the situation. Couple this with our previous mention of easier route mapping, and you would significantly reduce the chances of shipment delays.
It is much harder to misplace or lose shipments
It sounds like a ludicrous idea. After all, misplacing your shipment should be nearly impossible with all the checks in place to prevent such a thing. However, this does happen more often than you might think, especially if you count on third-party contractors to transport your shipment part of the way or leave the delivery entirely up to them. Third-party service providers do not have as good a grasp of the shipments they cover due to the sheer volume of their business, so accidents tend to occur much more frequently. Ultimately, it may be impossible to prevent such issues on your end. However, being able to track your shipment will allow you to locate and retrieve it quickly. This will at least spare you the expenses of entirely losing your goods and having to start the particular delivery from scratch. Lost or misplaced loads could also lead to penalties for failing to fulfill your contract in time.
Easy information management
Do not underestimate the importance of proper bookkeeping. You need to be able to access information about your current deliveries continually. The issues such as their current location, the speed of delivery, and the number of deliveries you need to complete are all essential. Using shipment tracking, you will always be aware of your current resources. This will allow you to optimize your deliveries further. Knowing exactly how long until a particular truck finishes its current assignment will let you redirect them to the next one immediately. Additionally, knowing the exact numbers on how long a delivery route takes will let you better predict the number you can take on without failing your obligations. All of this is imperative for running your business more efficiently. Only by making the best possible use of your resources would you be able to grow as a business gradually.
Provide a better customer experience
The capacities and benefits of shipment tracking are not only felt on your end. There is also a significant benefit for your customers: peace of mind. As the experts from Strong-Ass Movers like to advise, you should never underestimate the importance of keeping a customer happy. And the one thing which makes people or even businesses reluctant to trust a logistics or delivery company is the lack of assurances that the delivery will be done within the specified time frame. Or if ordering online, if the order is even legitimate and on its way. For this reason, being able to track a shipment and share that data with the customer is invaluable. Your customer will personally be able to track the progress of the deliveries, which will enhance their trust in you and their willingness to hire you again.
Optimize warehouse use
The final way in which the capacities and benefits of shipment tracking shine are by allowing you to use your warehouses better. Warehouse space is something every business dealing with any logistics desperately needs. Being able to guarantee safe storage for your goods is, after all, invaluable. The benefit of shipment tracking in this field reflects a previously mentioned benefit: better coordination of your truck fleet. If you know when new shipments are coming in and when people are coming to pick up currently stored goods, you can make the utmost use of your storage space. This is doubly important when mentioning the role of cold chain logistics in the pharmaceutical industry. Such goods always need optimal conditions; leaving them outside temperature-controlled storage can ruin them. Knowing exactly when your trucks are coming will let you load them up without this risk.
In closing...
The capacities and benefits of shipment tracking are now plainly laid out for you to see.
As you can tell, not investing in tracking your shipments is a colossal mistake. You would be missing out on an opportunity to improve your business by a significant margin!
