For many years, price has been the key factor in the procurement of logistics and transport services. The existence of a highly atomized and heterogeneous sector encourages this belie But end-to-end visibility in road transport has been gaining a lot of weight as a competitive feature within companies.
Little by little, logistics and transportation activities have become a commodity, a task that provides little value in view of the little differentiation offered by companies in a highly fragmented and competitive market.
The evolution of the economy and the sector itself in the last years of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century have contributed to this perception, as the economy reached an advanced degree of globalization.
The abundant supply has meant that price has been the determining factor in contracting in the period between the two centuries. However, since the middle of this decade, it seems as if the tables have turned.
Placing supply chain management at the center of the business strategy of large multinationals has been a trend that has subsequently spread to other companies.
In this new framework, logistics activities have been transformed from being a simple cost center to become a crucial element for managing inventories and adapting production to demand, as demonstrated in advanced stress flow logistics models.
Thus, logistics and transportation become elements that, in addition to goods movement services, also contribute significant volumes of information and indicators with multiple implications for the production and supply of goods.
50% of logistics and transportation companies to have visibility systems by 2023
A recent Gartner report, titled ‘How to Assess the Benefits and Return on Investment of a Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platform’ points out the benefits of visibility technology from the point of view of transportation and logistics companies.
First, Gartner experts point out that end-to-end visibility improves customer service as the most tangible factor it can bring.
In addition, the report also highlights that visibility improves collaboration capabilities and utilization of available capacity, both equipment and personnel.
Similarly, visibility has great capabilities to maximize driving times as well as vehicle lifetimes, resulting in significant improvements in the sustainability of logistics and transport operations.
Finally, proper use of visibility tools enhances personnel safety and employee satisfaction with their jobs, which, in turn, leads to improvements in employee efficiency.
However, the report points out that visibility brings more benefits if its integration is done from an integral business perspective, with the idea of offering a return on investment that can be between eight and twelve months.
In this same sense, technology is able to offer a fully customized service, which allows the investment to be adapted to the reality of each company and, above all, to its spending capacity.
Gartner estimates that by 2023, half of the world’s logistics and transportation companies will have invested in real-time traceability systems to gain a competitive advantage and survive in an atomized market.
Towards a more technified service
Preparing for an environment in which transportation companies will provide their customers with more than just moving freight is essential.
To provide this added value, having the right technology means a competitive advantage that can translate into access to better contracts and new customers, with contained costs, impeccable service and optimized profitability, in an industry where margins are very tight.
Moreover, doing so from an integral and business perspective is fundamental to have an advantage that allows differentiating services from other competitors and with an adjusted and effective investment.
In this area, FIELDEAS Track and Trace offers visibility software that takes a holistic business view.
The business vision is focused on developing the necessary capabilities for the software to be fully and easily integrated into the various IT tools of any company.
This is the only way to take advantage of the full potential offered by technology by unifying all the information on a single platform, thus facilitating the tracking of shipments and avoiding duplication of information that can lead to errors.
In addition, FIELDEAS Track and Trace‘s ability to integrate into any IT system enables it to provide full traceability of services in real time, a demand that is becoming more and more frequent among customers.
This achieves all of the benefits outlined in the Gartner report for visibility systems in logistics and transportation operations.
Firstly, customer service is improved by providing them with information that is relevant and appropriate to their needs, with indicators that make it possible to evaluate the service provided.
Then, the comprehensive visibility from a business perspective that Fieldeas Track&Trace proposes allows to enhance, thanks to its integration capabilities, the collaboration with other actors in the supply chain, a trend that is becoming more and more established at a time marked by the healthcare crisis.
Similarly, the software also provides information on personnel performance and equipment performance to improve the company’s profitability, adjust means and staff to the needs of each contract and facilitate the performance of the teams according to specific indicators
In short, FIELDEAS Track&Trace is a software that allows any logistics operator or transport company to sharpen its competitive edge with new capabilities, such as comprehensive visibility, that will enable it to stand out from its competitors.
