Digital Initiatives to Adopt to Keep Our Haulage Business Competitive
by James P. Outreach & PR ExecutiveOver the last year COVID has brought a mix of
fortunes for road transport operators. Some sectors have thrived while others
have fluctuated.
RHA had produced a survey in 2020, that revealed 73% of haulage providers’
cashflow had significantly decreased in the first national lockdown. A
startling 13% had no cashflow at all. A further 83% said their volume of work
had significantly reduced, with 22% reporting no work.
Food-related
sectors such as refrigerated and ambient distribution experienced a surge in
demand for delivery services, operating at a sustained ‘Christmas-peak’ level.
A steep rise in home shopping resulted in a boom for online retailers and home
delivery sectors. Other sectors such as events, manufacturing, and construction
have faced the stop-start chaos of multiple lockdowns.
Finding
and winning new work and reacting to an ever-changing, uncertain market
environment during this time has made being a haulage operator tougher than
ever.
To keep
wheels turning, hauliers have had to adapt quickly and flexibly to protect
their workforce, keep cash flowing and win new work. Firms such as Tapfreight have implemented contactless PODs using Manifest app
technology to avoid handling customers’ paperwork. Others like Brit-Pol have invested in new
technology, while BJS
Haulage has seen the opportunity to diversify into new markets.
While the
COVID situation has undoubtedly improved since mid-2020 and we’re starting to
see the green shoots of confidence return, we’re still in a period of flux.
Whether it’s COVID, Brexit, or changing regulations, continued disruption has
put hauliers’ staff and systems to the test and operators are relying on
technology now more than ever to keep wheels turning and win new work.
Today,
tech-savvy shippers are demanding greater value and transparency and the
haulage sector is more competitive than ever.
How can
hauliers continue to adapt to achieve what is required of them? The answer may
lie in digital. Here, we look at how adopting digital initiatives can help you
win work and drive customer satisfaction to keep your business ahead of the
competition.
Giving shippers what they need
Shippers
demand cost-effective, punctual delivery services with convenient ordering,
safe and environmentally friendly transportation, up-to-the-minute visibility
of delivery progress, confirmation of delivery and accurate billing.
How do
you provide all of these things and be more competitive when your manual
paper-based processes or ageing legacy systems aren’t up to the task?
Transport
management systems are designed to support hauliers and their customers, simplify key
processes, and make managing your operations easier. Digitising processes can
help you deliver a seamless customer experience and win more business by
meeting your customers’ need with less effort.
You can
make it easier for shippers to place bookings with you by automatically
transferring jobs from their system to your own. This reduces duplication and
preserves data accuracy. Then, as jobs are underway, customers can view
progress online and download ePODs relating to their jobs without having to
contact you for updates. They can also receive notifications as deliveries are
made. Even KPI reports can be produced and emailed to your customers
automatically to demonstrate how you’re meeting your agreed service-level
targets.
It’s
important to note that transport management technology is not just available to
operators running large fleets. There is a choice of transport management solutions available to suit all
sizes of fleet and budget. Technology makes it possible to meet the demands of
your business and customers, whichever sector of the industry you operate in.
Manage order to invoice in one system
One
reason many businesses struggle to keep up with increasing demands is an
inability to manage their fleet and driver availability using paper-based
processes.
As a
result, planning and effectively using your resources is difficult and
error-prone. If your business is relying on paper or spreadsheet-based job
management, it’s difficult to get a real-time view of your capacity. This makes
it hard to plan additional jobs or to adapt quickly to changing situations
throughout the day.
Implementing transport planning software will bring all of your
siloed data together, giving you an essential level of real-time visibility.
You’ll have one view of your business and a standardised way of working,
wherever and whenever you work.
You’ll
not only be able to see your customers’ information and driver and vehicle
schedules, but also deliveries in progress. By bringing all this data together,
you’ll have a bird’s-eye view of your completed and forthcoming jobs.
Therefore, you’ll gain an understanding of how and where you can fit new work
in and, importantly, if your delivery plans are realistic. With transport
management technology such as Mandata, you can validate plans before your
wheels start turning to give yourself the best chance of arriving safely on
time and meeting your customer expectations.
Provide live visibility to staff and customers
It’s all
well and good bringing together information about your past and upcoming
deliveries, but what about the ones that are in progress right now? Are they on
time or at risk of missing a timed delivery? Can you provide customers with an
up-to-date ETA online, or are they constantly calling you for updates?
Track and
trace was once the domain of home delivery firms, but now it’s more accessible
to haulage firms. Consumer demand has driven a requirement for real-time
information and a seamless experience as standard. Mandata transport management solutions come with the flexibility
of integrated vehicle or smartphone tracking. This not only gives you
visibility of your in-progress deliveries, but you can also share this
information with your customers via your online customer portal and keep them
informed.
Work in collaboration, not isolation
Managing
sub-contractors is a real challenge for hauliers. Getting real-time job updates
from subbies so you can manage customer expectations is near impossible and
receiving timely PODs so you can get paid is an ongoing struggle.
There are
systems that support the seamless and paperless exchange of information between
haulage operators. The Subbie Portal provided by Mandata is a web application
that enables the prime haulier’s system to send jobs to a sub-contractor
electronically whilst maintaining visibility of jobs and receiving completed
ePODs. This means sub-contractors can be a seamless extension of the prime
haulier’s network.
Complete your order-to-cash cycle faster
The
order-to-cash cycle is notoriously slow in the road transport sector and
getting paid promptly is key to your operation. The two processes which slow
this down the most are proof of delivery and invoicing. Proof of delivery is
critical to your invoicing, but paper PODs are at risk of getting lost,
misplaced, or returned with missing information. This impacts your ability to
invoice quickly and accurately, and even when you get round to that, it can be
a time-consuming manual process. Matching up and scanning paperwork adds time
to the process.
The
Mandata TMS and accompanying app, Manifest, come with an electronic proof of delivery function which feeds
digital signatures or photos of paperwork back in real-time. This eliminates
the risks associated with paper PODs. What’s more, once this is recorded on the
app, invoices can be produced and PDF versions of the POD attached to the
customer’s invoice and emailed to your customer. One haulier saved over 30
hours per week by invoicing through Mandata.
Ready to find out more?
Many
market-leading businesses have turned to Mandata to streamline their processes.
Transport management technology helps businesses to adapt to ever-changing
customer demands and gain a competitive edge in a crowded market. For Derry
Refrigerated Transport, the solution provided the platform for the business’
recent and future growth, with the client agreeing its workload would have
been unmanageable without the solution.
Equally,
at a time of increased expectations, your thin margins may be further
decreased. Read about how Brit-Pol saw instant savings of 25% in invoicing and
processing after implementing Mandata TMS.
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Created on Mar 23rd 2021 10:27. Viewed 479 times.