When you’re a cargo owner, shipper, or 3PL, you know losses come with the territory. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try to minimize them. In recent years, shippers have come to rely on electronic logging devices (ELD) to provide insights on where their cargo is, but the results are far from complete, and don’t offer the kind of pallet-level intelligence™ that lets you know the status of your shipment. This is why advanced asset tracking has emerged as the best solution in the business.
Let’s look at the many ways we might lose a pallet, and what you can do about it.
The Lost-Pallet Problem
When your cargo is traveling long distances, it’s bound to run into a few potential obstacles along the way. A pallet might be lost within a distribution center. Or it could be loaded onto the wrong truck, train, or ship. It might be misidentified somewhere along its route and sent to the wrong place. Or it might be held up by traffic or shipping delays.
You’ll also run into blind spots along your pallet’s route when you aren’t using advanced asset tracking. For instance, if you rely on ELD, you’re gaining absolutely zero insights on LTL shipments and, even worse, freight isn’t even in the tractor. Most 3PLs and shippers never really know where your pallet is when it’s in transit or if it has been transferred from truck to truck, or onto a train. Cargo owners and 3PLs are worried about their cargo. Delivery Chain delivers truth for cargo owners and 3PLs since their trackers are with the freight!
Damage is another kind of loss, and you won’t know when that’s happening, either, without pallet-level intelligence™. Again, since an ELD is located in the tractor, you won’t know if the trailer experiences any G-force bumps, or experiences dramatic temperature changes that can threaten sensitive cargo.
Some pallets, meanwhile, are lost to theft. In fact, the likelihood of this is growing ever greater, according to CargoNet, which reported a steep increase in cargo thefts in 2020, including a 23.2% increase year-over-year in Q3.
Advanced Asset Tracking to the Rescue
An asset tracker is designed to stay with your cargo every step of the way, providing pallet-level intelligence™ in real time that helps you know not only where your pallet is, but whether it’s experienced any potential threats or damage.
For instance, with advanced asset tracking, you’ll be notified immediately when your freight has pierced a geofence, experiences a G-force impact, or encounters a temperature change. This way, you can contact the local authorities in the event of a theft if needed or have a call in to the driver immediately to ask them to check in on the status of your pallet. Having insight and data will always be more advantageous than not having it. And in those cases when the damage has already been done, you’ll know exactly when and where it happened, making it easier to file successful insurance claims and recoup your investment.
And because your asset tracker stays with your pallet no matter what truck, train, or ship it’s traveling on, you’ll always know where your cargo is. In fact, with Delivery Chain, you can pre-program key waypoints along your route so you’ll know whether your cargo is where it’s supposed to be, when it’s supposed to be. That way, if it goes off-track or gets delayed, you’ll know a lot sooner.
An asset tracker staying with the pallet means you can often track the location of a stolen pallet and coordinate with local law enforcement to recover it.
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Every cargo owner or shipper needs to confront the lost-pallet problem. Luckily, there’s a solution. Get in touch with Delivery Chain today.