Managing freight requires a lot of communication from multiple sources – not all of which are reliable. Considering the technological age we are in, we can increase reliability, visibility, communication, speed of work and prevent losses from happening. How, you might ask?
I worked as a freight broker at Echo. We were armed with great technology and a strong culture and a high-level of communication . Moving freight at Echo for our customers was incredibly easy. It opened my eyes to the mostly unnoticed but raging river of freight moving around us every day. What took time to realize are all the intricacies and complexities behind the scenes negatively impacting a shipment.
Customers need answers on when their freight will arrive. Securing the appropriate equipment for a load is not where the job ends. Freight brokers and Operation Managers spend hours multi-tasking for a wide variety of clientele. Project crews waiting for heavy equipment, just-in-time loads, assembly line commodities, temperature-controlled or freeze protection, fragile freight, consignees on standby, call prior to delivery all need prompt communication in order to keep their operations running smoothly and according to plan.
At times, I felt helpless when looking for the status of freight I managed. I was in an office, hundreds or thousands of miles away. I was unaware whether the load had been picked up, stalled, delivered, damaged, kept at the right temperature. Brokers, Dispatchers, and Shippers are not able to get direct access to what’s happening in the trailer unless they are taking advantage of technology to go deeper than just the word of another person.
Similar to pilots flying over terrain, we do not expect them to look down and surmise the elevation; they rely on an altimeter to communicate the altitude. If you are not where the freight is i.e. ELD, cell phone, office far away, you cannot rub a magic ball to get a dependable answer on location, temperature of freight, or know if any significant g-force shock has occurred. Technology is available so you can set it and forget it. Notifications can be quickly sent to all the appropriate parties for all of these unforeseen circumstances.
Add value to your service
Logistics Service Providers can provide more value by leveraging technology available today. For example, instead of calling drivers to check location, devices can relay this information in real-time. Instead of using the ELD to provide the location of the freight, an inexpensive device can communicate where the freight itself is (as opposed to information about the driver or tractor).
Instead of relying on someone else’s word to tell your customer a shipment was delivered, a device can automatically alert all relevant parties of delivery.
Instead of noticing retroactively frozen goods were not kept at the right temperature, technology can give proactive notice when the temperature begins dropping.
Instead of adding another burden on the driver to notify prior to delivery, geofencing tools are available that can be placed on the pallet.
Instead of wondering where excessive force has damaged freight, we have tools available to measure g-force and communicate when and where this event happened.
Pallet-level Intelligence™
We started Delivery Chain to create innovative tools by leaders in technology and logistics. If you lack visibility, connectivity and ultimately the truth, as a Shipper, Logistics Service Provider, or a Carrier, you will be interested in what we are developing. If you want a reliable resource to add value to your service, stay in touch with DeliveryChain.io as we roll out tools designed specifically for you.