Logistics is the art and science of shifting products from supplier to customers. Shifting products from A to B might sound simple, but those in the logistics industry know there is a lot more to it. Those products might be electronics, white ware, toys, aggregate, timber, steel, or ambient, chilled or frozen food, but the journey is likely to require multiple stops, often under time pressure.
Organising the movement of products through manifests for third party logistics requires scheduling and allocation. In some freight firms many parts of this process are still performed manually, with all the associated extra time and people costs, plus a much higher rate of errors as a result of manual data entry. It all adds up to greater cost, something that the industry is very conscious of as firms are really feeling the squeeze.
Freight management solutions speed up the process, eliminate most errors and definitely reduce cost, but what if you’ve done this already and you’re still losing money? Just how much more efficient can you get?
Quite a lot actually, if you’re not yet using a GPS fleet management system.
Why GPS fleet management?
A good GPS fleet management system can be fully integrated into the freight management solution. The freight management system sends the manifest to the GPS system, which then sends it to the driver’s in-cab navigation terminal which gives directions on how to get there. Once delivery is completed, the driver enters this into the in-cab terminal, which sends the response back to the freight management system. If this is integrated to the accounting system, the delivery information can be sent through and an invoice generated automatically.
But that only scratches the surface “ there are several more questions to consider:
Are your drivers taking the best route?
Working out the most efficient way to get around the points on the delivery manifest without having to go back and forth saves a considerable amount of time and can increase the amount of drops/pickups a truck can manage in a day. It’s easy to integrate this with a route optimisation solution and a GPS fleet management system to work it out for you. You can also add in business rules, for example, avoiding the busiest times of day. Essentially, optimising the routes your drivers take allows them to do more work with less fuel in less time.
How do you pay your staff? Time at the wheel?
With ignition-on alerts, and second-by-second tracking of journeys, GPS fleet tracking gives you a very accurate picture of exactly how much time your drivers are at the wheel. If you integrate an online payroll system, you take the headaches away from calculating overtime rates and awards.
How much are you spending on maintenance and how often?
Underservicing a truck can result in damage to the engine, but over servicing means extra cost and more time off the road. Track your maintenance accurately in the system so you’re doing just enough but not too much.
How are your drivers driving?
The profile of a truck is basically a big box. At speed they are anything but aerodynamic. And as speed increases the drag coefficient climbs steeply, and the truck burns more fuel, meaning that it really is more expensive to go faster!
What about idling?
It’s still common for drivers to leave engines idling if they need to stop for a quick break, get food etc, as it used to be hard to restart a warm diesel engine. But modern diesel engines are designed to be turned off and on, and indeed suffer four times more wear and tear when idling then when under load. Added to this, engines left idling for a long time are burning costly fuel.
How often do you visit your customers and for how long?
A GPS fleet management system will show you with pin point accuracy how often your trucks visit each of your customers, and exactly how long they spend on site. This allows you to see whether some stops take a lot longer than others, and work on improving the turnaround time.
With tight margins and big fixed costs, running a successful business in the logistics and freight industry is a challenging endeavour. But using technology in the form of a GPS fleet management system can be a big help in making your business more efficient and reducing costs.
