Freight Tracking: Change in the Shipping Industry

Today, despite the known benefits to the supply chain industry, industry leaders have little information on how real-time freight cargo tracking and visibility can give them a competitive edge. The supply chain is becoming rapidly complicated, this is due to the growing competition, and trade volumes, which has changed the traditional mindsets to accommodate the demands. To tackle this, shipping and transport companies need to integrate a real-time freight visibility component in their systems enabling them to get insights into the status and location of the freight.

Let us discuss the reasons why freight visibility should be considered a top priority for the supply chain:

1. Freight tracking is a business requirement

The market’s view on freight tracking has significantly evolved over the course of past years. Earlier, simple methods such as track-and-trace were considered to be adequate to get insights. Now, such simple methods are no longer sufficient, as the manufacturers, stockists and the shippers want transparency. This is because the consumers’ demands have increased significantly and they want timely delivery of their merchandise. Business owners require a single-point holistic information dashboard, which has certain status checks. This would include arrival and departure time, pick-up and destination location and a real-time concrete GPS-enabled system.

2. Insights are cost-saving

The industry can reap multiple benefits from 100% freight visibility, as this enables them to adopt a more cost-efficient model. By using predictive analysis to manage shipments, the management can make more informed decisions, which in turn boosts productivity across the entire supply chain.

3. Late Shipments have consequences

A late shipment can have an unexpected ripple effect on the entire supply chain process. For example, a factory might have to halt or increase its production; or a retailer will have to manage with inventory shortage; a docking business might have to make its workers work on holidays or put in an overtime shift for when the shipment finally arrives. All of these situations can be avoided if there is a monitoring system in place that can provide timely updates on freight movement. This way all the parties involved can avoid hindrances in the supply chain.

4. Competitive Marketplace

An expanding and competitive market means that customers have more options than before. Customers expect shorter supply cycle and are less tolerant towards mistakes and delays. A report by Deloitte, a consulting firm, stated that sudden changes in demand by customers cause great disruption in the supply chain. To meet customer needs, businesses need a transparent supply chain which has a great flow of information. This will help develop consistency in identifying Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) and enforcing timelines.

Therefore, a transparent freight process is required for effective compliance with the regulatory policy. The laws and regulations keep getting updated or changed, and if goods get stuck at some point in the process due to regulatory issues – it is waste of time, energy, and money.

To sum up, analysis, information sharing, and decision-making along with freight visibility are essential to optimize the supply chain. This leads to lower chances of mistakes by eliminating inefficiencies and bottlenecks. This approach will not only better the supply chain today, but it will also enable the user to anticipate the future. This will improve demand forecasting, which lets the user know that when the demand is low or high. This results in faster delivery and less time taken to resolve issues.