Critical Performance Gap in the Freight Transportation Bussiness- The Last Mile

Critical Performance Gap in the Freight Transportation Bussiness- The Last Mile



Enterprises that depend on transportation, or who are in the business of transportation, have invested heavily in computing

platforms that enable better management of the overall supply chain up to their warehouse docks. However, these systems provide

little control or visibility into what happens when orders leave the shipping dock and are delivered to customers.



It's that last mile of delivery that matters most: it's then that your business is most vulnerable. This is where the real world

and unpredictable conditions can mean the difference between on-time delivery and revenue for your fleet, or delays, added costs,

and strained customer relations. What has been lacking is a system that actively manages the gap between the warehouse and the

customer; a system that enables the control and management of business profitability in this last, but critical stage of order

management.



Prior generations of systems attempting to address this gap have been limited to pre-day route planning based on a hypothetical

assumption of what driving conditions and driver performance might be like. The problem is, once the day begins, the real world

takes over.

Enterprises can now dramatically boost their profitability by managing the real-time performance of this last stage - this "last

mile" of delivery, with real-time visibility and decision making. And, they can incorporate today's real-world business experiences

into tomorrow's transportation plan, ensuring that events that took place the day before, produce a smarter, more efficient

operation the next day.



Real-Time Wireless Location Information Isn't Enough.

Wireless technology that tracks the location of vehicles and the fleet only tells you where assets are, that's it. Without the

ability to transform that "location" into a set of actionable decisions the increase your fleet's profitability and customer

service performance. It's like being told that it is raining at the moment it begins to rain, without supplying you with the

umbrella necessary to keep you dry. Knowing where the fleet is currently positioned provides limited value to Dispatchers during

execution. The real value they seek is in knowing how to deploy/redeploy assets based on accurate future predictions of where they

will be given current conditions, and if they will be on time for their deliveries.



Make Tomorrow's Performance Better than Today's.

The power to improve tomorrow's last-mile performance based on real-time analysis of the fleet's performance today offers

significant profit potential, incremental efficiency, and better customer satisfaction every day. You need a system that can make

predictions based upon an intelligent scenario-based approach of identifying what would most likely happen given various situations

and conditions, while keeping profitability, on-time delivery, and customer satisfaction at the forefront. You need a system with

the ability to model dynamically, that "learns" from the prior day's real-world events and the daily operation of vehicles,

drivers, and conditions.



The Real World Includes Your Computing Environment.

You've made significant investments in enterprise resource planning platforms, supply chain management systems, and transportation

management systems, the real world of today's enterprise is one that has little room or patience for added software or lengthy

development and integration. More importantly, your dispatch center is the nerve center of your fleet, and improvements there will

have to add value rapidly, and be deployed in days or weeks, and certainly not require legions of consultants to design and

customize a new system. In the real world of transportation execution computing, you need a solution that rapidly deploys,

seamlessly integrate within your dispatch center, and deliver results with minimal assistance.



About The Author:



Michael Mill

http://www.freightnews.info