Useful Ideas For Managing Your Long-Distance Logistics Company
The delivery of goods across the country or abroad requires a deft hand and a quick mind in the control room. Having great and experienced drivers helps significantly for a logistics company, especially those that have a brilliant working knowledge of the areas they’ll be driving through. However, without proper management and guidance from back at base, road closures and redirects can cause countless problems, especially when deliveries and strictly time-sensitive. To help, we’ve put together our best ideas for managing a logistics company, especially one that operates over significantly longer distances.
Plan For Problems
When it comes to directing a fleet around the map, one of the best things you can do is to expect the unexpected. Traffic accidents, roadworks, and general delays should always be considered, and keeping your eye on the ball as a logistics manager is essential for the efficient running of your entire fleet. Implementing a contingency plan is useful for any business, and one that aims to help you and your team remedy the problems that logistics companies can face is a great decision. Being aware of alternative routes at the start of each journey, for example, will allow you to redirect your drivers effectively before they get stuck, leading to further delays. It’s also worth planning for problems occurring with your drivers and vehicles themselves, such as breakdowns or health issues, in which you can then send a backup driver to take over.
Use The Right Tech
Utilising technology is very important when managing a fleet, especially one that is large and travelling long distances. Regulations dictate that all of your vehicles have a tachograph, of course, but being able to analyse that data can be difficult, especially if you have an analogue tachograph. It’s worth installing a digital device instead, which allows for remote tacho download. Making use of tachograph and driver card download, like those offered by FleetGO’s analysis software, means that you can collate and record the speeds and distances of all of your fleet vehicles on the go.
Choosing The Best Routes
Especially when it comes to long-distance logistics, choosing the right routes is so important. For instance, you can select an ocean route for shipping your product. As mentioned here https://dedola.com/solutions/ocean-freight/, not only does this reduce the delivery time as much as possible, ensuring your clients are as happy as they can be with your service. Depending on the route you selected will also serve to reduce the costs and your carbon footprint. Not only should efficiency and cost-effectiveness be a consideration, but so should the safety of your drivers and others on the roads too. If you’re sending your heavy goods vehicles down narrow, winding country lanes as a shortcut, you have to remember the increased safety risk to both your driver and others around them. Choose the best and safest routes possible to minimise accidents and reduce costs.
Consider Automation
As well as useful tachograph download technology, it’s important to try to keep up with other developments of the digital era. Businesses around the world are implementing new technology into their business models, and those that allow for increased automation can significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity of your logistics company. Implementing technology that automates your customer services as well as tech that can compile all of the raw data for your deliveries and assignments will allow you to streamline your processes and ultimately improve your service for your clients.
