The importance of transportation, logistics and the supply chain is increasingly recognized in the business world. For this reason, achieving an effective relationship with your transport agency will make a big difference with respect to the service that you end up giving to your clients.
For this reason, logistics will always be a very delicate and sensitive matter. Getting the entire supply chain coordinated can be a complex task, so you want to avoid unnecessary mistakes. Today we are going to point out some of the most frequent and, at the same time, the ones that can cause you the most problems.
What mistakes you have to avoid with your transport agency
1.- See the transport agency only as a source of expenses
A good transport agency adds value in various ways. One of them is the improvement of the service and, therefore, the increase in customer satisfaction. But it doesn’t stop there. A quality transport agency will also find ways to optimize your costs and make them more efficient. Your transport expense is not a mere expense, it is an investment in quality and a search for greater optimization.
2.- Working with a transport agency that makes it difficult for you to grow
The goal of companies, whether large or small, is to grow year after year and reach new customers and new markets. And for that to be the case, it is necessary that your transport agency be an ally in your expansion instead of a brake. Analyze what the new logistical needs that you may have to face may be in the medium and long term and study whether your current transport agency is prepared to deal with them.
In addition to the ability of your logistics operator to work in other countries or markets, it is also necessary to check if your types of shipments can change. That is, if you are going to start using express pallet, full load or parcel shipments when you did not before.
3.- Not giving enough importance to your transport agency
Leaving logistics for last is not a good recipe. The great influence that the supply chain has on the design, manufacture and distribution of a product invites it to be taken into account throughout the entire process. For example, we would be wrong to design packaging that was very attractive but completely inefficient when it came to being transported.
We would also do ourselves a disservice if we choose our distributors or the way we go to market without thinking about the possibilities and logistical consequences of these decisions.
4.- Don’t let outdated technology stop you
Innovation and technology have been part of the backbone of logistics for years and are increasingly non-negotiable. You cannot assume that your operations are facing a bottleneck because your transport agency does not have the appropriate technology to respond to your needs.
5.- Not taking care of the size and weight of your expeditions
What may at first seem like a minor detail is often the source of much discussion. The size and weight of your shipments are two of the main factors when your transport agency sets a price for your shipments. However, it is very common that some companies do not take special care when it comes to knowing how much the things they send weigh or measure, which makes them incur extra costs and exceed the price they thought they were going to pay.
Also pay attention to the rates of your transport agency; Know in detail the sections of kilos and centimeters so that you can use it in your favor. Can you adapt the pallets you prepare to those dimensions or negotiate a price with your supplier for a certain height? In this type of solution, more savings are hidden than it may seem.
6.- Do not share your demand predictions with the transport agency
Transport agencies and logistics operators usually have a good capacity to adapt to the volumes of their clients. While for the shipper we can simplify and say that an increase in its volume of 100% means an increase in the workload by 100%, for a logistics operator, which has many clients, this will mean a lower percentage when handling more merchandise from more customers.
However, this does not mean that its flexibility is infinite and that it is not a challenge for logistics operators to face large increases in volume. Especially if they are not planned. In addition, work peaks usually correspond to shipments, campaigns or periods that are especially important for customers. No one wants to suffer problems at Christmas time or with that very important campaign for our new account.
As you can see, you have plenty of compelling reasons to keep your transport agency informed about the seasonal peaks of your company. Maybe you need to increase or reorganize a shift, hire additional vehicles, reschedule routes and even, depending on your volume of merchandise, increase the workforce.
7.- Work without performance indicators
Working without indicators is equivalent to working blind. The indicators are a set of measurements on certain processes that we consider essential. In other words, it is what allows us to reliably know the quality of service that our provider is offering us; in this case our transport agency.
Some typical indicators in transport agencies are: percentage of punctual deliveries, percentage of breakages, average delivery time, percentage of shipments correctly prepared, cost per ton and kilometer, etc.
These are not all the mistakes that can be made when you work with a transport agency. However, they are some of the most common, the ones that you can solve the most easily and the ones that you can get the most benefits if you eliminate them.
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