Delays are a fact of life in the transportation industry, as uncontrollable factors such as traffic, severe weather, accidents, long wait times to load or unload, and other events can result in late truckload deliveries. There are steps you can take as a freight brokerage or 3PL to minimize inefficiencies and increase the chances that you’ll be able to meet your shippers’ expectations and deliver their freight on-time.
Check out these four ways to improve on-time delivery.
1. Deploy a Real-Time Tracking App
If you’re still relying on check calls to track freight once it’s on a big rig, you’re missing an opportunity to improve your on-time delivery rate. Having your carriers and drivers use an app like Trucker Tools’ for tracking doesn’t guarantee on-time delivery, but it gives you access to real-time, live location updates every five to 15 minutes. With access to real-time location data, you can provide accurate ETAs to customers and address delays in real-time. For example, if you receive a ping on a load and see that the driver has taken the shipment to the wrong facility, you can quickly reach out to the driver to get them pointed in the right direction.
2. Prioritize Building a Strong Carrier Network
Building long-term partnerships with top performing carriers should be part of your long game in freight brokerage and logistics. Here’s why: any time you go outside your network to a load board to move your shippers’ freight, there’s a certain amount of risk involved as that carrier or driver is unknown to you. It behooves you instead to make a concerted effort to build a strong network of carriers and drivers that you can count on to do everything they can to be on-time.
3. Minimize Errors With Automation
As human beings, sometimes we make mistakes. It’s a fact of life and business. One of the best ways to reduce human errors and miscommunications around load tracking is to automate your tracking process with technology. When you use a real-time visibility platform and tracking app like Trucker Tools’ that digitizes and automates freight tracking, human errors such as calling the wrong number for a check call or forgetting to check in with a driver or dispatcher don’t see the light of day.
4. Integrate Systems
At Trucker Tools, we realize that siloed technology can be a major barrier for businesses like yours. We’ve made a conscious choice to integrate our tracking technology with nearly 50 of the industry’s most popular TMS platforms and more than 60 proprietary TMSs. Our real-time load tracking platform also integrates with shipper platforms MacroPoint, FourKites and Project44, as well as nearly 100 of the industry’s most popular ELDs. Integrated platforms ensure that you don’t miss data in one software platform because it doesn’t display in another. Platform integrations put the information that your team members need in a single place so that they don’t need to open a new app or interface to get what they need.
Don’t miss “Six Ways Trucker Tools Helps You Control Costs.”
Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ real-time freight tracking software.
