The Local Trucking BlogWelcome to the online community for local trucking, cartage, and P&D companies in North America

This article appeared recently in Inbound Logistics. While it focuses on tech issues for 3PL’s, the core issue is the same in local P&D, hazmat, air freight, and intermodal: how are you going to use technology to improve customer service and responsiveness, and what tools are you going to use to cut down on manual processes that introduce errors and slow things down for everyone?

http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/leveraging-technology-to-accelerate-productivity-and-profit/?goback=.gde_134135_member_219383066

Just substitute “local trucking company” for 3PL and you get it exactly right:

Services that increase a client’s productivity will help a [local trucking company] win new business, satisfy the needs of a more diverse client base, and rise above the perception of being a commoditized business….. By working even more intimately with client operations, [local trucking companies] can gain insight into other ways to help maximize/efficiency.

For example, [local trucking companies] can capitalize on clients’ expectation and need for real-time data by providing access to their own  … orders and even billing through a secure Web portal. This helps clients make informed decisions with real-time information and visibility of demand, order status, and potential/exceptions.

By offering these expanded, value-added services, [local trucking companies] can gain and retain a wider range of clients. The challenge for [local trucking companies] then becomes finding the most cost-effective technology infrastructure that can adapt to the expanded range of services it provides …  and – perhaps most importantly – correctly invoice clients for each service to ensure/profitability.

Thanks to Inbound Logistics for bringing these issues to everyone’s attention.

–Jonathan Miller, Editor

Read More