Logistics Industry Issues and Technology Tendencies

TRIARE provides logistics solutions for transportation, aircraft companies, retailers and so on. Regardless of the type of products you sell, there are logistics solutions that automate delivery processes and better manage relationships with suppliers, providing more accurate estimates and improved experience to customers.

If your business delivers products between suppliers, warehouses, and end customers, our transportation system can help optimize the routes, monitor freight delivery in real time, and analyze driver and vehicle data to enhance scheduling and eliminate errors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every part of the global supply chain, from raw material to end clients. The commercial, operational, financial, and organizational sustainability of businesses worldwide is being tested. The pandemic has shown risks and resiliency issues for many companies. Owners desperately want to stay competitive when it comes to innovations. They all face an imminent need to increase investment in logistics apps and other IT solutions. 

As COVID-19 keeps impacting the supply chains, how can businesses enhance resilience going forward? The primary trend is about having more excellent controls: from tracking the cargo to checking product freshness. Let’s review some significant trends affecting supply chains and technology solutions that top organizations are swiftly deploying to build their resilience. 

Top pain points of transport and logistics

The pandemic has dramatically transformed the world of logistics and has pushed many businesses to reduce transportation expenses. To do so, companies either cut the number of carriers or ask for reduced rates. But these solutions are not often attainable. Instead, there is an option to employ modern technology that helps to ensure greater control over the transportation process. For example, a cargo tracking app will help you coordinate shipment and accurately predict the delivery time by using an integrated GPS feature.

Along the supply chain, there are a lot of possible issues, and many of them may be mitigated by logistics apps or other technology. The following are the most common problems companies face in the industry.

Cutting transportation costs

We can undoubtedly claim that this issue is currently among the biggest problems in the industry. Sometimes, the transportation costs come close to half of the product value. However, the demand for transit companies is increasing dramatically. Even though businesses want to minimize shipping expenses as much as possible, it is hard to do to a large extent.

Monitoring drivers’ health and location

Drivers’ shortage has always been a challenge for logistics strategists, but the problem only deepened after the pandemic’s beginning. Additionally, there is a need to monitor drivers’ location to prevent delays or in case of an emergency. There are tracking solutions in the form of tracking apps that are being installed on a driver’s phone to follow their locations and health conditions, making sure that they do not experience issues preventing them from fulfilling the freight tasks.

Warehouse management and product freshness

Various logistics apps help companies raise efficiency and decrease costs in the long term. The industry has already entered the stage when solutions such as warehouse management systems are becoming must-haves. Conversely, there are many solutions for perishable goods tracking. To ensure quality and freshness are not compromised, delivery apps are installed to check various parameters such as temperature. The resulting data flow allows the firms to automatically calculate how the products are positioned for the upcoming delivery.

Reliance on third parties

Even though multiple voices warn against reliance on one significant partner, many companies have strong relationships with one large supplier, one large customer, etc. Another issue is dealing with intermediaries that connect companies to transit companies. It may create a situation where the business does not have precise information about the cargo, as the data flows through the intermediary. Dealing directly with transportation companies is essential to utilize tracking and logistics apps fully.

Why are logistics issues important to business success?

Any successful company manager understands the importance of well-organized logistics. They understand that seamless logistics are critical to meeting customer needs and outperforming the competition.

However, no field is flawless. As far as issues in logistics are concerned, they provide an opportunity for businesses to grow qualitatively. This is largely due to the IT solutions that businesses implement to solve arising problems and challenges.

Perhaps one of the biggest issues of software solutions for logistics is poor-performing apps. Sure, they can solve the original problem, but they can add a design bug or cause a security breach. In such cases, companies should learn from these failures and choose a more reliable IT service provider, such as TRIARE. That way you can avoid issues of software solutions for logistics in the future.

What are logistics issues related to web development?

Logistic enterprises often face many real-world business problems that can be solved with software solutions. Here is a list of key issues and challenges for logistics that are solved by web development:

• Inventory Control. Financial losses resulting from a lack of a web app for solving logistics issues, ineffective utilization of trained workers, and the human aspect.
• Supply Chain Management. Financial losses as a result of supply chain failures that lead to low quality, poor customer service, and insufficient client retention.
• Equipment/vehicle rentals. Loss of revenue due to slow and expensive communication channels for sales and customer service.
• Navigation. Lower delivery quality due to a lack of operational data on the location of the asset.
• Digital Ecosystems. Loss of clients as a result of an antiquated, decentralized payment system that did not support contactless payments. Insufficient client traffic as a result of pricey cold leads obtained from third parties and inappropriate lead creation methods. High costs brought on by mistakes in contracts, invoices, receipts, and other types of documentation.

All these key issues and challenges for logistics can be solved by web development solutions. The ability to manage all aspects through the web app for solving logistics issues not only opens up the possibility of simplifying work processes, but also the potential for better analytics and preventive strategies. Automated systems that record all details of successful deliveries and failures offer useful statistics and information in real time.

With the right digital tools, logistics companies will not only solve problems, but also prevent them. Companies that take this logic into account and develop their own web app for solving logistics issues to manage their shipments at all stages will eventually supplant all those who can’t keep up.

Technology tendencies

The above problems go a long way back in history and cannot be immediately solved by any innovation, especially given the rising competition. However, trends are pointing at making transportation life easier. To gain the most utility from them, companies must implement them as soon as possible because everyone will have them employed shortly, meaning there will not be any competitive advantage. Let’s go over the most prominent trends at the moment.

Digital transformations

Reshaping strategies and business models are vital to staying fully competitive in the digital age, and it is valid for both large and small businesses. In any case, failure to transform the transport processes according to digital trends can result in deteriorating financial results and missed growth opportunities.

However, other than establishing a new set of policies, the digital transformation is also about changing the mindset of those involved in doing business. The innovation process goes far beyond installing apps and adding Internet of Things powered GPS tracking systems to your capital assets. Overall, it adds up to a complete overhaul of the organizational culture.

Warehouses and the Internet of Things (IoT)

Applying technology to automate warehouses has been a challenge for the industry, and however, intensifying competition is pushing companies to implement innovation as soon as possible. Thankfully, the development of robotics and IoT promises great potential for simplifying storage operations. Though the technologies are still costly and complicated, there are tremendous opportunities for those who implement them first.

Proactive cybersecurity

As anywhere globally, broad digitalization creates a field of possibilities for cybercriminals. Transportation companies are among those that have already been constantly hacked. The problem is about outside hackers and internal workers spreading information that ought to remain secret. To be successful in the digital age, transportation firms must establish high-level cybersecurity measures and continuously educate their personnel until there is a strong culture of data safety.

Program problems in logistics and transport management

The transport software management system of any business is responsible for the safe and timely delivery of goods from the warehouse to the customer’s location using the least resources and at the lowest cost.

Fortunately, the software can not only automate delivery management processes but also ensure that each step is performed with maximum precision. Let’s take a look at what major optimizations logistics transport software solutions offer:

• Automated or dynamic route planning and optimization.
• Automatic order distribution.
• Real-time trip tracking.
• Vehicle capacity utilization.
• Transparency toward the end customer.

Conclusion

To sum up, the diversity of logistics apps dramatically affects the entire chain of operations for businesses that do not hesitate to invest in innovations. However, the variety of technology solutions often makes it difficult to choose the most effective applications. Though there is a possibility of getting ill-fitted programs, companies cannot survive by keeping traditional practices. In any case, IT applications already play a tremendous role in the global supply chain, and there is no way to omit their impact, either direct or indirect.