TRACKING & REPORTING ON SHIPMENTS

Tracking parcel and freight is no longer a matter of simply tracing where items are from carrier notifications. You can now track inbound raw materials or outbound goods in real-time and make decisions to keep a proactive upper hand in meeting and managing customer expectations. 

Investing in technology to allow greater visibility, and therefore better control, can also lead to some cost and time-saving benefits, such as allowing customers to track shipments on a self-serve basis. Some shipping software allows your team to view orders in a dashboard configuration so you can quickly see inbound and outbound shipments to enable troubleshooting. Some software also allows automatic email notifications to customers or 3PLs possible based on triggers you set up - such as an automated notification letting a customer know a shipment is experiencing delays. 

Inventory Control

In today’s commerce environment, you need to minimize backlogs. Backlogs or back orders used to be a merchant standard, but today’s shoppers have far too many options. The item they seek may be found just a quick google away.

Your first step in ensuring greater inventory control is to set up a system using scanner technology to maintain real-time data on stock levels. This system should include smart alerts that notify when replenishments need to be ordered. These alerts should consist of projections based on item order history, seasonality considerations, and how long items take to receive from your supplier. A warehouse system that gives you this kind of visibility also generally offers a way to set up triggers, so stock is automatically ordered without human involvement required. 

Your system should integrate your WMS/ERP to all of your order channels. This allows customers to see that only a limited number is left (which encourages them to buy) and also lets the customer know when something is not available, avoiding a back order scenario. 

Leverage Data To Be Proactive

Too many small and midsize businesses are still using heavily manual processes to track orders. Without automation and shipping software, businesses can have difficulty in even knowing if an order has been scheduled or delivered. These businesses are limited in how they can assist customers, troubleshoot issues, and they encounter more shipping penalties than those with modern shipping tools. 

Another example of how tracking data can help business leverage is with third-party (3PL) businesses. 3PLs can take their tracked data over a period of time and convince their customers to use their contracted carriers and shipping rates. By proving carrier service levels and showing a tracked history of what their savings would be over a period of time, those customers are far more likely to use the 3PL or broker’s rates.

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Shipping across transport modes is referred to as either multimodal or intermodal. Multimodal is when the same carrier is contracted with throughout the entire journey of the parcel or freight. Intermodal is when multiple carrier contracts are involved covering various legs of the journey.

In terms of staying on top of shipments, multimodal is usually the easiest way to track as there is only one carrier to follow up with. Shippers often select intermodal options due to cost, service quality, and in situations where they require flexibility. 

If your business frequently ships either multimodal or intermodal, you’ll need to select shipping software, or a TMS, that can keep up with tracking multileg shipments - not all of them are capable! Some TMS systems are also capable of providing automated truckload tracking and offer broker dashboard functionality, whereby 3PLs can log into your software and track shipments they are involved with. If you ship a lot of intermodal shipments, having additional tools to track quickly will save your team time and give you greater control.  

Proactive Alerts/Notifications

Real-time altering and automatic notifications help you do several critical things, such as: 

• Make routing decisions based on real-time information
• Keep customers as satisfied as possible, even when delays occur
• Alert warehouse teams of incoming shipments that may require bottleneck troubleshooting 
• Stay on top of inventory with greater accuracy 

The TMS solution you use should give you a range of options for proactive alerts and automatic push notifications. Some TMS platforms even allow user-defined alerting, enabling you to curtail internal messages and external customer service emails/texts based on specific triggers.

A solid TMS should give you real-time alerts, which will save your team hours on manually checking status updates on carrier sites. Real-time alerts make responding to customer queries more efficient. A dashboard with red flag notifications is extremely handy as well if you ship in considerable volumes. These tools keep your team working proactively.  

When creating notification messages for customers, keep in mind the typical concerns buyers have after they place an order. They want to know how to track an order, so give them a link. They want to know how long an order might take to reach them, so provide them an estimate. They want to know how to return orders, so ensure this information is readily available to them in the order confirmation email. 

Alerts and notifications not only make processing orders more efficient and less time consuming for your team, but this leads to a better experience for customers. Proactively communicating with them gives them a better shopping experience overall. This effort leads to customers being more patient with you when things go awry and helps cultivate loyal customers.  

Report Customization

Spot quotes are off-the-cuff requested rates made on FTL shipments (although occasionally on parcel) for shipments that fall outside a shipper’s regularly used shipping lane or outside all current carrier contracts. These shipments are often of considerable size or have unique handling requirements.  

Being able to report on carrier responsiveness and volumes shipped through spot quoting can help you with future contract negotiations and general carrier intel.

Generally, spot quotes cost more than shipping through regular contracted rates, so monitoring spot quotes this can help in managing costs. Additionally, the goal in reporting and using analytics is to get your business to the point where you are monitoring performance across your entire shipping process, from carriers to employees. And this includes keeping an eye on your spot quotes to enable you to catch inefficiencies, spot money wastage, and maintain a clear, overall view of your entire supply chain.

For more information on spot quotes, please refer to our post 3 Tips To Get The Best Spot Quotes.

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