What does the digital transformation of the trucking industry mean? Simply put, it’s a computerized method of managing logistics in which technology optimizes the management and performance of assets and loads, navigating away from the days when drivers get their route information off a chalkboard without an optimized delivery plan.
Trucking has long been viewed as a singular, manual, labor-intensive process of picking up and delivering packages or items, to either businesses or residential areas. This method is being replaced with various logistics processes, such as: capacity-as-a-service, crowdsourced delivery, truck platooning, optimized predictive maintenance, driver/truck/road specific routing, and more.
Carriers need to generate actionable insights for strategic decision making, operations transformation, and targeted customer experiences. This is all much easier with a digital transformation under your belt. Intelligent automation is changing how companies operate by using advances in technology to optimize processes, personalize customer experiences, and enhance decision making. It could also include back-end office applications such as automatic payment solutions that can lower administrative costs.
Below are some areas where digital and automated solutions could add value to your business:
It’s essential for you to identify some key areas where you would like to use technology.
Prioritizing these problematic and/or highly manual areas will help make the process more manageable and allow you to make sure that you are starting at the best possible area for your business.
Are you using route optimization software? Does it use “as-the-crow-flies” or street level optimization? Ensuring small details like this are working for you at the final mile can save your company a great amount of money and enable your drivers to deliver more packages in a shorter time.
Below are other questions you can ask yourself to determine the right course of action:
Identify the reasons that may have prevented your business from implementing technological solutions in the past. Previous issues may have been the cost, lack of time, or lack of knowledge. By understanding what these barriers have been historically, you can ensure that good research is done and your team chooses the proper technology to present to management.
There are likely to be digital solutions for every area of your fleet management so answering these questions will help you to identify the key areas that will make the biggest difference to your business.
Having identified the areas where digital transformation might have the biggest impact, contact your truck dealership and ask what technological solutions and data insights they can provide you with.
Your fleet of trucks is likely to be already collecting data and most manufacturers now have data solutions that could include:
There is no need to have a large knowledge of IT or have an IT programmer to choose the best platform for your business. After finding out what insights your OEM can supply you with, the key questions you need to ask are:
Once you have access to more insights through services using different data, it’s easy to see where further improvements can be made. Manufacturers have coaches who are experts at looking at the data and provide you with useful insights about your assets and their performance.
It’s also worth asking your customers/ shippers if they have technological solutions that you can use. They are likely to want to have the same information as you about how and in what condition shipments are delivered and what efficiency improvements can be made.
The best place to start a digital transformation is always to put a plan in place based on your company’s plans for growth. Integratz has a team of logistics experts that can help you get started on your digital transformation journey. They can help you assess your business and get a roadmap in place in no time – schedule a free 30-minute consultation and ensure your company’s place in the trucking industry’s highly efficient and automated future today.