How to Save Money on your Transportation Logistics

Running a business isn’t easy and when you delve into transportation and logistics, you will soon find that the whole thing gets even more complicated. You may find that you can’t be as hands-on as you’d like because your packages are being transported halfway across the world. if you want to try and save money on your transportation and logistics while also saving time then you have nothing to worry about because there are a couple of things that you can do to help yourself with that.

Automated Planning

If you manage your routing and even scheduling on a manual basis then it is so important that you switch to automated planning. When you have an automated planning system you can easily set it to optimise the fastest and most efficient route and this can save you a ton of time and money as well. This may seem much more expensive and this can be the case, but when you invest in it early on, you will find that it can save you a small fortune over the long-term. You will have much more room to grow and you will also find that you can handle way more shipments per week, without making the logistics more expensive or more time-consuming.

As the seasons change and as your customer demands evolve, you may find that your fixed routes just aren’t as optimal as they once were. For this reason, you need to go through your routes from time to time to try and keep the cost down. If you have a fixed route optimisation system then this also means that you don’t have to do this manually. The system can work out how many of a specific product you need, and the means of getting them to your chosen destination.

Fuel Usage

If you handle heavy items all the time then you will understand how the weight of your deliveries can affect your fuel usage. If you want to try and reduce the cost of this then you need to try and implement a fuel reduction strategy. When you have this approach, you will soon find that you save money and that you also help the environment as well. It may be that you need to invest in better or newer vehicles, or it may also be that you need to try and adjust your routes so that the heavy goods aren’t being transported on uneven or dangerous terrain. Little things like this can make a huge difference to the logistics of your company. If you want to save even more money while reducing stress then consider investing in freight transport as this will really help you to get the best result out of your deliveries.

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Live Vehicle Tracking

When you link your transport together and then to a central system, this will really help you to detect how many people are going off-route. If your team are making pit-stops that are not on their route then this will cause delays and it will also cost you way more fuel as well. This can cause you major problems in the long-run and this is especially the case if you know that your entire team are doing it. When you are able to implement something like this, you can boost your productivity levels and you can also help your team to stay on track with the job that they are doing.

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Time Windows

If you have time windows when certain jobs need to be done then this is great. If you can however, you should relax the time windows that you have. When you do this, you will then be able to put less stress on your team and you may even find more efficient routes as well. This may mean that each delivery takes 5 or 10 minutes longer but it could also mean that you use less fuel or that your team aren’t risking the cargo by driving up steep or dangerous roads so this is well worth you looking into.

Track Everything

When you do make a change to your business, it is so important that you are able to track every single aspect of it. You need to work out how the change has benefited you and you also need to work out how it has affected your team. If you do this every month, or even every couple of months then there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to benefit when the time does come for you to make some serious changes.