Logistics processes are evolving by the day. Between driver shortages, rising fuel costs, and wasted capacity, modern logistics management is more and more critical to managing your company’s resources.
Regardless of the number of trucks you operate, the world of fleet management is becoming more and more complex.
With artificial intelligence-based logistics and supply chain management software, fleet managers have access to an upgrade that is long overdue. Automated load planning and GPS truck tracking are the lifeblood of the industry, and they’re the first step to increased profits.
Adopting fleet management software can introduce your entire enterprise to a new level of untapped resources. Let’s dive into a best-in-class solution that can provide an immediate upgrade to tracking in the industry.
Optimize Truck Load and Route Planning
Even when logistics and supply chain management companies utilize AI-powered load and route planning tools that automatically map and plan the most efficient routes for fleets, unforeseen circumstances can arise. Traffic delays, severe weather, and even driver mistakes can still impact operations.
While it may seem more complicated than it is, the answer is simple: track your trucks. GPS tracking provides dispatchers with the ability to quickly see where trucks are and how many deliveries have been successfully completed.
With this type of valuable information, dispatchers in logistics and supply chain management can quickly check in with drivers if a delivery is late or a truck is off-track to get a pulse on the situation, without having to contact the driver directly.
Oftentimes, GPS tracking software can be set up to provide alerts and updates for teams who are managing several fleets at once. That way, all notifications are centralized and provided for events that happen in real-time.
Additionally, with GPS truck tracking in place, your team can see if trucks are ahead of schedule. If they are, you can avoid any unnecessary downtime, maximize asset utilization, and complete more large deliveries on a daily basis by coordinating with customers to accept early deliveries – talk about customer satisfaction!
At the end of the day, GPS tracking simply eliminates unnecessary stress for dispatchers, sales teams, executives, and managers through real-time knowledge sharing and reducing excess internal communications. Real-time fleet tracking allows your team to easily pinpoint where trucks are at in their routes and develop a strong operational game plan.
Properly Allocate Your Time and Resources
When dispatchers and fleet management teams utilize GPS tracking, they don’t have to spend near as much time making check-in calls with drivers to get status updates on deliveries. As a result, drivers can get to their locations quicker because they don’t have to worry about pulling over to the side of the road to take an extra phone call.
Instead, GPS tracking software enables teams to focus on higher value-added activities, such as working to streamline operations, identify new sales opportunities, or strategize on new investments in equipment and technology to improve or expand business.
Seamless truck fleet tracking ultimately saves time and effort for all team members that are involved in a particular delivery, from the salesperson who wrote the order to the warehouse personnel who loaded the truck, to the executive managing the bottom line. Streamlining operations in this way opens the door for quick, scalable growth.
Setting up GPS tracking for fleets is neither time nor capital intensive, and the training required is minimal.
Outperform Competitors By Providing a Better Experience
Always pay attention to your competitors! It is likely that they already use some sort of fleet tracking tool, and you should too, in order to stay one step ahead.
Some fleet tracking tools provide automated notifications to the recipient of your deliveries. For instance, automated notifications can be sent when a truck is scheduled, when it is loaded, and when the customer is ‘next up’ on the route, allowing the recipient to click and link and access a branded portal where they can view your truck in real-time on its way to their location.
For many companies, the delivery experience is one of the primary ways that clients interact with your business – these are important touchpoints and it is critical to provide an experience that is altogether better than your competition.
Provide Answers to Customer Questions Quicker
The golden question always stands the test of time in logistics and supply chain management: did the customer receive their delivery?
By having a proper fleet tracking software set up, that question can be answered every time and automatically for both your team and for the customer.
Excellent customer service comes from transparency and consistent communication. In other words, your customers deserve to know where their shipment is and when they can expect to receive it. Tracking improves delivery speed and can narrow down the number of deliveries that end up missing or damaged.
Tracking your fleet in real-time allows your business to focus on other areas while still providing best-in-class service to customers. With shipment tracking, there’s never a question about what’s happening in the field.
Customers will always want updated, real-time information such as:
- Where is it currently at?
- When will the next delivery be on its way?
- What time should their unloading team be ready to go?
Without a truck-tracking system in place, answering these types of inquiries requires a time-consuming fire drill of calling and connecting with drivers and relaying updates to customers – wasted effort when this information can be delivered through automated notifications and real-time GPS tracking.
GPS tracking streamlines your team’s internal processes and holds drivers accountable for their scheduled deliveries, resulting in more loyal customers and stronger business relationships.
Improve Your Logistics and Supply Chain Management With Advanced Tracking
Consider a perfectly integrated transportation management software that helps track your fleet and automatically plans optimal loads and routes for you.
It’s up to you to determine how much this kind of software would benefit your organization, but with unlimited training and support, artificial intelligence-based routing, and best-in-class GPS truck tracking and customer notifications, your team will have the necessary resources to improve operational efficiency and ultimately increase your bottom line when you work with Headlight Solutions.
At Headlight Solutions, our goal is to streamline operations, eliminate wasted freight capacity, reduce the stress of managing a fleet, help you achieve your financial goals, and delight your customers. We offer everything from AI-based load and route planning to GPS truck tracking and can take your business to the next level.
Schedule a free demo with us today and take the lead in a competitive industry.
