It’s the end of the year, and normally packages and shipments are literally flooding the logistics industry. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the start of Christmas sales, it is the peak season for transport and logistics companies.
But this year, things are different. Numerous crises are clouding the holiday sales season, and challenge the logistics industry. Fortunately, logistics companies can take action to deal with the situation.
Rising inflation & supply shortages
All over the world, consumers are struggling with rising prices for energy and food. This is caused by several factors, primarily the war in Ukraine.
Purchasing power is dwindling. As early as September, Fedex, the global US courier and logistics company, noted a drop in freight volumes and warned of a possible weak second half of the year. It remains uncertain how strong consumer demand will be in the Christmas season.
In addition, supply chains have still not recovered from the corona pandemic. According to the Kiel Institute for World Economy (IfW), around 12% of all shipped goods are currently at a standstill. To avoid supply bottlenecks and empty shelves like last year, retailers and importers in Europe began stocking up on goods for the holiday sales as early as August this year, instead of September as usual.
So in addition to problems such as a truck driver shortage and high fuel prices, there is no end to the additional challenges facing the transport and logistics industry. Rarely has the short- and medium-term situation in the transport industry been as uncertain as it is at present.
To deal with the current uncertainties in the best possible way, there is a decisive role for transparency as well as flexibility in transport planning.
Flexibility
Logistics and transportation companies must be able to react flexibly and quickly to the new situation and to the changing requirements. Digitalization is a decisive factor here.
However, according to the PTV Logistics Trends Report 2022, digital transformation still needs to catch up: This survey, of more than 500 logistics professionals, found that digitalization has been completed at only 12% of companies. 78% of respondents said that the process poses a major or medium challenge in their daily work.
Using digital tools and software and connecting the various processes not only helps to optimize workflows. Transports can be carried out more efficiently. Transport quality and reliability increase as well as customer satisfaction. At the same time, costs and emissions are reduced, which saves resources and is good for the environment.
Transparency
Transparency and transport visibility are among the key elements for planning, tracking, and controlling logistics flows more efficiently. Knowing where their trucks are, and when they are expected to arrive, helps transport companies to quickly react to any freight disruptions. Whether for full truck load (FTL), less than truck load (LTL) shipping or last mile delivery.
PTV Group has recently expanded its product portfolio in this direction. The real-time transport visibility platform PTV Axylog is an ideal addition for PTV Route Optimiser. Customers benefit from a single source solution for route planning, route optimization and logistics execution.
Read more about how to make supply chains more resilient to disruptive events in the tips from our logistics experts.
Actual topic! The hardest part is the existing infrastructure, with an overabundance of resources to handle growing volumes. First of all – experienced employees and equipment. Here “size matters”: the larger the company and the wider the range of its logistics capabilities, the more likely it is to use all resources and change the logic of managing individual instances of sets.