Plan Logistics to Avoid Delivery Holdups

With the festive season upon us, businesses all around South Africa should spend more time planning their logistics strategy in good time to help them avoid getting caught in the bottleneck of last-minute deliveries. With the recent post office strike, there are added strains placed on the couriers.

This is particularly relevant given the escalating volumes of deliveries for online shopping as an increasing number of companies are selling their products online. Therefore, customer service excellence is more important than ever to maintain and businesses need to ensure deliveries arrive on time over this period.

It will become vital for every single business to optimize its logistics processes. The second a client requires a certain product from the warehouse, make sure that the right amount of stock is on hand before making plans on the delivery process. Many times delays can be avoided before the package goes out the door. Understanding some of the common reasons behind the delays can ensure that this doesn’t happen within the business.

Communication
Couriers are responsible for a lot of the important communications that make your outgoing and incoming cargo arrive on time, but that doesn’t mean you’re totally off the hook. Businesses can drop the ball with incoming cargo by failing to notify their own warehouses of their arrival.

Sometimes there seems to be a failure to communicate clearly or effectively between the buyer, who might have a certain delivery expectation, and the warehouse, who will check their availability.

For example, the business may arrange for a shipment to arrive on Monday morning but the warehouse on the other hand may not have the capability to fill the request until the next day or two later. Without a clear system in place for how to communicate this information between both parties, delays tend to occur.

There need to be options or a solution on how to close that gap.

Boosting effect
One of the biggest challenges in this globalized market is on-time delivery. The need to source and deliver products anywhere in the world is becoming the standard for businesses of all sizes. And the logistics part has become a driving force in this dynamic global trade. >

Smaller businesses are also faced with the need to improve their supply chain and logistics activities to provide the same level of service as their corporate competitors. This is not easy to achieve in a fast-changing environment driven by the shifting demand, unpredictable exchange rates, changing trade routes, and growing customer expectations of instant implementations.

Export opportunities also come with greater exposure to risk in relation to disruptive influences like changing trade routes, interruption of supply due to man-made and natural disasters, infrastructure issues, and delays with goods passing through customs.

The more responsive small businesses are and the more advanced their approach to achieving transparency throughout their supply chain, the better it will be positioned to compete in global markets. Streamlining the logistics process is fundamental to international competitiveness. A smaller company's global competitiveness may also depend on its ability to develop collaborative strategies with other supply chain entities, in some cases even with competitors.

Good relationships
Nowadays, building a good positive relationship with a logistics partner that is qualified to assist with sourcing and delivery processes, is becoming increasingly necessary for every small business.

A company should be able to view its logistics partner as an addition to its business. It is important to ensure such a partner has broad national and international reach and expertise and the physical and technological infrastructure and flexibility to support future business growth and the changing market.

Developing a good and close relationship with the right global logistics provider will also open up opportunities to be more innovative with sourcing raw materials from multiple sources anywhere in the world. The growing strain of supply chains is also driving the trend towards outsourcing all or part of the logistics task to a specialized and trusted third party. One of the drivers of complexity is the increasing demand for customized deliveries to suit specific requirements. This makes it even more vital for the logistics provider to have the supporting systems in place to provide a clear view of the movement of goods across the supply chain, online, from anywhere, or on any device.

The bottom line in all of this is that you need to understand the bigger picture of your company's current processes. Look at the critical processes and choose the best possible strategy then go out and look at the system providers and channel partners that can help you pull this all together.

If you are looking to hire the very best freight and supply chain talent to make sure your business runs smoothly and on time, make sure you get in touch with us today!

Or if you happen to be looking for a new Freight job, we can assist you! Communicate Recruitment is a Freight recruitment company with consultants that specialize in Sales, Road Freight, Courier, Warehousing, Logistics, Production, and more. Check out our vacancy page and apply today.

Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net by renjith krishnan