As consumers embrace ecommerce shopping, supply chain and logistics leaders have a renewed focus on last-mile delivery strategies. Before the pandemic, Frost & Sullivan estimated that global logistics spending would grow beyond $10.6 trillion annually by 2020, with last-mile distribution accounting for an estimated $3 trillion of that spend.

The COVID-19 stay-at-home response created an unexpected surge in consumer demand and expectations. Retailers are scrambling to compete for a smoother delivery experience including faster fulfillment, transparency and cost reduction.

When deliveries fail to reach the intended recipient on the first attempt, there are increased costs and decreased customer satisfaction. Stepping up to meet these challenges, parcel delivery startups, commercial fleets and ride-share companies are turning to technology partners to help build in visibility and efficiency. For many retailers, this means managing a complex mix of 3PLs, fleets, crowd-sourced and other delivery models to serve their customers.

With Uber Freight’s acquisition of ScanData and integration of their Parcel Transportation Management Solution (PTMS) with Uber Freight’s industry leading TMS, shippers and logistics leaders can reduce the complexity and disruptions of last-mile delivery.

Last-Mile Delivery Challenges

When a consumer order is placed, the parcel might go through many stages of production and warehousing before being distributed and delivered to hundreds or thousands of individual addresses, each with its own route.

While the last mile continues to evolve to meet industry trends and consumer demands, it is the most inefficient stage in the supply chain. Next-day and same-day delivery, at a reasonable cost, expectations by customers is on the rise.  In response, logistics leaders are getting creative to deliver transparently, quickly, and, with continued concerns for safety, touchless.

The COVID-19 shutdown strained supply chains as shippers attempted to forecast demand, meet demand despite manufacturing delays, manage inventory levels and make the switch to no-contact deliveries. Even prior to the pandemic, delivery drivers faced traffic and often struggled to locate, gain access to or park near delivery addresses. A study in the Seattle area, for example, found that looking for tenant locations accounted for 61% of overall delivery time.

The inability to deliver a single parcel the first time can offset the gains of many efficiently planned deliveries. Reducing failed delivery attempts and creating a more efficient last-mile delivery strategy can cut logistics costs, improve customer satisfaction and increase brand loyalty.

Last-Mile Delivery Strategies with Uber Freight and ScanData

A technology-driven last-mile delivery solution for shippers will be flexible, data-driven and focused on the customer experience. An effective last-mile delivery strategy includes the means to:

• Identify existing gaps and optimize the operational workflow
• Form strategic alliances with other shippers to expand the reach of networks and utilization of unused capacity
• Re-route shipments as needed, such as Alternate Delivery Locations, where customers can pick up their deliveries faster from other designated locations

Uber Freight and ScanData are implementing this strategy through the integration of Uber Freight’s industry-leading TMS and ScanData’s powerful PTMS. With this integration, the last mile is optimized, and operational efficiency is improved through:

Increased Supply Chain Visibility and Route Optimization

With Uber Freight’s real-time supply chain visibility and ScanData’s service disruption handling, shippers gain access to a comprehensive, graphical view of all shipments, dynamic dashboards of key performance indicators and predictive analysis. These include weather, traffic and other shipping restrictions such as COVID-19 location impact. Drive time and mileage can be reduced as artificial intelligence and machine learning further improve routes.

Carrier Flexibility and Expanded Supply Chain

To aid in managing complex multi-modal options, ScanData’s integration expands carrier relationships to include Uber Freight’s more than $11 billion in freight-under-management. Multi-carrier rate shopping and zone skipping allows shippers to have consolidation options to optimize fulfillment of customer orders.

Reporting and Analytics

Analytics drive down costs and isolate cost-impacting factors across shipments. With an actionable Business Intelligence dashboard, active performance monitoring, historical and custom reports, the total cost of last mile delivery logistics is reduced as waste is removed from the network.

Reduce Last-Mile Delivery Disruptions and Improve Customer Experience

The increased adoption of PTMS technology reduces last-mile delivery disruptions and improves customer experience. ScanData’s shipping status, alerts and tracking, as an example, meet customer demand for increased visibility of their orders. With supply chain transparency, shippers and retailers can more easily manage their expanding options for last-mile delivery and build trust and loyalty with customers through an enhanced delivery experience.

Has your last-mile delivery strategy been affected by COVID-19?

The post How Uber Freight’s Acquisition of ScanData Relieves Last-Mile Delivery Disruptions appeared first on Uber Freight.

We recently announced real-time visibility for truckload as a standard capability, without any extra transaction or integration fees, for all of our managed transportation services and Transportation Management System (TMS) customers. We are thrilled to be the first to provide real-time visibility as a standard within a TMS solution as part of our commitment to deliver an unprecedented level of service and value to our customers.

We also want to raise the expectations within the logistics industry itself. We believe real-time visibility should be an industry standard and a fundamental part of transportation management.

What Can You Expect from Real-Time Visibility?

To deliver this service, we will be leveraging Descartes MacroPoint as our real-time visibility partner. Seamless incorporation of Descartes MacroPoint into our TMS and managed services solutions will enable us to deliver consistent and reliable real-time shipment tracking for hundreds of thousands of carriers. In addition, we will be placing an enterprise level real-time control tower within reach for shippers of all sizes and scale.

The integration of real-time visibility extends our ongoing efforts to apply the benefits of machine learning and data science to help shippers take a more predictive and proactive approach to supply chain management. Real-time visibility combined with our existing predictive risk analytics capabilities will enhance service predictions and enable us and our customers to more proactively manage potential supply chain disruptions.

The Benefits for our Customers

Including real-time visibility as a capability for our entire logistics services and technology offering delivers significant benefits to customers, including:

• Access to best-in-class, real-time visibility. With this new offering, we will be able to provide current and future customers with unprecedented coverage and drive new consistency and efficiency in their track and trace execution.
• Automatic real-time visibility from a single vendor. By building Descartes MacroPoint into our TMS and managed services solutions, customers no longer have to purchase a real-time visibility solution from another vendor.
• Greater supply chain visibility and efficiency. Customers will now be able to view a large percentage of their freight with greater efficiency and coverage at a lesser overall cost, resulting in superior differentiation and immediate return on investment.

Implementation and the Future

We will begin to roll out the solution for truckload shipments in the U.S. and Canada by January 2020 and will expand the offering to Mexico and other geographies, as well as other modes in the future as part of our vision to deliver superior, full, end-to-end real-time global visibility as standard practice. There is much more to come!

Learn more about freight tracking. 

The post Introducing Real-Time Visibility: A Standard for All of Our Customers appeared first on Uber Freight.

By: Frank McGuigan, Chief Executive Officer, Transplace

As many of you may already know, we recently announced that Tom Sanderson has transitioned to the role of executive chairman and will serve on Transplace’s board of directors, and that I have moved into the role of CEO. I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to continue as a leader of our company and build upon the rich heritage that has made Transplace a dominating player in transportation management and 3PL services.

Having had the opportunity to lead Transplace’s North American sales and operations for the last several years, along with the opportunity to work alongside Tom, this is a natural transition for us as a company. I want you to be confident that throughout this change, no matter what, our mission and core values will continue to be the standard in which we will all strive.

Over the past eight years, Transplace has experienced record growth and made significant investments in its people and technology. We’ve also expanded our geographic presence in the U.S., Mexico and Canada – allowing us to better provide exceptional logistics and trade compliance services to our growing customer base throughout North America. These investments and our ongoing commitment to supply chain excellence will enable us to deliver even greater value to our customers.

This legacy of success has as much to do with the dedicated people handling day-to-day operations, in all functions across North America, as it does the executive team. We are where we are as a company, because of our outstanding people and their commitment to providing outstanding service to our customers every single day. Our customers can rest easy knowing that the people who truly make Transplace what it is are all still in place and will continue to deliver the exceptional service that they have come to expect.

Ongoing, we will work together as one Transplace and as a cohesive, purposeful team, with an extreme focus on our customers, our people and our shareholders. We will challenge ourselves to improve in all facets of our business through metrics, measurements and our continuous improvement tools, so that we can add value each and every day to both our business and that of our customers. We will strive to anticipate and act upon problems before they happen, leveraging the collective information and expertise across the entire enterprise for a truly differentiated customer experience.

I am excited and honored to further support our mission to thrill our customers, and the entire Transplace team will continue to work toward delivering innovative logistics solutions and outstanding service today and into the future.

The post Letter from the CEO: Executive Team Changes, Future Success and Putting the Customer First appeared first on Uber Freight.

However, data management does not come without challenges.  In the realm of supply chain data management, there are a few common issues that seem to transcend industries, business models, or network scopes. These include:

1. Lack of necessary resources allocated to technology and people
2. Lack of appropriate and adequate systems
3. Lack of coordination between varied network technology systems

Lack of Necessary Technology and People

Many organizations lack the technology and people that good data management requires. Organizations that internalize the technology they use tend to be environments that are restrictive on an organization’s ability to adapt to evolving data management capabilities, or to ensure the sustainability of their systems as their organization grows.

Organizations can often come to rely on a scenario in which a handful of people within the organization have the continued functionality of their organization’s systems resting on their shoulders. Their responsibilities could range from data input, coding, and problem-solving to an almost exclusive understanding of the legacy system and how it operates. This can become a real obstacle for any growth or optimization efforts, and it is also a huge risk for the organization.

Lack of Appropriate and Adequate Systems

Software and systems deficiencies that hinder an organization’s ability to correctly understand its supply chain activity usually fall into one of two categories.

1. Legacy systems, usually on premises, that are designed around a specific network/operating model that has since changed
2. Manual processes for functions that have yet to be automated (freight tendering, FA&P)

Lack of Coordination Between Network Technology Systems

Whether it is due to acquisition or the inconsistent deployment of technologies across an enterprise, it is not uncommon for an organization to have disparate systems managing similar functions in different parts of the organization. Unfortunately, this disparity is a significant obstacle to leveraging scale and planning supply chain activity, while considering the broader organization. Lack of resources and technology know-how exacerbate this problem.

As supply chains become more complex and the role of data becomes more important than ever, proper data management is no longer a “nice-to-have” — it’s a requirement. Building data management skills begins with an honest assessment of where your organization’s strengths and weaknesses lie, and where the gaps exist that prevent you from thinking about your supply chain strategically.

Where does your organization need to focus its attention to take your data management to the next level?

The post Data Management Challenges and Solutions for the Modern Organization appeared first on Uber Freight.