Introduction and challenges
Transport is still challenging. The emergence of e-commerce and the strategic importance of the last mile delivery also makes it a major differentiator in terms of service (responsiveness, punctuality, tracking, etc.). However, this sector often remains opaque due to the multiplicity of actors who each have their own services, fleet types, network structures, IT tools, indicators and tariff grids. In addition, there are other complicating factors: a high rate of subcontracting (often through a cascade structure), a shortage of drivers leading to price pressure and the requirement to develop long-term partnerships, and a growing demand for service.
Transport optimisation requires a good understanding of its ecosystem and its cost and service drivers: clear purchasing strategy, transport vs. rental purchase trade-offs, optimisation of the fill rate of shipped media and optimisation of vehicle filling, reduction of empty travel distance, forecasting, load smoothing and shared visibility of flows, optimisation of loading/unloading times on site, reduction of breakage rates, control of the environmental impact (societal expectations and regulatory changes), and improvement of delivery to the customer promise.
How we can help
- Benchmark transport tariffs against the market considering the positioning (negotiating power, service offer, etc.) and whether for road, sea or air transport
- Carrier strategy: allocation of transport segments, securing risks (dependency, capacity commitment, etc.)
- Prospective and applicative vision of new technologies as a performance driver (IoT, geolocation, autonomous and augmented driving, predictive machine learning on load plans, etc.)
- Analysis of shipment profiles to identify optimisation drivers: average weights, containers, morphological sorting based on size and shape, geographical sorting, and production curve
- Choice of the most suitable road transport: lot, courier, or rental with driver
- Definition of specifications, identification of the panel of service providers and managing the RFP (road / maritime / air, regional / national / international)
- Selection and implementation of transport planning and execution IT systems that meet shipper or carrier constraints
- Structuring dashboards for management or operational staff to quickly identify malfunctions, alerts, ensure compliance with specifications, and drive performance