As a freight forwarder or shipper, your time is valuable. Your goal is to push the shipping quantity to as much as possible while putting off any fires that may arise. However, in the continuous effort to master your tasks, there may be little room left to think about improving your supply chain as a whole. Without realizing it, there are a couple of activities that, while industry-standard, can make you lose money. Let’s take a look at three quick ways to improve your supply chain’s efficiency while saving money.
Wasted time
It is common for logistics employees to spend at least 1 hour per day looking for updates on their shipments, which is unnecessary as software can automatically update you on any relevant changes in ETA or ETS. A system like this can save hours of work and allow logisticians to focus on meaningful tasks, like advising partners or talking to potential clients.
The important updates should come to you instead of looking for them on different websites. Such a software solution alerts you of the irregularities that do require your attention, like delayed shipments by multiple days or containers getting stuck in transshipment. Managing exceptions and focusing on tasks that add value has shown to be the principal time and money savers for logistics organizations.
For example, if you have two employees spending one hour per day each looking for time changes in shipments, that’s 40 hours of labor per month. In about four months, you end up paying a total of an extra salary. This money could be saved to invest in training, infrastructure, or rewards for your employees to keep up the great work.
Demurrage & detention costs
A container standing still for too long should not be part of your worries. Most of the time, demurrage and detention costs are preventable. Again, software solutions can warn you of containers standing idle for an exceptionally long time, preventing unnecessary costs.
It is truly liberating to have a simple data overview of your containers standing still. On top of that, if you add automated alerts to keep you in the loop when free time is running out, you can gain the best ROI of all: a free mind to focus on crucial matters.
Our demurrage and detention dashboard works very well for this purpose. You can view specific shipments clearly and gather insights with an overview of all your containers. With this feature, our partners reduced up to 42% in demurrage & detention costs. Feel free to give it a try by clicking the button below.
Communication
Lastly, another way you can save money in your supply chain is with integrations. Logistics software does not communicate easily with each other, making employees send an overload of emails and documents to partners. Again, hours of work are lost and, more importantly, a lot of human-made errors can happen, which can cost thousands of euros!
With a unified platform, you can visualise your data streams from different software in one place. This saves up a large amount of time as there is no need to switch between platforms to find information. Furthermore, integrating partners takes only seconds, helping everyone save time when sharing information. And by giving partners this transparency, you can enhance your business by quickly building trustworthy relationships and simplifying tradeflow management.
Conclusion
The easiest way to stop losing money in logistics operations is by integrating smart software that can simplify the essential work for you. Whether you are wasting time looking for information, getting caught up on demurrage and detention costs, or having trouble communicating with your team and partners, there is a solution that can solve all of these challenges. With automated data flows, alerts, and user-friendly interfaces, your job becomes more manageable, reducing chances of mistakes leading to costs.
The main takeaway we want you to gain from this article is the impact of an all-in-one maritime logistics software. By reducing time on repetitive tasks, gaining visibility on shipments, and collaborating with partners, you will also gain exponential benefits apart from saving money. With the extra time and tools, your employees will make well-informed decisions that will build the basis of a stronger revenue-gaining business.