How real-time transportation visibility impacts your customer service?

Not knowing the whereabouts of your shipment is the single most frustrating aspect for any logistics personnel. This, coupled with a customer service representative constantly following up - is a time-tested recipe for sleepless nights.

Real Time Transportation Visibility (RTTV) had been linked with high value goods which were in transit for extended periods in the past, but with the world moving towards stringent delivery timelines, high tech adoption and ever increasing competition, it only makes sense to be proactive in risk mitigation through increased visibility.

In a world where we click ‘track’, the minute we place an online food order, it is natural to expect large organizations to provide the same value addition during their replenishment cycle. Whether it is an industrial automation company delivering a turbine or an FMCG company delivering a carton of detergents, the customer experience of knowing the ETA of the shipment, the milestone updates and the delivery condition is comparable. RTTV is an effective tool in increasing customer satisfaction by empowering the customers with data to manage expectations, foresee issues and plan around it.

There are several ways of achieving RTTV:

1. GPS/Telematics devices: One-touch integration with GPS devices/Telematics systems not just provides information pertaining to the shipment in transit, it additionally allows for the customers to identify the condition of the material in that shipment. In instances where perishable goods are in transit, every minute is crucial for the freshness of the material. Empowering and reassuring the customer with details of the temperature, pressure and air quality of the container drives confidence and reliability on the product quality.
2. Smartphone tracking: With increase in tech adoption in the driver community, smartphone tracking is easier than it ever was. By providing consent for tracking and turning on location services on their smartphones, the drivers can easily communicate their location without ever needing to get on a call. To ensure privacy for the drivers - carriers often allocate a mobile device for each truck as a permanent attachment. This provides dual benefits of RTTV, and additional options for communication with their drivers.
3. SIM-based tracking: In countries where usage of feature phones is higher than smartphones, SIM triangulation based location tracking is the best option. As with smartphone tracking, this also requires driver consent. What it lacks in accuracy, SIM based tracking makes up for in its ease of use. The ping frequency can be determined as low as once a day to as high as once every 2 minutes, depending on the requirements.
RTTV extends the B2C user experience to the B2B customers - which can be a powerful differentiator. It allows the shippers to communicate better with the carriers, make data backed decisions, while being able to plan better and improve productivity in their daily activities.

Know more about Pando’s Real Time Transportation Visibility solution here.