How To Leverage Shipment Tracking And Analytics For Tighter Cost Control

With spot rates finally falling and supply chains reaching normal, many shippers can finally lower freight costs and are no longer at the mercy of carriers demanding increasingly higher rates. However, slowing demand and rising inflation force shippers to consider even tighter cost controls to maintain margins.

Shippers are being even more creative about choosing diverse carriers and leveraging multimodal, intermodal, and multi-leg transport strategies to reduce costs. With the right transportation management system (TMS), keeping track of everything and ensuring cost-efficient deliveries are more manageable.

Advanced Shipment Tracking

The right TMS allows you to consolidate all of your tracking across carriers and modes into a single platform on a single screen to make it easy to see what’s going on at all times. This allows you to access real-time alerts and automated notifications. Alerts can help you to:

• Keep customers notified about shipments
• Make routing decisions with current, real-time information
• Better manage materials and inventory
• Alert warehouse teams about incoming shipments
• Troubleshoot issues in the supply chain

Alerts are a significant time saver, enabling you to avoid going in and out of various carrier websites to find information. However, the best TMS platforms can do so much more than just track shipments. Innovative data analytics and artificial intelligence help you optimize your processes holistically.

Progressive Data Analytics

The best TMS platforms with integrated shipment tracking give you evolved data analytics to help you identify bottlenecks, improve your shipping efficiency, and lower costs.

Integrating shipment tracking data with other data sources, such as inventory, warehouse, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems gives you a competitive edge of overseeing your supply chain from suppliers to customers.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics uses historical data and tracking information to forecast arrival times and identify potential delays before they occur. They help you evaluate the impact of using different strategies or scenarios.

For example, what happens if you shift more business to a particular carrier? You can see the impact on costs and compare historical tracking data to see if it results in more or fewer on-time deliveries. You can run similar shipping modes, lanes, and carrier performance scenarios.  

Machine Learning and Statistical Analysis

TMS solutions that utilize AI machine learning algorithms help identify patterns in shipment tracking data, including delays or route deviations. This data helps uncover anomalies and predict future events, allowing you to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions proactively. 

Statistical analysis also helps uncover correlations and causation within your shipment tracking data. You can optimize strategies to improve shipping performance when you understand the factors that directly or indirectly impact your delivery predictability (and accuracy). For example, when you analyze historical tracking data, you can identify carriers or rates more likely to generate delays and proactively change your logistics practices.

FreightPOP's SmartTRACK System

FreightPOP’s SmartTRACK system provides an at-a-glance overview of your shipments, regardless of carrier or mode you use. Tracking information comes directly from carrier systems, so you get all your freight tracking data in one place as soon as the carrier or vessel releases it.

With SmartTRACK, you can:

• Filter by mode, carrier, or destination
• Get real-time, accurate reporting from carriers
• Customize alerts for multiple scenarios
• Get shipment visibility into 3PLs

You can also automate shipment tracking and notification for internal use or directly to your end customers.

SmartTRACK provides visibility of your entire supply chain for inbound and outbound tracking, including multi-leg and intermodal shipments. You get hourly status updates for international shipments from pickup to port to ocean location. 

You can also get shipment tracking information even if you didn’t use the FreightPOP platform for shipping. You simply provide the account number on your purchase order to use the rates you have in place and your tracking information will automatically populate in the FreightPOP platform.

With FreightPOP, all of  your tracking and reporting information is in one place. You can eliminate the manual tracking work across carrier platforms, excel spreadsheets, or PDF files.

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