New technology is constantly developed to streamline trucking operations. In fact, technology is expected to eliminate $236 million in trucking operational inefficiencies over the next four years.
Of all the operational aspects trucking technology improves, delivery management and forecasting are some of the most affected — and important. After seeing the impressive results of improved delivery management and forecasting, trucking businesses are beginning to adopt advanced tank monitoring technology more and more in order to gain the advantages as well.
While there are many benefits that come with improved delivery management and forecasting, three are the most impactful for businesses: more savings, happier customers, and streamlined operations.
Mastering delivery management and delivery forecasting empower businesses to delegate the exact right amount of resources at the optimal time, helping them reduce waste and, consequently, save money. Among other benefits, improved delivery management and forecasting help businesses:
Reduce unneeded runs. Without advanced tank monitors, it’s very difficult to constantly gauge tank levels and perform runs based on that information. Over-servicing becomes a thing of the past by eliminating the fear of run-outs, resulting in a reduced number of runs.
Maximize drop size. With the help of tank monitors, your teams will be able to hold off on servicing until propane amounts are appropriately low to make drops. By waiting, you can ensure each truck utilizes the maximum drop size and delivers the most gallons possible per mile, instead of over-servicing and under-performing with your operations.
Limit the number of trucks on the road. With the reduced unneeded runs and maximized drop sizes, the number of trucks on the road needed to provide service can be reduced — leading to significant savings in terms of both equipment depreciation and wages paid.
Earning immediate ROI is any business’s first concern, but keeping customers happy can win a lot of money back in the long-term. Enhancing delivery management and forecasting is a sustainable way to provide top-notch service to your customers, as well as improve your bottom line. The relationships with customers are strengthened by helping organizations:
Provide exactly what customers need. When you proactively monitor tank levels and commodity needs, you can easily see when customers need to be serviced and account for that. With this technology also comes the ability to forecast their needs in the future, allowing you to prepare and gather the necessary resources, ensuring the customer will be taken care of.
Maintain proper levels of propane. Simply put, maintaining proper tank levels and avoiding frustrating run-out situations will keep customers happy.
Supply more accurate cost estimates. With improved delivery forecasting, you’ll be able to provide customers with more granular, accurate cost estimates. If you’ve been capitalizing on delivery management technologies, their cost estimates could potentially be even lower than before — increasing customer satisfaction.
Improved delivery management and forecasting also empower businesses to streamline their operations and improve their planning capabilities, which are highly important business needs for companies with long-term views. The longer you have technologies like tank monitors, the more granular and reliable data you’ll be able to accumulate. This data leads to more accurate predictions and better operations, empowering your business to:
Decrease service frequency. Proactive monitoring is inexpensive, but reactive services are the exact opposite. With high-tech delivery management and forecasting tools, your business won’t need to over-service customers to reduce the fear of a run-out. Sending regular updates garnered from those tools to customers will help mitigate any customer worries about decreased service frequency.
Gain insights into commodity use and forecast. With advanced technologies, you can also gain insights into customer tendencies, such as commodity consumption throughout varying seasons. With this knowledge, you’re able to predict the usage for the future and set a plan out from there.
Optimize routes. As touched on before, when you adopt technology like tank monitoring, the number of unneeded runs is reduced, along with maximizing the drops size — resulting in optimized routes. This, combined with a solution such as Smartdrops, creates highly optimized routes that can potentially increase your bottom line dramatically.
Improving delivery management and forecasting comes with a host of other benefits not covered here, and tank monitoring has the potential to drastically help tackle this challenge. Companies with a long-term view should start looking into this technology in order to start laying the foundation for a successful future.
Interested in learning how Vertrax can optimize your routes to improve your bottom-line? Contact us and we’d love to show you.