E-commerce industry has experienced a staggering 3000% growth from 2013 to 2016. Apart from the encouraging customer behavior producing upbeat market for retailers, there are other technology advancements which contributed to this rapid growth. The complete supply chain needs to work in a challenging environment when it comes to e-commerce business which is, even more, time constrained than the retail business. But through multiple carriers tracking solutions, now it has become possible to achieve a greater visibility for the carriers carrying shipments and keep the supply chain devoid of any failure by taking prompt actions.
An important insight to note here is that as much as multiple carriers tracking is beneficial for the retailers it is equally, if not more, beneficial for the end users. It is because of the technology solutions such as multiple carriers tracking and the accurate updates provided by them, the users are able to enforce higher confidence in the e-commerce business. This confidence has ultimately culminated into the rapid and extravagant growth of e-commerce across the world. Therefore it won’t be wrong to say that the driving force for the upsurge of e-commerce is not only limited to the consumer demand for goods across the borders but technology advancements to provide solutions like multiple carriers tracking has played an equally important role.
Why is multiple carriers transportation needed?
In logistics, the medium of transportation is a big factor in defining the delivery time. It is obvious that single type of carriers used in shipping freight will be simpler to dispatch, but it might not be a profitable case always. In e-commerce, time plays a crucial role in deciding the success rate of the last mile deliveries. Therefore it is necessary to ensure that the ordered shipment arrives the delivery point neither too late nor too early since both the scenarios will be counter productive. A product reaching earlier than the expected time of delivery has obviously utilized more resources than needed for shipping, this will increase the cost of shipping. Whereas a product reaching later than the expected time of delivery might end up in increasing the failed deliveries rate or the returned delivery rates. Multiple carriers transportation gives the shippers the flexibility to segregate and ship the freight respective to their expected delivery timings. Multiple carriers transportation involves two or more of air, land and ocean carriers used for shipping with air being fastest and land and ocean coming second and third fastest modes of transportation. The multiple carriers tracking solution becomes more relevant in this scenario. Apart from the obvious reasons of flexibility and time saving, the other two important factors which make multiple carriers transportation profitable are CO2 emissions and cost controlling.
Controlling CO2 emissions
Though being the fastest of all, the air transportation emits the CO2 emissions which are uncomparable to the other modes of the transportation. To give you a perspective about a number of CO2 emissions created by air transportation let’s compare air and ocean transportation emission states. As suggested here, a number for CO2 emission produced during a 5000 km journey of 2 tonnes of freight is 150 kg. While the same emission of the CO2 for the same cargo goes up as high as 6,605 kg. Even though the air travel is growing fast increasing the belly storage space for cargos, the overall CO2 emission produced due to air transportation makes it difficult to completely encourage air transportation for freight transportation. Being one of the least “Green transportation” mode, the shippers always consider only the “urgent” shipments for this mode of transportation.
CO2 emission produced during a 5000 km journey of 2 tonnes of freight is 150 kg.
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Controlling cost
As per standard industry observations, ocean freight transportation is the cheapest mode of freight transportation out of the three modes of shipping. It is also because the shipping vessels traveling via ocean carry humongous containers which defy the capacity of any aircraft or carrier traveling via land. Due to this huge shipping capacity, the per unit shipping rate comes down to the lowest out of all the available option. Not to mention the shipping rate also comes down to 16-18 mph with this mode of shipping freight but it is still profitable if there is no urgency to ship the freight faster than the available time. The second fastest mode of freight transportation is trucking with the fastest freight transportation being done through the air. The aircraft freight transportation is 16 times costlier than the ocean transportation. Similarly, the aircraft freight transportation is 5 times costlier than the road transportation. Therefore it maintains its reputation of being the costliest mode of logistics transportation. While it is always the first priority for the shippers to complete the delivery on time, they cannot completely forget the cost of shipping in the pursuit. Hence it is always suggested that a healthy balance of fast and cost effective shipping obtained through multiple carriers transportation is always preferable.
The aircraft freight transportation is 16 times costlier than the ocean transportation. Similarly,…
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How is multiple carriers tracking helpful?
In 2017, if you are ordering your favorite T-shirt from an e-commerce portal, you get to see the exact date by which you will be having that T-shirt in your hand. With Amazon taking a step forward by allowing the customers to choose from the different time slots available in the day for deciding the exact delivery time, the relevance of keeping an accurate track of the shipment increases. Multiple carriers tracking and transportation optimizes the shipping on cost as well as shipping time factor but it also involves various nodes where the shipment needs to be tracked to ascertain that the order will reach at the delivery point in time. It also helps the retailers and shippers to maintain their reputation by taking the required steps in between the shipping trips if the product is delayed or stuck in a single space for more than required time. With timely intimation to the customers about similar instances through multiple carriers tracking systems, the company can save its reputation and take the alternate measures to serve the request. Multiple carriers tracking also helps in sending the automated updates to the customer. For example, the same day delivery intimation sent via SMS and emails to the customers has able to reduce the failed deliveries by 25%. Now to make this feature available for the customers, shippers definitely need to know the exact location of the shipments which can be done only through the multiple carriers tracking.
Same day delivery intimation sent via SMS and emails to the customers has able to reduce the failed…
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As suggested by a 2015 Accenture study, the retailers are able to observe a significant 80% rise in the customer satisfaction after introducing the multiple delivery options. This strengthens the case for multiple carriers tracking as it helps the retailers to deliver a better shopping experience to the customers. Robust and real-time multiple carriers tracking not only added the checkpoints in the supply chain process, it also helps the shippers and retailers to reduce the customer queries with timely status updates. This increases the efficiency as well as customer trust in the service. Therefore we can say that multiple carriers tracking is beneficial for the retailers on the operational as well as business front and helps them becoming more profitable. Dreamorbit has empowered the logistics ISVs and shippers across the globe to acquire best of the multiple carriers tracking technology solutions. To know more check out the solutions and services offered by us in detail.
About DreamOrbit:
DreamOrbit is a Logistics and Supply Chain Technology Development company. We have been creating meaningful and reliable software products for the industry which is “Always on the go” for the past half decade. We are highly motivated team aimed at innovation. Our philosophy is to “keep challenging the potential within”. With the support of our happy customers and dedicated team, we strive to provide best possible solutions to industry problems. Visit our website to know more about DreamOrbit.
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