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Ecommerce: Last-Mile Challenges

Last mile deliveries is the most challenging part of shipments of export cargo and import cargo in international trade.
Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

Ecommerce: Last-Mile Challenges

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The last mile is bearing the brunt of the ecommerce boom. This is creating a set of unique challenges for all those involved. For example, as shoppers head online, retailers find themselves without the comfort and stability of brick and mortar for managing the customer experience.

Logistics providers also face their own set of challenges. The last mile might be one of the highest growth sectors in the logistics industry, but it is also one of the most expensive.

The dissemination of digital technology across all walks of life has been a key driver for the growth of ecommerce. Digital tools have become critical for logistics providers and retailers to succeed in the last mile. The rapidity and complexity of the resulting advancements have put last mile on its back foot.

Delivery standards need to catch up to meet increasing expectations, and tools that allow automation, personalization and greater visibility will play a strategic role in achieving this.

Ultimately, the most important factor in the last mile is the experience of the end customer (the consumer). Consumers have the same expectations of service and engagement from the places they shop online as they do in-store, except they expect it faster, in line with the speed of the digital world. For the first time, logistics is on the front line of the customer experience as retailers take a step behind the scenes. In essence, can logistics effectively provide good last mile customer experience at an affordable price? Can retailers maintain control of the customer experience even without in-store contact?

For successful retailers and logistics providers, the solutions to these challenges will come through innovation, modernizing processes, digital transformation and the effective use of technology. This whitepaper seeks to provide insight into the state of last mile delivery for retail providers.

Companies in the retail and logistics industries are being forced to adapt to meet the fulfilment demands of their consumers. The minimum expectation is now: What I want, where I want and when I want it. We are now in the age of the Individual Economy (Iconomy for short).

Retailers are working on final mile deliveries of shipments of export cargo and import cargo in international trade.
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, News, Trucking

Final Mile Delivery in the Age of the Customer

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Retail has entered a new, digital world that has redefined the delivery process. For supply chain executives, the focus is shifting from how goods move from place to place, to providing the ultimate customer experience when shoppers receive (or need to return) them. This creates new challenges to

improve the visibility, speed and real-time communication between retailers and their most valued customers, or risk losing competitive advantage.

A survey undertaken by eft, reflected in its report “Redefining Final Mile Delivery in the Age of the Customer” found that retail supply chain leaders:

Understand the importance of the customer experience (CX). Retailers are coming to know the importance of gaining control of the delivery process and leveraging the technology to create a transparent and flexible supply chain, to provide the customer the optimal experience.

Are struggling with technology that does not address CX needs. Many retailers are still not up to speed with the technology necessary to upgrade the supply chain. This requires commitment and investment in innovation.

Want to integrate the CX into their operations. The gathering, aggregating and analysis of real-time data is essential to providing an optimal customer delivery experience. Third-party knowhow is often key to leveraging that data.

Desire innovation that is often at odds with the traditional operational metrics. Though most retailers still consider margins as critical, some increasingly consider customer loyalty the top priority. Ultimately, the customer delivery experience may become a vital market differentiator.

Logistics providers move shipments of export cargo and import cargo in international trade.
3pls, Archives, Commentary, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Software, Trucking

Talent: One Of The Biggest Challenges Facing Logistics Providers in Today’s Market

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What is the biggest challenge facing CIOs in the logistics industry?

Talent is one of the biggest challenges facing any logistics service provider in today’s market. As we raise the bar to meet and exceed our customer’s service levels, the ability to recruit, train and retain talent is paramount. We’re investing heavily in tech to bring quality operators and the resources to support them. From fleet management to maintenance, from professional drivers to accounting – IT is working with every team in our group to build a more collaborative, productive environment and the appropriate tools to support the Werner culture in an everchanging landscape.

Who is driving innovation in logistics technology?

At Werner, we see the drive for new capabilities equally driven by customers and logistics service provider, with a focus on providing more visibility and information on shipments combined with improved productivity and safety throughout the supply chain.

What role does technology play in allowing businesses to differentiate themselves?

We believe the information needs to move faster than the freight and view technology as a core catalyst to achieving this goal. To that end – we’ve invested $1 billion over the past two years upgrading our fleet, including the latest tech, to improve our driver experience, customer visibility, and productivity/environmental performance of our fleet.

What impact do you think the influx of logistics tech start -ups will have in the industry?

The excitement and interest in IoT and logistics tech is fueling a broader recognition of the importance of these tools and the near-term potential. IoT investment will drive transformational innovation that will have an unprecedented effect on safety, environmental and operational efficiencies. We’re already seeing an impact across the global supply chain with companies leveraging IoT to manage assets, cargo and process that is enabling ‘supply chain visibility’ at a new, exciting level.

What role do customers play when implementing or developing new logistics IT?

Our customers continue to push the envelope – partnering with us to streamline processes, improve integration/visibility, and drive continuous improvement. It’s the core of what we all do as logistics professional and, for me, what excites me about being a transportation/logistics service provider.

How are you attracting top technology talent to your organization?

We’re pushing forward with hybrid cloud and IoT strategies, big data/analytics initiatives, leveraging devops/continuous deployment and many other exciting initiatives in our organization. As we talk with our candidates, interns and the broader market we see a growing excitement for these types of opportunities and continue to invest in our existing and new staff to provide them an exciting, dynamic environment to further their careers.

Considering recent cyber attacks, what steps can companies take to limit the risk as much as possible?

We’ve taken the position to design security in from day one. Our information security team is heavily involved from the start of our planning and engaged in every initiative our IT Services group delivers. We’ve also invested in education across the organization and established critical visibility of the needs and priorities of infosec to our executive team and board.

Which new disruptive technology do you think will have a dramatic impact on the industry over the coming 12 to 18 months?

We believe the explosion of IoT and the ability to leverage this with Big Data will have enormous impact on our planning and operations. Werner pioneered ELD/in-cab solutions decades ago and we’ve been leveraging this information in our operations for years, but the new tools and capabilities with talented user community is driving an expansion of business analysis and predictive analytics that will only improve as we expand the use of machine learning and other new tech in this space.

If you had an unlimited budget, what would you look to automate?

So many potential opportunities – I’d look to balance efforts across our customers and professional drivers. Given our focus on improving the driver experience, I’d accelerate our optech investments in truck and trailer fleets and fast-track our roadmap on complementary mobility solutions. From a customer perspective, I continue to expand our visibility to shipment and related information, broadening our integration tech stack while tailoring to fit the unique needs of our diverse customer base.

3PLs manage shipments of export cargo and import cargo in international trade.
3pls, Archives, Commentary, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

The Biggest Challenges Facing Logistics CIOs

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What is the biggest challenge facing CIOs in the logistics industry?

Cyberterrorism and finding qualified, experienced staff are the biggest challenges. We are spending a substantial amount of time and money to protect ourselves from cyberterrorists and keep our environments and our operations flowing uninterrupted. Competition for talent is extreme, driving compensation higher and making it difficult to compete in some of the major areas of the world.

Who is driving innovation in logistics technology?

I’m not sure any one company is driving technology in the industry, but Amazon is definitely setting a high bar. Not everyone requires recent advances such as smart glasses, drones, unmanned fork lifts and 3D printing, which is why our approach focuses on driving new and innovative solutions, grounded in real-world operations to add value to our customers at all levels.

What role does technology play in allowing businesses to differentiate themselves?

Given the legacy methods of managing warehouses, strong WMS and IM systems make a huge difference. We’ve seen productivity levels dramatically increase as solutions have been moved from the legacy mainframe systems to more functionally rich options on the market. Of course, adding company IP to those newer solutions enriches the solution even more.

What impact do you think the influx of logistics tech start-ups will have in the industry?

Provided they possess the deep logistical experience, their solutions will definitely garner a long look.

What role do customers play when implementing or developing new logistics IT?

The key to customers using third party logistics providers’ systems is data. I can’t stress the importance of clean, accurate data. A system is only as good as the data loaded.

How are you attracting top technology talent to your organization?

Besides the usual recruiting methods, we utilize social media to attract talent. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. You need to tell a good story about your organization. Younger talent does not want to waste time in a stale organization. They look for innovated technology when choosing their next job.

Considering recent cyber attacks, what steps can companies take to limit the risk as much as possible?

Steps such as penetration testing should be done by outside firms to test your boundaries. Most importantly an organization must have a strong employee awareness program. Attacks are becoming more sophisticated and target employees through phishing. Providing our employees with knowledge of how these phishers operate is key to prevention.

Which new disruptive technology do you think will have a dramatic impact on the industry over the coming 12 to 18 months?

The industry has been void of customer access to data. As more data is brought to the fingertips of the user community, it is unimaginable what new revelations will arise.

If you had an unlimited budget, what would you look to automate?

Place significant automation in the warehouse. Of course, that is predicated on the type of goods being warehoused and the assumption that the facility already has a solid operating system based on Lean Six Sigma principles to provide a structure for operational success. So many older warehouses are fully manual and could improve greatly through even the simplest form of automation.