Customer expectations for transport have grown insatiable over the years. Everyone wants to know where everything is at all times. They want delivery windows and the pinpoint accuracy of when they’ll arrive. They want to be alerted immediately of anything going awry, and to know exactly when their package will arrive.
Yet meeting those expectations through traditional means—adding a few more heads to the mix—doesn’t work anymore. The numbers don’t make sense. You can’t hire yet another team of dispatchers and customer service professionals just because your volume increased by another 20%. There’s not enough margin. Not to mention, finding good, reliable people with transport operating knowledge isn’t easy these days, either.
So how are successful transport companies doing it? They’re making do with what they’ve got and working smarter.
Better Systems Mean Less Interruptions
One thing that rarely gets acknowledged is how much time a dispatcher spends answering the question, “where’s my load” or “how soon will you be here.” These are all straightforward questions, but when you’ve got thirty of them before lunch, it derails productivity.
Companies who are effectively managing this have systems in place so customers can track statuses on their own. We’re not talking tracking that merely states it’s “in transit” three days in a row. We’re talking about useful information that provides real-time location, ETA with live updates and decision-making processes, and proof of delivery in mere seconds.
Without the need to call or email, all that stop-and-go back and forth communication is eliminated. Your team isn’t playing phone tag and can then devote focus onto areas that actually require human judgment—what to do when a truck breaks down or how to adjust a route when someone desperately needs an urgent pickup.
Automation That Actually Works (Not the Annoying Kind)
There’s helpful automation in the world and then there’s the frustrating kind. Helpful automation tracks repetitive, tedious tasks; frustrating automation inserts barriers unnecessarily between people who need to talk to each other.
Savvy transport companies are successfully automating appointment confirmations, delivery alerts, and documentation requests. When something is delivered, it goes straight into the computer as proof. When something is delayed, the computer automatically alerts the customer without anyone needing to remember to do it. When a bill needs to be sent out, that invoice is generated from the completed delivery details.
The Difference Between Tracking and Managing
Tracking tells you where something is; management systems help you better do something with that information. That’s the difference that matters when attempting to facilitate more without adding more.
Many transport companies have switched to tms software where integrated dispatching, routing, customer communication and reporting all occur through one platform. Instead of toggling through five different platforms or (worse) trying to communicate via Excel spreadsheets and phone calls all day long, everything is interconnected. Your dispatcher sees what’s going on, can communicate with drivers, update customers and pivot all from one location without losing time toggling back and forth or duplicating information entry.
It’s not just time save; it’s an efficiency gain due to reduction in errors. When you’re copying and pasting information from different systems, things get miscommunicated or entered incorrectly. When data flows seamlessly from assignment through delivery to invoicing, there’s less opportunity for error that only creates more work down the line.
Planning That Forecasts Issues Instead of Responding to Them
Companies that run like they’re running well aren’t always lucky; they’re often just better planners. They’re looking down the line to see what might go wrong and creating some flexibility in their operations.
Planning systems help with this. They can identify errors before fires get lit. Maybe a driver’s route is scheduled too tightly to make it through all stops. Perhaps two deliveries are scheduled too close for comfort based on usual traffic patterns. Maybe a pickup was scheduled at the same time it needs to deliver somewhere else.
Catching these errors in planning takes far less time than trying to fix them in the middle of the day once everyone is committed to their routes already. It’s easier to make a phone call in advance than it is to adjust a driver completely and explain why three customers’ deliveries are now delayed due to lack of awareness.
Communication That Doesn’t Require Check Ins Every Minute
Drivers spend significant amounts of time updating dispatch as to their whereabouts and what’s going on with each stop. Dispatch spends just as long calling them to ask where they are and what’s going on with every load pickup/delivery along the way. It’s a vicious cycle that easily eats up time on both ends.
A better solution has drivers indicate their current statuses—a simple tap on a mobile app—and has dispatch automatically privy them of who’s where based on established need. They hit ‘arrived’ or ‘completed’ instead of calling in; dispatch can see an entire fleet instead of playing phone tag.
This is especially important as your company grows. Five drivers can be managed via phone calls easily; 20 or 30 become a full-time position for someone. Companies that successfully grow have eliminated most routine communication for when it actually counts—when something goes awry and human discussion is needed for problem solving.
Making Better Use of Time You’ve Got
Ultimately, what separates operationally sound companies from operationally chaotic ones is not about effective speed but rather about utilization of time that doesn’t need to be wasted on unnecessary activity or could instead be saved for a quicker time based on right now.
Little things make a difference. Having customer information at hand while determining routes instead of having to toggle back and forth saves precious seconds. Knowing which drivers will likely finish early instead of checking back in saves valuable time—maybe one driver can take on more work to help out someone else getting backed up due to traffic delays. Historical data about job times makes for more accurate planning.
These aren’t sexy efficiencies by any means, but they add up quickly. Save 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there over countless daily tasks across multiple employees and suddenly you’re accomplishing much more in the same time frame.
What This Actually Looks Like in Reality
Transport companies that are doing well managing their growth lately have similar traits: they’ve invested in good operational systems; they’ve critically thought about what actually needs human intervention and what can be automated or self-service; they’ve built processes that allow for scaling without proportional increases in administrative support.
Above all? They’re not making it harder than it has to be anymore. When there’s an easier method or tool available that can reliably take care of routine tasks on repeat, they’ve adopted them—and saved their people for those complicated situations that actually need experience plus judgment—the type of problems you can’t solve with automation anyway.
Higher customer expectations don’t need to mean higher number of employees; they can represent efforts made with better use of existing employees.
