Top 5 ways technology supports business growth in haulage

Technology has not only changed the way we live our lives; it has also revolutionised how we work. In the workplace, solutions that streamline or automate monotonous or complex processes have become a necessity, rather than a luxury.

A 2022 insight paper on growth acceleration for logistics companies by PwC’s global strategy house, Strategy&, states that investment in technology is one of the three main levers of growth common across the logistics sector. The paper continues to say, “For a logistics business, responding to the challenges of responsible growth is an essential commercial imperative for all and will become an existential risk for others if they do not act.”

Technology is essential to keep up with the demands of the sector, and it is critical for putting your business in a position to deliver exceptional customer service. Growth outperformers in the sector are those who invest in developing digital technologies to increase productivity and efficiency. These are the businesses that, inevitably, also see improved profits.

But how can you use technology to fuel growth in your haulage business? Here are five key ways:

1. Improve internal communication and speed up job completion

Effective collaboration is essential in all businesses. For hauliers, the communication between back-office staff and drivers can be particularly challenging, and lack of visibility or slow communication can seriously hamper operations.

Many planners still communicate with drivers via WhatsApp or give them their job lists on paper. These unstructured forms of communication and job handling can result in planning mix-ups and they don’t allow planners to communicate important messages, such as plan changes, when they need to.

Implementing a digital transport management system (TMS) can solve these challenges.

An innovative TMS seamlessly integrates with driver apps, making it easy to manage schedules, communicate important updates, and make real-time changes to journeys. And, to help your employees who might struggle to adapt to new technology, they are designed to visually replicate previous ways of working, such as WhatsApp messages.

When communication improves, it allows you to turn jobs around quicker, which in turn can help speed up your cash flow.

2. Digitise proof documents to accelerate your order-to-cash cycle

Invoicing is a struggle for many hauliers, and proof of delivery (POD) is an especially troublesome part of invoicing. If your business uses paper PODs and they get lost, there’s little you can do about it. This can potentially result in lost revenue and impact your profit margin.

By switching to integrated electronic proof of delivery (ePOD), which some transport management systems offer, you never have to worry about losing PODs again. A digital audit trail shows you who collected or delivered what, when, and where, all in real time. The ePOD automatically attaches to the customer’s invoice in your transport management system.

Integration with accounting software further allows you to speed up invoicing for completed jobs and reduce duplication.

3. Create and carry out the perfect plan for greater cost efficiency

Planning is essential to the success of your operations. You need to juggle multiple vehicles, drivers, and jobs, all while making sure your plans are optimal to ensure you’re running at maximum capacity. If you don’t perfect your cost-per-mile ratio with optimal planning, you are potentially running your vehicles at a higher expense. Manual planning is no longer the sensible method.

Transport management systems provide digital planning solutions that allow you to visualise your plan and make changes to optimise journeys. You can then track the status of jobs in real time and get ahead of any challenges, making changes as your plan progresses. You can also identify any drivers who may be running empty so you can increase vehicle utilisation.

Proper planning, with a single, complete view of your plan, means you can ensure you’re making the most of every mile driven.

4. Deliver on your promises and empower your customers

Ideally, you want to give your customers exactly what they want, when they want it. Late delivery is one of the key issues impacting customer satisfaction, so for hauliers to keep their customers happy, it’s important that they deliver on their promises. With digital planning solutions, you can improve your timelines and make sure your drivers reach each customer on time.

Unfortunately, unavoidable events do happen. This is when it’s important to be on top of your communication to keep your customers up to speed. A transport management system with an accessible customer portal can feed updates automatically to keep your customers informed all the way about the status of their jobs.

When customers can access this information themselves, it also reduces inbound calls to your office for progress updates. Frequent update requests from customers can throttle your back-office staff. If you reduce this, it frees up time for employees to focus on other business-critical tasks.

5. Automate processes to improve employees’ job satisfaction

A major frustration for workers in the haulage sector is outdated and ineffective technology that creates more work for them, usually with plenty of duplication. Another is manual, repetitive processes.

By digitising these processes and replacing dated technology, you can buy back time for your staff. Not only is this important for their productivity, but it’s also important for job satisfaction and work-life balance. A Randstad survey found that a good work-life balance is more important than salary for two-thirds of UK workers who participated in the study.

Meeting the needs of your people creates happy employees who are more likely to be committed and loyal to your business. What’s more, businesses with satisfied employees can even increase their productivity, profits, and sales.

Technology is the way to grow

Moving away from established ways of working can be daunting. Fujitsu’s Mastering Modernisation survey showed that 60% of business leaders are nervous about the future after struggling to keep up with digital transformation, while 91% felt confident about technology driving change for their business.

This is the case in the haulage sector, which is behind other industries in terms of digital adoption. Maybe it’s time to say goodbye to clunky legacy technology and digitise your manual, error-prone processes. With a transport management system, you can improve productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. And the result? A business geared and future-proofed for company-wide growth.

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