Cloud Nine: How Technology Can Help Logstics Providers Beat The Competition

Cloud Nine: How Technology Can Help Logstics Providers Beat The Competition 

- Sian Hopwood

The logistics industry is undergoing a period of steady change. The old role of logistics provider, in which companies simply arranged the swiftest, cheapest carriage possible for a shipment, is broadening. Customers increasingly expect their logistics providers to offer value-add services including shipment visibility, arrival estimates and administration support. Everything from customs to shipment redirection is now fair game for logistic companies - generalisation rather the specialisation is the name of the game.

This is largely due to the impact of technology: customers expect that, with the right tech, logistics companies ought to be able to d multiple tasks in a very short time - whether that’s warehousing, distribution or administration for customs and compliance. Th problem is that for many companies, these things do in fact still take a great deal of time and effort. As the industry stands, in the main it is larger companies which are capable of saving on admin resources by using sophisticated technology to automate these processes.

However despite this intense competition among logistics providers, the growing capabilities of cloud-based supply chain solutions mean that small- and medium-sized companies can now benefit – indirectly – from many of the same tools as their well-heeled, tech-savvy brethren.