Transportation Costs: Best Practices, Tips & Tools Need to Optimize Spend

The transportation costs associated with operating a business within the trucking industry can appear daunting. However, there are ways that these businesses can attempt to curb some of these costs. These are tips and tools to optimize spending, which will effectively boost profitability and secure savings throughout the supply chain.

Leverage advanced analytics to understand the full shipment life cycle

One of the best tools that are currently available for members of the transportation industry is advanced shipping analytics. Advanced analytics provide its users with an incredible wealth of knowledge to be applied throughout the business's practices. These advanced analytics allow companies to understand the complete shipment life cycle. As further reported by the Journal of Big Data, "Supply chain data is high dimensional generated across many points in the chain for varied purposes (products, supplier capacities, orders, shipments, customers, retailers, etc.) in high volumes due to plurality of suppliers, products, and customers and in high velocity reflected by many transactions continuously processed across supply chain networks. In the sense of such complexities, there has been a departure from conventional (statistical) demand forecasting approaches that work based on identifying statistically significant trends." And part of that comes from the application of data to understand and manage transportation costs.

This makes for precious insight that vastly improves all operations' transparency and can reduce transportation costs.

Reduce spend by recapturing revenue from the eradication of invoicing errors

Another great way to boost profitability is to eradicate invoicing errors. Shippers, carriers, and logistics service providers (LSPs) alike can benefit from this. These companies can eliminate invoicing errors by pre-auditing all invoices across parcels and any other type of shipment based on your contractual agreements. Although it may appear tedious at times, this ensures that companies are not needlessly spending. Pre-auditing can even be outsourced to LSPs that specialize in tasks related to invoice screening.

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Use artificial intelligence and machine learning to recognize anomalies

In addition to pre-auditing, businesses can significantly benefit from the usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These tools help companies to identify and eliminate anomalies associated with transportation costs that, left unattended and unrecognized, can be costly for any business. Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools operate in a manner that requires little to no work on the user's end. These tools function with the role of continually working to identify and fix whatever anomalies may be present, helping to reduce parcel spend and transportation costs as a whole

Standardize data across your systems to avoid siloes and capture a more extensive picture

Standardizing and increasing the amount of incoming data significantly improves business operations across the network to aid in transportation optimization. Businesses with access to more data have improved transparency throughout their business practices, including transportation costs. Improved clarity earns companies a bigger picture of their company's overall operations and an ability to lean on data to aid in operational improvement decisions.

Take advantage of accessible, easy-to-navigate systems

Businesses in the trucking industry are already burdened by daunting trucking practices that frequently overcomplicate things that should be much easier. Taking advantage of accessible, easy-to-navigate systems eliminates much of the hassle of the current industry's practices, leading to higher transportation costs. Investment in these easy-to-navigate systems is a must for any business that wants to improve the accessibility of its operations. The system's ability to allow non-supply chain experts to access their shipping data and completely understand what's going on in their networks is key to overall success in reducing transportation costs.

Generate recurring, insightful reports for easy distribution

Companies should work to generate recurring, insightful reports for easy distribution. This improves the spread of essential and valuable information that can make or break business operations. Companies that succeed in improving the distribution of insightful reports find that their overall operations improve and subsequently reduced transportation costs. This naturally leads to optimization of spending as well.

Increase efficient management of transportation costs with the right analytics provider

All the above tips can help optimize spending in your company to boost profitability and secure more savings. In addition to these tips, partnering with the right analytics provider can take on much of the leg-work associated with these tips. Partnership with an experienced and successful analytics provider can even further increase efficient management of transportation costs. Visit Intelligent Audit to get started.

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