Do you remember taking long road trips as a kid and you would repeatedly ask your family, “Are we there yet?” Shippers and their logistics service providers (LSPs) often have a similar conversation during long transport journeys, except the question is usually “Is my stuff there yet?” or “When is my shipment going to arrive?” Many would assume that this is an easy question to answer but for most LSPs it is far from simple. Why is that?
While goods are in-transit they can encounter a number of disruptions that affect a shipment’s arrival times including:
- Inclement weather conditions
- Port-to-port delays
- Customs delays
- Lack of in-transit status updates
To compete in today’s market, supply chain professionals must promptly address these deviations and take ownership of the problem. Many times, shippers don’t know there is a delay until their shipment is already late. This has a trickle-down effect – if LSPs can’t provide their customers with a realistic ETA (estimated time of arrival) then shippers can’t provide their end customers with one. This consequently puts both the shipper and LSP at risk of losing their customers to a competitor who can provide a reliable ETA.
Robust in-transit visibility is essential, but it can only highlight where goods are at a given moment in time. When shipments deviate from their planned timeline, reliable predictability is the key to making intelligent decisions for remediation.
Predictive ETAs build on your in-transit visibility capabilities to provide the granular level arrival estimates that are essential for mitigating disruptions and coordinating hand offs. Combining this with your planning and execution systems effectively changes the conversation between shippers and LSPs from “Is my stuff there yet?” to “Does this delay impact production or will I need to expedite the next left of the journey?” ]
This eBook focuses on the challenges shippers and LSPs face when predicting ETAs and how they can adapt to the unexpected to create a positive impact on their end customers.
Please CLICK HERE to download the white paper.