All You Need to Know About Logistics & Transport on Demand

Recently I had to relocate to another city for a new job role. As many of you who have relocated must be aware that, it involves a transfer of all your household stuff to your new premises. You need to call the packers and movers to help you pack-up, load and transport all the essentials.

It’s not just about shifting homes, sometimes you may want to employ on demand transport for local good transfer. Even traders and import/ export merchants employ transport solutions to move goods and containers from warehouses of flights/ships to firms’ production house and godowns and vice versa.

Transportation Planning & Operations

Even though at first sight the transportation operation seems very simple – Carry load from the source to destination. In reality, there are several other factors and variables the transport operating company need to consider about.

The first thing to consider while setting up the business is to approach investors and financial companies to source the funding. Next step would be to own or hire adequate fleet of vehicles to carry and transfer load.

As the time progress to optimize earning transport companies also consider route planning. Many analytic transporters often study areas from where the maximum traffic is expected. They then employ more trucks or carriage vans in this area.

Logistic Considerations

On-demand transport management also paves importance to optimum utilization of the vehicle. For a planned transfer, the entire logistic chain is devised in a well-planned manner. The basic idea is to ensure that the carriage truck must not go totally empty without load. This thing holds true when the traveling distance is long and the truck returns back completely without load.

Entire logistics are smartly interlinked that soon after the truck unloads at the customer-A, it picks up the load from customer-B. And after unloading customer-B the truck then moves on with the order from customer-C. Sometimes emergency trips and alternate vehicle are also planned to provide comprehensive services to prized customers.

Like in any other business, on-demand transport service are also on a lookout for an honest, reliable and efficient workforce. The hiring of a good set of people makes the entire logistic operation seem so smooth and convenient.

Load Classification & Manifest Formulation

In addition to all the above, on demand transport also take a time to categorize and give a unique identity to parcels. Details of sender and the receivers are often recorded. Like the name, address and contact number. Next all the collected parcels are labeled and classified as per the regional distribution.

A manifest document is prepared to record all the parcels that are loaded in particular truck or the carriage vehicle. Usually, a copy of the manifest is emailed or faxed to all the stop by stations to allow crosscheck. And to help fine trace a particular parcel when they go missing.

Many transport operators also give due importance and consideration to load handling. Dangerous goods, explosives, and weapons are usually not entertained. Likewise, perishable goods like certain chemicals and food items are also normally denied. All fragile glass and ceramic items are labeled well to instruct the handlers to handle them with care.

Price Fixing & Valuation

Depending on the quality and range of services offered transportation rate vary from one service provider to another. Usually, criteria such as load type, weight, volume, distance to carry, intra/inter city, a number of states passing are considered.

During intercity transfer, most on-demand transport services offer to deliver the parcel at customer’s doorstep. Some transporters, however, intimate about parcel arrival through a phone call or message to the customer.

Figures to Focus upon

As per statistical study transport on demand services is going to be the next big thing. Every year nearly 2.62 million tonnes of air freight is handled by transport cos. Data also reveals that an approx of 25.2 billion km are traveled by HGVs and the distance keeps increasing year after year. Another highlight suggest that transport load of 139 billion tonne-km of goods are moved by HGVs alone.

Conclusion

Nowadays most on-demand transport services offer both b2b and b2c services. Most b2b orders are bulky inventories and require a separate truck or a carriage vehicle. However in the case of a b2c offering, often load from customers belonging to the certain area are clubbed into a vehicle for distribution.

Due to heavy competition and for the desire of better economic output, many transporters are also operating 24X7. Many companies are also switching gears to adopt the latest technology for better throughput and communication. On-demand, platform connects both transporters and customers through its web and mobile offerings.

Our web and mobile development team at LetsNurture now offer you with the on-demand platform for several routines seek outs. Now you could avail several vital services on the move with simple touch and taps on your smartphone. In the on demand bucket we already feature apps like SnowMowr and BindleApp. Do you have an idea in mind? We have the expertise to give shape to it. Just send us an email to [email protected]