It could really be considered as a sort of “virtuous circle”. Digitalization of the consumers’ lifestyle habits is definitely boosting the global rise of e-commerce that, in turn, is hardly pushing the escalating demand for specific logistics and competitive transportation service. Both warehousing and freight transport definitely play a key role in the success of e-commerce that is founding out its real lifeblood in the worldwide increasing Internet and mobile devices penetration as well as in the growing acceptability of the online payments.
The global booming of e-commerce is thus driving some dramatical changes in logistics and transportation as well, increasing the freight trucking capacity and the strategical importance of successfully managing the final-mile delivery processes, and also making primarily necessary to have innovated solutions and digital tools to enhance the efficiency in the management of the “phygical” (physical and digital) flows.
Nowadays, for the companies working with e-commerce and omnichannel, transport is a particularly heavy voice in the financial budget, but also a strategical element for composing a really market aggressive solution. Consequently, the transport companies are requested to fulfill the most competitive offer regarding speed, quality and, of course, tariffs. Therefore, their challenge is, always more often, delivering the best freight transport service to the very best price on market.
Easier said than done if, as it sounds to be in Europe now, the transport management costs keep on being quite enough high, the available transportation capacity is rising up and up (as some of the main players’ market monitor refer) and the lack of truck drivers is dramatically pressing. How can it be solved?
Surely, adopting a “lean” point of view in transport management could be the right and winning answer. Here the game has to be played on two levels: firstly, increasing and also improving the availability of data. The exchange of critical information in the early stages of procurement, for example, allows to the transport companies to ensure an offer, at the same time, consistent with the market expectations and also aligned with their own business. Forthcoming but closely connected with the previous point, it is vital that the transport companies create ever closer, stronger and lasting partnerships with all their clients and suppliers too, sharing targets and results and then realizing flexible and “win-win” processes. So, an “hand in hand” evolution in the three markets - digital, e-commerce, logistics/transportation - could really contribute to create inside the whole supply chain a high value recognized not only by the final customers, but last and not list also by the all players in the game as well.