4 Ways Express Logistics Providers Can Enhance Materials Handling

Express logistics involves goods movements across multiple vehicles and has multiple moving parts, which makes it crucial for businesses to ensure proper materials handling. It is essential for outbound and inbound logistics, as it can improve customer service by making packages easy to find, move, and ship. This, in turn, helps optimize logistics productivity by reducing the amount of time spent on retrieving and storing inventory. Additionally, it helps with reducing delivery times, lowering overall costs, and improving ergonomics and the work environment.

On the other hand, poor material handling in express logistics can have a significant impact on a business’s bottom line. Apart from costs incurred due to the logistics movements, businesses can experience customer churn owing to package damage, theft, and package loss.

Let’s have a quick look at four awesome ways express logistics providers can improve materials handling, ensure safe and highly efficient operations, and elevate CX without burning their pockets.

4 Expert Tips to Improve Material Handling in Express Logistics

#1 – Delivery Route Optimization for Reducing Miles Traveled

Material handling in express logistics is the movement, storage, and control of products and materials from the point of origin to the destination. However, it is important to note that material handling is not just about the goods but also about the logistics. The lesser a shipment has to travel, the fewer resources it consumes and the lesser cost it incurs.

Optimizing delivery routes via smart AI-powered route planning and optimization platform helps businesses reduce the overall costs of delivery and logistics transportation. Smart delivery route optimization solutions can cut down the miles traveled by 7% with improved routing based on accurate customer-provided locations and improve deliveries-per-day-per-driver by 22%.

#2 – Intelligent LTL/FTL Freight Management to Reduce the Number of Touchpoints

LTL/FTL freight travels on pallets, and the carrier generally carries consignments from multiple clients/businesses. Hence, some pallets require unloading and re-loading on the way until the destination arrives, which increases the number of touchpoints and can disturb/damage the goods. It also leads to higher labor costs, increased delivery times, and inefficiencies. 

By ensuring intelligent loading of FTL/LTL shipments in the order of delivery (as per the delivery route), the express logistics providers can not only overcome all these challenges but they can also ensure proper shipment handling throughout the logistical movement. 

#3 – Real-Time Shipment Visibility for Efficient Logistics Management

Real-time shipment visibility enables warehouse managers to keep track of shipments in transit, which helps to streamline the material handling process. By providing an up-to-date and accurate view of shipments in transit, warehouse managers can plan and allocate resources to ensure that shipments arrive on time, thus avoiding unnecessary delays and disruptions. Moreover, with the help of real-time shipment visibility, warehouse managers can also predict potential risks and identify any potential problems, enabling them to take appropriate action to avoid costly delays and damage.

In addition, real-time shipment visibility also helps to reduce human error, as warehouse managers are able to monitor shipments in transit and ensure that the right goods are delivered at the right time. This eliminates the need for manual verification and double-checking, thus reducing the chances of errors and costly mistakes.

#4 – Realistic ETAs to Reduce Time Pressure

Highly smart and efficient route planning, dynamic optimization as per real-time road conditions, and real-time shipment visibility help businesses get more realistic ETAs and convey the same to end customers and riders. As every stakeholder for every shipment has complete visibility over the ETAs, asset movements, and order status, the execution of every task becomes smooth and seamless.

With optimized routing, delivery times can be reduced, allowing for more efficient delivery of goods. More accurate ETAs can also improve the scheduling of deliveries, allowing for more efficient use of time and resources. Additionally, better route planning and realistic ETAs can reduce the need for additional personnel and vehicles, thus saving costs. 

Investing in intelligent platforms for express logistics automation and delivery orchestration & management can help improve material handling, as well as reduce the last mile delivery costs by 23% and mid mile costs by 12%. They help reduce the amount of touch labor and increase vehicle capacity utilization by 31%. Further, the transportation costs, man-hours savings, and overall steps to complete deliveries are some other benefits of automating express logistics, which are definitely game changers for businesses.