Technology Wanted for Mobile Transportation & Logistics Workforce

An April study from Intermec Inc. surveyed 375 managers of transport and logistics firms in six countries around the world. The findings were illuminating: the companies all firmly believed that arming their mobile workforce with new technology could and would cut both their pick-up times by 30 percent and delivery times by 29 percent.

A few more interesting findings from the study include:

• 38 percent of U.S. organizations view operational efficiency as the area of most strategic importance for their business.
• 77 percent of organizations across the United Kingdom, U.S., Germany, France, Australia and New Zealand say their customers now demand same-day delivery services.
• 92 percent of companies claim that meeting these expectations is placing significant challenges on their business to adjust.

Most pallet shipping groups feel that customer demand can best be made through automating key processes in the pick-up and delivery areas, and that by adopting these technologies, the time taken for each pick-up and delivery can be cut by 2.68 and 2.41 minutes respectively, providing a significant boost to the efficiency of the mobile worker. Further report findings are as follows:

The three biggest areas that organizations believed would improve their ROI were mobile communications (60 percent), integrated vehicle telematics (44 percent) and RFID (38 percent).

The anticipated efficiency gains from these new technologies will likely extend to back office staff as well. The survey respondents believe that by providing proactive shipment updates by incorporating location-based and mobile technologies, 24 percent of the reported 6,677 calls per day from customers asking for order status updates could immediately be eliminated-- giving companies more time to focus on a wider spread of clients, and easing the clients' minds about their cargo. All in all, if new technology is implemented, it'll be a win-win for everyone.