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Introduction
For those in the personalized freight industry, overcoming challenges is nothing new. You are where you are today because you came, saw, and conquered. However, as personalized freight dispatch becomes a far more competitive industry specific challenges have arisen where brute force alone won’t help you overcome the challenges that lie ahead. Several potential issues arise even when looking at what a freight dispatcher is defined as.
A freight dispatcher can be seen as a third party who represents the carrier in freight negotiations. As they take a percentage of the carrier’s income for successful delivery they are motivated to get the carrier the best rates for their expertise and preferred carry loads.
Information Exchange
Over the last few years, the logistics industry has gone through some massive changes and as a result, new industries have arisen that require freight dispatchers to be on their toes. To provide the best service possible to both e carrier and the customer a vast amount of information needs to be exchanged efficiently. While this is most certainly possible, several factors make it a challenge for personalized freight dispatch to overcome. The primary of which is the variety of technologies used.
Each technology used in freight logistics uses its own data format to transfer information to stakeholders. For the freight dispatcher, this can be a headache, to say the least. This reality often results in the freight dispatcher not being able to communicate directly with the carrier’s IT system. This can often result in unnecessary delays when needing to convey vital information. This also limits the freight dispatcher to operating with carriers who share the same technologies, resulting in the loss of several business opportunities.
IT Investment
To solve this problem the freight dispatcher could hire additional IT personnel that specialize in data transfer technologies such as the traditional AS2, SFTP, or the more modern API. This incurs added expense, and higher overhead, and could prevent the freight dispatcher from being competitive in a highly competitive market. Further complications arise when considering EDI communications between a carrier carrying the cargo and forwarding agents. Again, this is typically a skillset lacking in-house and would need significant investment to bring in.
Lacking such skills means that many freight dispatchers are hitting up against a glass ceiling. Lacking reliable direct connectivity with carriers inevitably means carriers move to the larger companies, leaving the little guy in the lurch. For those that do not have the capital to invest in specialized IT staff, the risk that they might be left in the dust is a worry all smaller business owners share.
LogTech Platforms
To combat this a variety of logistics technology, or LogTech, platforms have been developed to help keep the little guy competitive. Platforms like INTRA, Project44, and GargoSmart. These platforms look to primarily provide users with supply chain execution and visibility process management. This in turn allows the freight dispatcher to communicate effectively with the several other stakeholders involved when a product needs to get from point A to B.
These platforms incorporate the data transfer methods mentioned above and more. They do require training but the barrier to entry and overall investment cost are far less than developing in-house talent that specializes in one specific field.
Conclusion
LogTech platforms have provided smaller freight dispatchers with the tools to remain competitive in a vastly changed industry. Platforms also provide secondary benefits like EDI mapping and several transport management systems that can be better leveraged by freight dispatchers to keep everyone happy and themselves profitable.
