How we do: Procurement.
The logistics procurement process involves finding the right transportation to fit your supply chain needs, we often see this in many forms; from spot and short notice loads, to contract tendering and management.
Even with the technology available today, the procurement process is often still done the traditional way, with countless emails and leads that go nowhere.
This can make it a long and avoided task which can often result in not getting the best transport options for your business.
This is especially prevalent right now with vast changes to industry just within the last year; Brexit, driver shortages and fuel crisis’ just to name a few.
Let’s explore how we brought modern technology to revolutionise a traditional system and how you could simplify your own procurement process too.
In the logistics industry it is always a good plan to have a backup plan. Things don’t always happen how you intended, plans fall through or there's unexpected business needs.
Chill-Chain helps facilitate a vast amount of short notice procurement, or spot jobs, which are jobs posted for collection as soon as possible, sometimes called Specials.
To get on top of last minute collections we utilise tools built within our technology, such as our haulier search engine. The search engine is connected to every job posted to our marketplace and collects numerous points of data throughout every journey.
The search engine uses this data to identify the best hauliers for the job based on the job specifications, and what similarities there are with historic jobs. This is then backed by instant notifications that go out to a larger network of haulage companies.
We also ensure there is limited back and forth between party’s; with every haulier vetted for document compliance ahead of time and technology that verifies all important information is present for the haulier to be able to quote instantly.
Another area of procurement seen a lot is contract tendering. Our tendering tool captures all the information needed to tender a contract and sends it out to a network of over 400 haulage companies.
Our software collects data on every journey which we then use to enhance the pool of hauliers, so the best options are presented to you, freeing up your time from 100s of emails to concentrate on other aspects of your business.
Once the tender is complete, the management of the contract is really simple. Set up the contract with the job specifics once, then every time you need that contract completed, the information is already auto-populated.
The selected haulier can accept the job at a click of a button and our Operations team works directly with the collection and delivery sites, relaying all information back to customers via the chat panel so all parties have full visibility of what is happening.
Technology is an imperative part to the future of transport procurement, automating a large number of jobs that historically have been done manually will allow you to get the most out of your internal resources so you can orchestrate positive change to your supply chain.
