How the Future of Data Will Transform Australian Freight

If you’re trying to improve the efficiency, reliability and cost-effectiveness of your supply chain, access to accurate data is critical.

The right business intelligence, freight data and analytics will significantly improve the performance of your freight management.

But what do freight analytics look like in Australia? And what can you expect in the future, when it comes to digging into the data around one of the biggest expenses in your business?

Let’s look at the importance of real-time data, the benefits of prioritising business intelligence, and how your business can take advantage of the future of freight analytics.

The future of freight analytics is data in real-time.

Until now, much of the data that comes from freight carriers has been historical data, which is limited in its usefulness for making day-to-day decisions.

But we’re already starting to see a push towards real-time data that will improve business intelligence across the freight industry.

We’re going to see real-time ETAs, real-time tracking and real-time cost control.

ETAs based on real-time data

If you’ve been choosing carriers based on how quickly they’re able to deliver your freight, then you aren’t alone. And in the past, relying on carriers delivery estimates was the only way to guess how long your freight might take get to from Point A to Point B.

A carrier schedule might say that their Melbourne to Sydney service takes one day.

But this is just an estimate. ETAs can change over time. And carrier performance shifts based on a whole range of factors including disruption to a route, availability of workforce and the amount of freight in the pipeline at the time you’re trying to ship.

Real-time analytics will give you the ability to track a carrier’s actual performance over any determined period of time, to identify trends. It will then be able to predict how long it will take for your freight to get there based on data from across the whole Australian freight network.

Instead of just taking a carrier’s word that a pallet will take 5 days to get from Melbourne to Perth, you’ll be able to assess whether that carrier is able to meet your performance requirements based on more than just the historical data of a single carrier.

Real-time tracking of consignments

Thanks to the Internet of Things, real-time tracking of freight will become a reality.

In addition to knowing exactly where your freight is at any given moment in time, you’ll also be able to monitor for temperature, humidity, impact, and damage, reducing the risk of lost or damaged freight.

Real-time cost control

Managing freight costs is critical to the sustainability of your business.

And the technology already exists to help you better manage your freight spend.

By setting parameters in your freight management system, you can choose to receive alerts about and place restrictions on just about anything to do with your freight.

Don’t want someone to send air freight for services about $500? You can set a restriction that will stop that booking from being made. Want to know when a consignment is booked that falls outside your regular spend? Your supply chain manager can receive a text to check the shipment before it leaves the warehouse.

The Benefit of Real-Time Freight Analytics for Australian Businesses

Real-time data analytics in freight will deliver many benefits for Australian businesses.

They include:

Faster reporting, smoother operations

Monthly reporting on freight performance is fairly common in Australia. This means that it can take up to six weeks for an organisation to take action on a supply chain that’s not working efficiently.

But with real-time reporting, organisations can run reports more regularly, pick-up errors more quickly, and move immediately to rectify them, resulting in smoother freight management.

Fixing individual errors at the source.

In addition to being able to pick up on end-to-end supply chain issues, real-time reporting gives supply chain managers the opportunity to find and correct individual errors at the source.

There’s lots of staff movement within supply chains and human errors happen. Real-time reporting, combined with notifications and alerts to supply chain managers, allow issues to be resolved at the time, at the source, before they become a massive problem.

Better visibility on costs

We estimate that around 80% of our freight customers don’t understand their costs when they first come to us.

Largely, this is because they’re only getting one number come through each month – the total cost of freight to the business.

When you don’t know the numbers, it’s impossible to know which levers to pull in order to reduce your freight costs.

Real-time data gives you access to real numbers in detail. You’ll be able to see if you’re shipping to the same customer too frequently and consolidate the shipping. You’ll be able to see if it makes sense to open a warehouse in another state because of increased demand to that location.

The right business intelligence delivered at the right time, makes you smarter about the way you manage your freight costs.

Better support for Supply Chain Managers

As the cost of freight increases, the more your C-Suite want to know about freight performance and cost reduction.

With access to real-time freight analytics, supply chain managers will be able to understand the dynamics of their freight, how to make better freight decisions and work with their warehouse staff to make changes that will deliver results.

And then they’ll be able to easily provide detail on the cost, efficiency and performance of freight to their executive team when required.

How to Take Advantage of Freight Analytics in Your Business

The right business intelligence will give you the knowledge you need to improve your supply chain.

It’s one of the biggest opportunities to reduce freight cost and improve efficiency.

The good news, is that some of these benefits are available today with the right technology tool, and the right partner to help you navigate it.

At Freight People, we’re experts in freight. We’ll work with you to understand your freight profile, analyse what you already know and identify where there could be cost savings or performance improvements.

Then we’ll help you take advantage of real-time data and manage multiple carriers through our Australian-built freight management software.

Get in touch with our team today to discover how we can transform your freight.