If you are looking to optimize your drayage operations, there are three key ways to do so. You can reduce the costs of drayage services and make sure they are delivered in a timely fashion. Besides, you can increase visibility and get a better understanding of your warehouse’s performance.
Visibility helps shippers plan inventory and optimize warehouse teams
Inventory visibility is a critical part of the modern supply chain. As more operations shift to an omni-channel distribution model, it has become even more important to have a clear understanding of inventory. Having full visibility of your supply chain can help improve efficiency and profitability. By better understanding how much stock is in each location, you can avoid stockouts, delays, and backorders. This will ensure that your products are delivered on time, and you will have the right amount of stock on hand to meet demand.
Managing inventory can be a full-time job. In addition to having to track specific products from point to point, you must also consider the location of your inventory in your warehouse. If your inventory is stored in many locations, you may be storing it in an area that does not meet the demands of your customers.
With a proper inventory management system, you can track and manage your inventory across your entire network. You can also make informed decisions about your inventory, which will improve your logistics costs. A third-party logistics company can provide real-time tracking of your inventory.
ShipBob offers an innovative solution that allows you to get a holistic view of your inventory, as well as a suite of tools to keep you on top of your operations. It features a built-in inventory management system, as well as analytics and data-analysis tools. These enable you to visualize your inventory levels in real-time, plan your inventories based on demand, and make adjustments to meet demand in your warehouse.
Another great thing about ShipBob is its global fulfillment network. Using proprietary technology, ShipBob allows you to access data and analytics from around the world. Whether you are shipping from the US, the UK, or Europe, ShipBob provides the visibility you need to make your supply chain run smoothly.
Another great thing about ShipBob’s technology is that it is designed for your unique needs. ShipBob’s inventory tracking and management solutions are designed to help you manage your inventory while meeting your business’ goals.
Regardless of your industry, you should be using inventory visibility to improve your operations. Increasing your visibility will allow you to make more accurate inventory decisions, which will lead to increased profit margins and a positive customer experience.
TAS reduces energy consumption, waiting time cost, and driver delay time cost
In recent years, the shipping industry has been facing a number of challenges related to drayage. These challenges include congestion, long lines at port gates, and delays.
A truck appointment system (TAS) may help to reduce congestion in container terminals and improve gate waiting times. However, drivers are often unhappy with the system. They feel it is a hindrance to their jobs.
An effective TAS should be able to reduce the total cost of driver delay time and energy consumption. It also has to be tailored to the needs of individual drivers. Several studies have shown that a TAS can improve driver satisfaction and drayage efficiency. Nevertheless, the practical application of a TAS has its own set of obstacles.
Despite the promise of the TAS, some studies have stumbled. For example, Giuliano and O’Brien 2007 found no evidence that a TAS had a positive effect on heavy diesel truck emissions or reduced queuing at terminal gates.
Shiri, Huynh, and Walton 2011 found that a well-implemented TAS can have a significant impact on drayage fleet efficiency. The study measured the performance of various truck management systems and compared the effects of these technologies. Although the study was not able to determine whether a TAS was the best solution to the scheduling problem, it did find that a well-designed TAS improved the average turn time of a truck by over 20 minutes.
Namboothiri and Erera 2008 investigated the effectiveness of a truck appointment system in determining the pickup and delivery sequences of trucks at a port. It also developed an integer programming model for drayage operations.
Another study in the same line showed that an effective TAS may have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 30%. Unfortunately, this study was not able to determine if the results were influenced by the size of the port and the quality of the appointments.
Finally, there is a literature review of the TAS and disruption management literature. Most of the research examined the TAS from the perspective of the drayage company or carrier. Only a small amount of the literature examined the system from the perspective of the truck driver.
TAS reduces total cost of drayage operations
The cost of drayage operations in container ports can be expensive. Drayage fees include freight handling charges, moving fees, and detention and demurrage charges. In addition, delays can increase shipping costs, and containers that are not returned on time can add to detention charges. Drayage Brokers in Fresno CA, however, have come up with ways to circumvent these.
A truck appointment system is one solution to improve the flow of trucks through the port. TAS is a system that distributes trucks throughout the day and helps drayage operators meet their operational goals. This paper presents a new approach for multi-constraint TAS that reduces overall operation costs.
There is much research on how to improve drayage/ operations. However, the focus is usually on improving the efficiency of trucking companies. These studies use simulations and other methods, and often do not include the impacts of congestion reduction techniques.
This article presents a comprehensive review of recent research. It includes a classification scheme that identifies promising future research areas. The paper uses a large literature survey to determine the most important aspects of the problem. Compared to previous studies, it is more holistic.
A majority of the papers in this section apply to North American ports. But several also discuss Asian ports. One study even considers trucking companies and container terminals as stakeholders in the port. Another one considers the port ecology.
The goal of the research is to improve drayage productivity and reduce congestion at the gate and yard. Among the solutions offered are more efficient cooperation models, and more segmented tasks.
For example, one paper considers a multi-resource routing problem, and a second proposes an agent-based model that can be applied to the container terminal pick-up procedure. Several experiments demonstrate the efficiency of the cooperation model.
However, there are still gaps in the research. Currently, there is no stochastic TAS model that allows more flexible turn times. If there is one, drayage companies would benefit from it.
The main purpose of this paper is to identify new approaches for drayage trucking companies. The solution offers a more holistic, more realistic approach. Moreover, it reduces the cost of drayage operations by 11.5%.