Why Responsive Transportation Logistics Are in Your Future

If disruption is the new normal for shippers, then you must constantly be ready for anything. But are you? Yes, you have scalable transportation logistics so that you’re ready to increase or decrease capacities as your markets ebb and flow.

Except disruption doesn’t ebb and flow. It suddenly, unexpectedly crashes into your transportation logistics. And it puts your business at risk. It’s no longer enough to just have scaleable logistics.

Disruptions to Transportation Logistics

Among other things for which you must be prepared, here are just a few recent disruptions to transportation logistics.

Import Tariffs

If your business has anything to do with cross-border steel and aluminum in North America, it’s been impacted by recent import tariffs. The implications for your transportation logistics can include increasing or decreasing capacity, and finding new carriers.

Extreme Weather

If you include wildfires in the ‘weather’ category, it can seem like there’s not a month that goes by without weather forcing delays somewhere in your supply chain. Weather often means having options for different modes of transportation.

Truck Shortages

The transportation industry has dealt with a shortage of drivers for the past decade. Now, after a ‘transportation recession’ that began with the financial crisis of 2008 and lasted until the end of 2016, truck orders have more than doubled in the past year. Trucking companies are placing large-volume orders in hopes of getting them at least partially filled.

In addition to the dealing with the disruptions themselves, shippers face the budget pressures they cause and unrelenting customer demands. So what’s a shipper to do?

Responsive Transportation Logistics

If disruption is the new norm, so too is responsive transportation logistics. More than scalable, responsive transportation logistics let you react as quickly as possible to even unforeseen changes in your transportation requirements, including added capacity, reduced capacity, different transportation modes or options that can keep your budget in check.

If you would like to learn more about responsive transportation logistics, contact Pival today.