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Addressing Cost, Compliance, and Safety: Smart Solutions for Shippers

Written by ALK Technologies | 27 April, 2018

Getting goods where they need to go swiftly, safely, and successfully is a challenge for any shipper. Understanding carrier bids and determining lane profitability, where your assets are in real-time, and ensuring compliance on carrier agreements is just the beginning. Have a private fleet? That adds another huge level of responsibility in the transportation lifecycle, including safe and reliable routing and navigation, regulatory compliance with Hours of Service, and post-trip analysis for potential operational improvement.

Using appropriate routing, mapping, mileage and navigation solutions can help address these key areas - cost, compliance, and safety. Here are the benefits by business type and area of concern:

Addressing Major Shipper Areas of Concern with Technology

Shipper: Cost

  • Verify miles quoted by carriers! Use PC*MILER industry standard mileage and distance calculations for lane analysis and rate negotiation
  • Understand the true cost of lane for carrier bid analysis and to ensure lane profitability
  • Set expectations on incoming carrier bids by understanding holistic trip costs, including toll fees

Shipper: Compliance

  • Compare planned versus actual routes to ensure compliance on carrier agreements
  • View real-time vehicle locations and receive updated ETAs,  all in real-time, for accurate delivery windows

Shipper:  Safety

  • Visualize travel impacts with real-time and predictive traffic congestion based on actual road speeds, as well as weather alert areas to understand potential effects on arrival and travel times
  • Ensure precise routing to pre-defined entry and exit points by creating and sharing custom geofenced locations, such as distribution centers and warehouses, with carriers

Private Fleet: Cost

  • Avoid costly fines and potential truck damage by routing on truck legal road
  • Increase driver satisfaction by paying drivers on industry standard mileage

Private Fleet: Compliance

  • Maintain regulatory compliance and generate true ETAs by incorporating Hours of Service breaks and stop durations in route plans
  • Capture exact vehicle locations and dynamic ETAs for customer service updates

Private Fleet: Safety

  • Keep drivers and assets safe using truck legal navigation, powered by PC*MILER
  • Alert drivers using advanced road warnings to avoid potential driver hazards
Additional Licensing May apply.

 

Shippers can easily use these desktop, web, or mobile routing, mapping, mileage and navigation solutions individually or together for a complete set for the highest level of operational accuracy and consistency.  They are also available through our longstanding, stable integrations within the leading transportation software systems and fuel optimization providers.


ALK Technologies will be demonstrating these solutions on-hand at the National Private Truck Council (NPTC) annual conference at booth 1032.  Jon Rasmussen, Manager, Sales Engineering at ALK, will receive the Certified Transportation Professional® (CTP) designation at the professional leadership awards and CTP graduation during the opening session at NPTC, joining a prestigious group of transportation professionals dedicated to the private fleet industry.