In present-day global economics, logistics management plays a crucial role in facilitating trade and ensuring the success of your business operations. Due to COVID-19, logistics managers saw increasing challenges in creating and maintaining efficient and effective logistics and supply chain methods.
Here, we discuss five managers’ most prominent daily logistics management challenges. The challenges that logistics managers faced existed before the COVID-19 pandemic but are even more critical due to the pandemic’s effects.
Key Logistics Management Challenges
1. Customer Service
Logistics management is about providing the right product in the right quantity to the right place at the right time. One of the significant challenges in the logistics industry is that customers want full transparency into where their delivery is at every point in transit. A customer’s shipment location is currently as interconnected as your social network. As customer expectations have increased, their willingness to pay for fast shipping has decreased, with about 64 percent of consumers unwilling to pay anything extra for less than two-day shipping.
2. Transportation Cost Control
Another significant logistics challenge for logistics managers is controlling costs in your transportation budget. Fuel prices are among the highest, contributing factors to transportation budget concerns. This year, higher fuel prices will likely increase transportation costs for U.S. shippers by pushing fuel surcharges. Additionally, rising U.S. diesel fuel prices are fuel surcharges added to freight rates, reversing a two-year trend that cut into the revenue and earnings of truckers as fuel prices plummeted.
3. Planning & Risk Management
To stay as efficient and effective as possible, periodic assessments and optimizations of each business sector are necessary. The adjustments are put in place in response to changes in the market, such as new product launches, global sourcing, credit availability, and the protection of intellectual property. Managers must identify and quantify these risks to control and moderate them.
4. Supplier/Partner Relationships
It’s vital for suppliers and partners to create, understand, and follow mutually agreed-upon standards to understand current performance and opportunities for improvement better. When a supplier and partner have different communication measures, it leads to an insufficient supply chain and wasted time.
5. Government and Environmental Regulations
Carriers face significant compliance regulations imposed by federal, state, and local authorities. As well as federal laws, environmental issues such as the anti-idling and other emission reduction regulations created by state and local governments have created concern that the compliance costs could exceed their benefits.
With the landscape of business operations continuously changing, there is a shift in the following challenges. Therefore, staying up to date with these changes and taking preemptive measures to ward off challenges is a sign of successful logistics management.
Ways to Overcome Logistics Management Challenges
Effective Communication
Communication in any logistics system is essential, especially when a challenge is on the horizon. Optimization and planning are crucial to mitigating risks when facing future industry challenges. Looking ahead to the future rather than focusing on the current market is better.
To have an effective communication strategy, you should look inside your company and see your goals and objectives. Then, with the interior features, you can develop a communication plan that stands with your company and speaks to your customers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered many company communication tactics, so it’s vital to rebuilding supply chain connections by focusing on your own company. In addition, concentrating on your teams and network will allow you to build up your communication since it’s essential for a successful logistics company.
Reduce Carrier Costs
Cost is a significant factor for many customers in the logistics industry. For some, the perspective on price has changed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The key to cutting costs is consolidating shipments and making the most of the space when transporting items. Communicating with carriers is essential in this situation because they can help manage the best way to be cost-efficient. You can also work with third-party logistics companies. PLS Logistics Services can provide you with access to over 55,000 reliable carriers, provide guaranteed trucking capacity, and work to get you the best freight rates in the market.
Looking Ahead
There are many solutions to the challenges logistics managers face in the industry. However, if you focus on your own company and communicate well, you will be able to defeat the logistics challenges and build yourself to be a successful company. Even though COVID-19 is an ongoing problem for many companies, there are ways to get around it and be successful for your customers and yourself.
Logistics Manager Solutions with PLS Logistics Services
From our Freight Brokerage services to our Outsourced Transportation Management services, we offer a variety of logistics solutions to make your day-to-day operations more efficient and effective.
Get a quote today so we can help tackle all your logistics challenges.
