Parcel - January/February 2009 - (Page 28)

trends More than Just a Postscript Working together to make that last m ile visible — and valua ble BY JONATHAN TURNER o some companies, tracking a product during its ﬁnal hours in a supply chain is akin to a letter’s P.S. — optional but not essential. But companies that cut corners on last-mile technologies could be losing a lot more than just visibility, according to one longtime IT professional. “Shippers clearly understand the impor tance of using sophisticated hardware and software for global or national supply chain management. But they’re less convinced of the need to bring the ﬁnal 50 to 100 miles of the supply chain into the 21st centur y,” said Jonathan Turner, Chief Information Ofﬁcer of 3PD. “It’s such an irony because that’s the par t of the supply chain that’s the most visible to customers — and so potentially useful in terms of building good relationships and brand loyalty.” In the spirit of that relationship-building, PARCEL asked Turner to share his thoughts on which technologies his last-mile company wouldn’t consider leaving the loading dock without — and how he thinks they truly deliver. T Admittedly, this step isn’t rocket science. But small touches like these go a long way toward making customers feel like they’re getting the attention they deserve. Optimization Optimization is used quite adeptly for big-picture supply chain design. However, many retailers could stand to use it more effectively at the last-mile level, especially if they’re optimizing their individual stores’ home deliveries separately instead of optimizing several stores’ deliveries at once. This is typically a late-in-the-day tool for 3PD because we run a lot of our optimizations after the cut-off purchasing times our retail clients have established in order for customers to receive nextday delivery — usually 5 PM or 6 PM Thus, we place a premium on system speed. We also emphasize systems precision because when you’re predicting delivery times for individual consumers, there’s really no in-between: You’re either going to be 100% on-time or 100% late. Email It’s hard to imagine why any company wouldn’t take advantage of email’s efﬁcient and inexpensive communications potential. As soon as we receive a customer’s home delivery request, we immediately send an email to let that customer know her order has been received and to pass along key pieces of information she can use to track it or contact us. Automated Pre-Calls and Cell Phone Calls Scheduling a delivery appointment is essential for high-end and heavy goods, and we’ve discovered that automated phone calls work especially well. As soon as our optimization tool has scheduled a customer delivery, it triggers an automated call to the customer letting 28 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2009 / www.PARCELindustry.com http://www.PARCELindustry.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Parcel - January/February 2009

Parcel - January/February 2009 Contents Editor’s Note Going Global Transportation ABCs Mastering Management Regional Alternatives Practical IT Best Practices Packaging 12th Annual UPS Rate Analysis Navigating Dim Weight Charges More than Just a Postscript Understanding RFID PARCEL Counsel New Products Reality Check

Parcel - January/February 2009

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