In some ways, the freight world is not so different from the production side of a theatre or concert. The recognition for what they do is often small, but the demands are almost unfairly high. If you do everything right, no one will even notice.
When something goes wrong, all the attention is directed to you.
In the freight industry, the show never stops. That’s why it’s in the best interest of any shipping company to keep their errors as minimal as possible. We’ve put together a few of the more common freight mistakes, as well as tips on how to avoid them.
Guessing Shipment Costs
We all know rates can fluctuation fast depending on an endless list of factors. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked in the industry. Don’t pull shipping estimates from your mind. With today’s technology, it’s completely unnecessary.
Guessing on shipping can result in a serious loss of profits. Use the tools available to you to create the most accurate estimates possible.
Human Error
People make mistakes. It’s a fact of life, and there’s no way of completely eliminating it. However, you can reduce humor error by establishing systems and leveraging automation. Today’s technology allows for faster results and higher accuracy than ever before.
Make your shipping process as error proof as possible.
Straying from Your Niche
For smaller freight companies, you have to exist in a niche. It’s impossible to compete against the big names across all categories. But by sticking to being great at one or two things, you can find a lot of success.
With success and growth, however, comes the temptation to step out of your niche and into uncharted territory. There’s nothing wrong with expanding your services to a degree, but stray too far from what you know, and your much more likely to make costly mistakes.
Shipping to the Wrong Address
With all the tools and tracking we have today, you’d think that deliveries going to the wrong address would be a mistake of the past. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. This is still one of the most common freight mistakes, and when it happens, it wastes a lot of time.
Also, it tends to make a lot of people very unhappy.
Address verification is as important as ever. Have multiple points where the address is checked and verified by different sets of eyes.
Not Implementing 24-Hour Dispatch
Smaller carriers have a hard time keeping up with the demands for 24-hour service. They simply don’t have the resources to properly staff overnight workers, resulting in them passing on big contracts. But the truth is, you don’t need an entire overnight logistics team.
Instead, you can utilize a third-party dispatch company. This not only saves a considerable amount of money, but it provides you with superior service.
Night Dispatch offers after-hours freight tracking and dispatch services that operate as a seamless extension of your company. Our services include shipment status updates, delay notification, communication with roadside assistance, real-time monitoring, and more.
In today’s world, not offering 24-hour freight operations is a costly mistake. Let Night Dispatch help you avoid it.
