The Importance of Driver Experience in Supply Chain Efficiency
Introduction
In today’s competitive market, supply chain efficiency is more important than ever. Companies that can get their products to market faster and cheaper than their competitors will have a significant advantage. One of the most important factors in supply chain efficiency is the driver experience.
According to research by MIT
Drivers spend only 6.5 out of the 11 allotted hours driving on the road
This implies that 40% of America’s trucking capacity is left on the table every day. An efficient driver experience can increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve shipper of choice
Making it easier for drivers to find and access facilities.
Providing drivers with better amenities, such as parking and restrooms.
Reducing the amount of time that drivers spend waiting for loads.
Goals
The Coca-Cola company is one of the companies that understand the importance of the driver experience. In 2017, the company launched a Shipper of Choice initiative to improve the driver experience through a variety of measures.
In an effort to increase efficiency, reduce waste and put more capacity back into the network. The Digital Shipment platform enables digital check-in, pre-loaded trailer alerts, and real-time access to shipment data for multiple parties involved in the logistics process.
Get best practices for reducing dwell time
Challenges
Driver shortages compounded with an inefficient supply chain, create capacity crunches and higher transportation costs. After thoroughly evaluating its yard operations, Coca-Cola recognized several opportunities for how digitization could help optimize the pickup and delivery process.
Gate congestion, inaccurate and untimely information, the constant exchange of paperwork, as well as inaccurate or incomplete paperwork not only caused dwell, these were some of the biggest areas of dissatisfaction for the drivers. This made it challenging to achieve their shipper-of-choice goals.
Keep drivers out of detention
Improve yard visibility
Pay fast and accurate
Results
A year after accelerating the rollout of Vector, Coca-Cola has improved communication and visibility between drivers and their facilities. Allowing the drivers to check in digitally puts the ownership and responsibility in the hands of the driver, making the process quicker and more efficient.
Drivers can sign for the load digitally, take a photo of the seal on the back of the truck, and be out of the yard rapidly. Some of the facilities have seen their drop and hooks happen in under 15 minutes.
“It’s a win-win-win. The costs of goods to the consumer stay the same, our partners are making money and we stay competitive.”
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“The data has improved visibility significantly, especially in cases like a preloaded trailer. Once the preload trailer is finished, the bill of lading is sent from our ERP to Vector and is accessible to everyone involved in the shipment, including the driver, carrier, and customer. It’s like a 360-degree view, showing all the products in the trailer, their weight, and the seal number. This information is scanned and made available to multiple people, making the process faster and more efficient.”
What are Werner driver’s saying?
Pretty simple. Nice for security to not have to be printing paperwork for all pickups.
Checking in was a breeze, I like this technology.
I checked in from the arrival line and was processed at the gate in seconds. I wish all pickups were this easy.
It works just like a Fast Pass. Every facility should do this.
