The challenges
Let’s start by looking at the challenges that can ruin a seasonal surge campaign.
Transportation capacity
Transporting more goods, under more pressure, means it’s crucial to ensure adequate transport capability at all times. This involves negotiating with carriers to manage costs, and optimising load planning for maximum efficiency. In short, ensure you have enough vehicles to meet every delivery deadline without exceeding your budget.
Resource allocation
Allied to the transport requirement is the need to ensure you have enough drivers and warehouse staff, where and when you need them. Too many and you waste costs unnecessarily, while some staff stand idle, too few and you run the risk of late deliveries, missed time windows, late unloads, poor use of space in your precious warehouse area and, ultimately, the spectre of goods not being where they should be.
Visibility
Whether it’s summer barbecues arriving from a production facility overseas, or a truckload of tinsel on its way to a local distribution centre or superstore, you need to know where your goods are at all times and, crucially, when they can be expected to arrive. This vital knowledge allows you to plan your resource allocation with much greater confidence.
The traditional means of addressing these three challenges will be familiar to many. The time-consuming study of historic sales patterns and customer habits, in addition to endless hours of spreadsheets, emails and working the phones to forecast and deploy the required numbers of goods, trucks and resources. Then it’s about preparing as best you can, by buying extra capacity in advance from carrier partners and contractors.
Even if this all goes to plan, it can be costly. You will often be required to pay for extra capacity at above your standard contract rates, or via surcharges. You are also likely to be locked in on extra staff costs in order to ensure adequate cover, even if events conspire to spoil your forecast numbers and timings.
Theses hurdles would be so much easier to overcome if you had a mix of magic ingredients close to hand.The ability to rearrange delivery schedules dynamically thanks to reliable real-time data and demand forecasts, therefore wiping out those spreadsheet, call and email hours at a stroke; the ability to know the precise whereabouts and estimated arrival times, in real-time, of all transportation assets, simply by looking at a screen; and the worry-free ability to procure, assign and execute trustworthy carrier capability at short notice at rates you know to be competitive and fair for the individual lane or trip selected – once again, all without email and/or phone exchanges eating precious time. Any one of those, let alone all three, is great news for you and, crucially, your suppliers and customers.
![Peak season can make or break the whole year for retail and FMCG enterprises](/website/Web%20Images/blog/Tackle%20Peak%20Season/Blog-tackle-peak-seazon-Mondelez-side-image.jpg)
Overcoming these hurdles becomes much easier with a few key capabilities, which will benefit you, your suppliers and your customers.
- The ability to rearrange delivery schedules using real-time data and demand forecasts, thereby eliminating hours of spreadsheets, calls and emails.
- The ability to track transportation assets' locations and estimated arrival times on a screen.
- The ability to quickly procure, assign and execute trustworthy carrier services at competitive rates, without wasting time on emails and phone calls.