Shipping Spring Cleaning: Data for Cost and Efficiency Gains

Learn how to leverage your shipping data to uncover hidden costs and operational inefficiencies

April is usually a time for spring cleaning – decluttering our homes and offices and refreshing our spaces. But what about your shipping operations? Just like dust bunnies gather in corners, hidden costs and inefficiencies can build up in your supply chain. These can negatively impact your bottom line without you even realizing it.

This year, take a different approach to spring cleaning: leverage the power of your shipping data to shed light on these hidden issues and create a leaner, more efficient operation. Our recent industry research report highlights the key strategies and challenges faced by high-volume parcel shippers, further underscoring the importance of leveraging data for optimization.

Every shipper knows that vast amounts of data are generated with every shipment. From carrier performance to transit times and surcharges to delivery exceptions, loads of this information can hold the key to unlocking significant improvements. Unfortunately, for many businesses, this data can remain siloed, unanalyzed, and ultimately, untapped potential.

It's time to move beyond simply tracking packages and start using your shipping data as a strategic tool. Shipping data is the key to cost optimization, enhanced efficiency, and a healthier bottom line. Building on the foundation of real-time visibility is crucial for leveraging this data effectively [Learn more about the power of up-to-the-minute tracking].

Sweeping Away Hidden Costs with Data Insights

Just as spring cleaning helps you uncover forgotten clutter; shipping data analytics can reveal hidden costs lurking within your logistics operations. Many businesses unknowingly overspend on shipping due to a lack of clear visibility into their expenses. By centralizing and analyzing your shipping information, you can gain visibility into areas ripe for optimization. In fact, a comprehensive shipping ecosystem, leveraging the strengths of specialized platforms, offers the ability to:

• Analyze Carrier Performance and Spend: Are you getting the best value from your current carrier mix? Data can reveal if you're over-relying on more expensive shipping carriers or services that could be handled just as effectively, and more affordably, by another carrier. This insight allows for strategic adjustments to your carrier selection and can directly impact your per-package costs and ultimately, bottom line.
• Identify Recurring Surcharges and Accessorial Fees: Those small surcharges can add up quickly. By analyzing your data, you can pinpoint trends in these fees – are they related to specific destinations, service types, or even packaging? Understanding these patterns allows you to take proactive steps to mitigate them, leading to significant savings over time.
• Improve Transportation Analytics: Normalized data feeds provide a clear and consistent view of your shipping expenses. This allows you to move beyond basic reports and dive further into the details, identifying specific lanes, service levels, or even times of year where costs are higher than expected. With this granular detail and understanding, you can make informed decisions about service adjustments and optimize your transportation network.
• Gain Leverage in Carrier Negotiations: Armed with concrete data on your shipping volumes, spend, and carrier performance, you enter negotiations from a position of strength. You can demonstrate your value as a shipper and justify requests for better rates and service level agreements.

Dusting Off Inefficiencies for a Smoother Operation

Think of your shipping operations like a well-organized workshop. Over time, tools can get misplaced, workflows become cluttered, and efficiency suffers without a regular review. Similarly, hidden operational inefficiencies can accumulate in your shipping processes, impeding productivity and draining your budget. Fortunately, the data generated by your shipping activities holds the key to bringing order and efficiency back. Leading shipping platforms, designed to capture and organize this vital information, empower you to:

• Benchmark Carrier Service Levels: Are your carriers consistently meeting your expectations for on-time performance? Data on delivery times and delay reasons, broken down by carrier and service, provides a clear picture of their reliability. This allows you to hold your carriers accountable and make informed decisions about who you partner with.
• Identify Performance Trends by Location: Service heatmaps can visually represent on-time performance by destination, allowing you to quickly identify regions or even specific zip codes where delays are more frequent. This insight can prompt investigations into the root causes – are there carrier issues in that area, or are there other factors at play?
• Analyze Transit Day Patterns: Understanding the distribution of transit days for your shipments to various locations helps you set realistic expectations for your customers and identify potential areas where transit times are longer than they should be. This data can inform decisions about optimizing your distribution network or selecting faster service levels for time-sensitive shipments. It can even be included in your checkout cart to promote a better customer experience.
• Streamline Issue Resolution: When a customer inquires about a missing or delayed package (WISMO), quick access to comprehensive tracking data is crucial. Solutions that centralize data from all your carriers allow your customer service team to efficiently locate packages and provide accurate, timely updates, improving customer satisfaction and reducing the time spent on issue resolution [To ensure seamless data flow and integration with other business systems, dive into this blog about understanding the principles of open architecture in shipping software].

The Role of Shipping Software in Harnessing Data Power

Unearthing these valuable insights requires more than just the raw data itself. Without the right system, all that data is like a messy toolbox – disorganized and hard to put to good use. This is where modern multi-carrier shipping software platforms play a critical role. These solutions are specifically designed to transform the complex world of shipping data into actionable intelligence, empowering businesses to make smarter, more profitable decisions.

Leading shipping platforms offer a suite of powerful features that enable you to truly harness the power of your shipping data:

• Centralized Data Collection: Shipping software acts as a central hub, automatically collecting and consolidating data from all your carriers, across all shipping activities. This eliminates the need to manually gather information from disparate systems, providing a comprehensive and unified view of your entire shipping operation.
• Data Normalization and Cleansing: Raw data can be messy and inconsistent. Shipping solutions automatically normalize and cleanse this data, ensuring accuracy and consistency across all your reports and analyses. This standardized data is crucial for generating reliable insights you can trust.
• Robust Reporting and Analytics Capabilities: Shipping software platforms offer a wide range of pre-built and customizable reports that allow you to analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) such as carrier on-time performance, transit times, cost per shipment, and surcharge occurrences.
• Customizable Dashboards and Visualizations: Many leading multi-carrier shipping solutions provide customizable dashboards and visualizations. These user-friendly interfaces present complex data in an easy-to-understand format. This allows you to quickly identify trends, spot anomalies, and gain immediate insights into your shipping performance.
• Facilitating the Generation of Key Reports: Remember the specific reports we discussed earlier – carrier performance benchmarks, service heatmaps, transit day analysis, and surcharge reports? Modern shipping software is designed to effortlessly generate these types of reports. This puts the power of data-driven decision-making directly into your hands, without the need for complex manual data manipulation.

Building a truly data-driven shipping operation requires a robust and well-implemented platform. Explore Shipping Software Implementations: Why “Quick Wins” Are a Myth to discover why focusing on long-term value over quick fixes is essential.

Why Choose ProShip for Data-Driven Shipping?

While many shipping solutions offer basic data collection, ProShip shipping software stands out by providing a robust platform built for high-volume, complex shippers who demand more than just the fundamentals. ProShip's versionless architecture is specifically designed to capture granular shipping data across a wide range of carriers and services, ensuring a comprehensive and accurate foundation for insightful analysis.

Furthermore, ProShip understands that parcel shipping execution is paramount. By focusing on providing a best-in-class multi-carrier shipping solution, ProShip ensures the reliability and efficiency of your shipments. This generates the rich and dependable data needed for strategic decision-making.

Our platform seamlessly integrates with leading business intelligence and analytics tools, empowering you to leverage your preferred systems for deep dives into your shipping performance. ProShip provides clean, centralized data that allows you to truly unlock the power of solutions designed for in-depth analysis, giving you the best of both worlds: exceptional execution and comprehensive data accessibility.

Don't let hidden costs and inefficiencies linger in your shipping operations. Just as spring cleaning revitalizes your space, leverage the power of your shipping data, facilitated by a robust platform like ProShip, to transform your logistics. Take the first step towards a leaner, more efficient, and cost-effective shipping strategy.

Ready to unlock the power of your shipping data and gain a clear view of your shipping performance? Schedule a discovery call with ProShip today to learn how our platform can provide the foundation for data-driven decision-making.