Are you seeking effective strategies to cut costs, maximize vehicle loads, or minimize warehouse trips for reloading? Have you considered the benefits of a robust transportation plan? Often overlooked or poorly implemented, a well-structured transport plan is invaluable for objectively analyzing and successfully developing your company’s logistics. Let’s delve into this essential tool for optimizing your human and material resources.
Table of Contents
A transportation plan is a strategic document crucial for cost reduction. Optimizing it leads to maximized vehicle loads and fewer return trips. For transport managers, it’s an indispensable tool for strengthening logistical organization.
What Exactly is a Transportation Plan?
A transportation plan is a strategic document meticulously designed to optimize the logistics flows of a company, whether these operations are managed internally or outsourced to a subcontractor. For each route, it outlines the most efficient options for transporting clients or goods from point A to point B.
This document can take various forms, from a detailed map to an extensive spreadsheet or a comprehensive route roadmap encompassing all scheduled journeys.
Today, paper-based transportation plans are largely obsolete. While some smaller businesses with basic logistics might still use Excel spreadsheets, route management has become increasingly complex, often necessitating the use of a TMS (Transport Management System) software. These solutions are now essential for centralizing and analyzing all relevant data, empowering you to make informed decisions.
Transportation plan optimizing logistics flows
Who Benefits from Using a Transportation Plan?
In our daily lives, we often consult public transport schedules, like train or bus timetables, especially to check timings and availability during holidays.
However, the transportation plans used by businesses are far more detailed and strategic! Companies aiming to improve the management of their human and material resources will find immense value in implementing such plans. This includes:
- Public transportation operators
- Road transportation companies
- Manufacturers or retailers with e-commerce operations
- Express delivery services, and more.
Essential Information to Include in a Transportation Plan
An effective transportation plan should list all routes undertaken within a specific timeframe, providing key information for each:
- Start and end addresses, including intermediate stops such as logistics centers, warehouses, and package collection points.
- Date, scheduled time, or estimated duration of each route.
- Nature, weight, or volume of goods being transported.
- Type of vehicle utilized for each route or segment (in multimodal transport): heavy goods vehicle, van, temperature-controlled vehicle, freight train, etc.
- Driver’s name, title, or license details.
Beyond this essential information, most TMS solutions offer optional or customizable fields to incorporate industry-specific data, such as maximum delivery times, hazardous goods classifications, loading dock numbers, and more.
Transportation plan interface showing route details
The Advantages of an Optimized Transportation Plan
When implemented effectively, a transportation plan significantly optimizes logistics flows and reduces operational costs. Depending on your objectives, this optimization can yield tangible benefits across material, human, and environmental aspects.
More Efficient Use of Cargo Vehicles
Do you transport goods using your own fleet or for your clients? Depending on your business model and required delivery times, implementing a transportation plan can lead to:
- Reduction in the number of vehicles needed on the road.
- Optimization of vehicle load capacity.
- Decrease in kilometers traveled, subsequently lowering fuel costs, toll charges, and vehicle wear and tear.
If you outsource transportation, this tool provides quantifiable data to compare the performance of different carriers and present concrete results.
Transportation plan optimizing logistics flows
Better Management of Human Resources
The ongoing driver shortage is a persistent challenge. Consequently, businesses are increasingly exploring methods to retain existing drivers and attract new talent.
In this context, a well-organized transportation plan helps alleviate driver stress and promotes a better work-life balance by optimizing routes and schedules, leading to more predictable work hours and rest periods.
Reduction of CO2 Emissions
This benefit is particularly relevant for companies committed to environmental responsibility, including social enterprises and those dedicated to eco-friendly practices.
A transportation plan helps identify efficient solutions to minimize your carbon footprint, such as consolidating deliveries and optimizing routes to reduce fuel consumption.
For companies aiming for greater sustainability, integrating rail or sea freight into deliveries, known as multimodal transport, becomes feasible with TMS software. While environmentally sound, multimodal transport demands impeccable logistical organization, which a robust transportation plan facilitates.
5 Key Steps to Implement a Transportation Plan
1. Define Key Criteria Specific to Your Industry
A viable transportation plan must consider all internal and external criteria that can impact route optimization:
- Material requirements: available loading and unloading docks, nature and weight of goods, delivery time windows, special handling needs, etc.
- Regulatory restrictions: required licenses, traffic limitations, regulations for transporting hazardous materials, vehicle weight limits, etc.
- Available workforce: driver availability, working hours, breaks, holidays, need for double staffing on certain routes, driver skill sets, etc.
- Vehicle information: vehicle type, load capacity, fuel efficiency, emissions profile, maintenance schedules, etc.
2. Evaluate Available IT Solutions
Only after identifying all the data points you need to collect and analyze can you select the most suitable IT solution for your company.
While spreadsheets like Excel might seem appealing initially, opting for a dedicated TMS software is highly recommended. Numerous TMS solutions are available, tailored to various supply chain activities, including TMS for shippers, carriers, and route optimization software.
Most providers offer either a free trial period for a limited number of users or a trial version with reduced features.
Crucially, allow your team sufficient time to test shortlisted solutions in a real-world environment. Choosing the right TMS from the outset will save significant time and resources in the long run!
3. Real-Time Communication and Plan Adjustments
Modern transportation software increasingly operates on a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. This means accessibility from any internet-connected device for a subscription fee.
This online accessibility allows you to automate the distribution of route plans to all stakeholders: drivers, clients, logistics platforms, etc.
This real-time system is invaluable in case of breakdowns or road network incidents, enabling you to adjust the transportation plan dynamically and instantly notify affected parties.
Transportation plan interface showing route details
4. Regularly Analyze Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
TMS solutions are highly effective operationally, but they also provide transport managers with valuable KPIs for continuous logistics optimization.
With AntsRoute software, for example, you can visualize strategic information such as:
- Delivery completion and cancellation rates.
- On-time service rate, e.g., percentage of deliveries made within the agreed timeframe.
- Kilometers traveled per day, per driver, etc.
- Average cost per route and total route costs.
- Average CO2 emissions per route or across all routes.
- Customer concentration zones, etc.
5. Continuous Transportation Plan Optimization
These KPIs provide the insights needed to understand the reasons behind discrepancies between planned and actual performance, and to draw conclusions for better resource allocation.
For instance, if a specific client consistently experiences delayed deliveries, investigate the root cause. Are the planned routes feasible? Are delays due to client-side organizational issues? Would rescheduling deliveries to this location to avoid peak traffic times be more efficient?
This in-depth analysis, conducted weekly or monthly, enables step-by-step optimization of your transportation plan. Data analysis may reveal the need for difficult decisions, such as renegotiating or terminating certain contracts. However, this proactive approach is highly effective in restoring profitability and enhancing team and customer loyalty!
Do you manage a delivery or service fleet? AntsRoute is a powerful route optimization solution ideal for enhancing your transportation plan. Fill out this simple form to try our solution for free, with no commitment, for 7 days!
