In 2005, A.G. Lafley Chairman, President & CEO of Procter & Gamble coined two "Moments of Truth". First moment of truth: When a customer is first confronted with the product. It occurs within the first 3-7 seconds of a consumer encountering the product and it is during this time that marketers have the capability of turning a browser into a buyer. Second moment of truth: When a customer purchases a product and experiences its quality as per the promise of the brand. With the growth of ecommerce and home delivery, there is a new moment of truth: Delivery: How the customer experience around shipping and delivery shapes the consumer’s view of the brand. In this post we will cover how consumer expectations are ever increasing, what retailers are doing to address evolving expectations and how this impacts your transportation strategy.
Technology continues to gain traction throughout the commercial trucking industry, as companies realize the efficiency it brings to operations. At the same time, regulatory agencies recognize that technology provides accurate data that can inform or change transportation safety regulations.
In fact, data gathered from electronic logging devices (ELD) mandated in the U.S. prompted a new focus on hours-of-service (HOS) regulations that may be adversely impacting certain sectors of the economy. As a result, U.S. regulators are taking another look at HOS rules.
Next-generation digital freight matching solutions address issues currently challenging LSPs and carriers by empowering them to fix the broken process of finding capacity. Advanced technology enables freight brokers and 3PLs to make the sourcing/booking process more efficient and more intelligent by eliminating manual work and presenting verifiable data.
Descartes is committed to providing the best support possible to our worldwide customer base, and is constantly seeking to improve the support experience for customers.Technology is an important part of the support process and, driven by our ongoing goal to provide the best service possible, we chose to implement FreshService, a new Incident Management System from Freshworks.
With 80+ sessions across five tracks and amazing customer and partner speakers, Evolution 2018 reflects Descartes’ continued dedication to help our customers be more successful. One panel discussion on transportation management provided insights from Tim Motter, SAP Solutions Manager; Lance Healy, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Banyan Technology; and Ken Wood, Executive Vice President, Product Management at Descartes and addressed questions from attendees in three areas: Competition and Growth; Market Conditions and Regulations; and Technology, Innovation and the Future.
New Jersey-based BASF Corporation is the second largest producer and marketer of chemicals and related products in North America. As its business has grown over the years, maintaining excellence in customer service has been a top priority for BASF. Driven by customer demand, the company wanted an automated tracking solution that would provide real-time updates for its bulk truck shipments—and determined the Descartes MacroPoint™ solution was the best fit for its operations.
Every once in a while, something really clever turns up... a while back, I came across an article on what3words. The founders of this service decided that the current methods of sharing locations and global coordinates are either too complicated (e.g., lat/long) to actually share easily, or too imprecise and subject to interpretation errors (e.g., postal addresses) to get people and products exactly where they need to be. With a big idea to make locations mnemonic- friendly and super precise, they overlaid the world with a grid of 3m x 3m squares (57 trillion of them) and assigned each square a three-word code.
Ferrellgas is a premier provider of propane throughout the United States. Since 2001, Ferrellgas has used the Descartes Route Planner™ solution to centralize routing for the delivery of propane to its residential, agricultural, industrial, and commercial customers nationwide. The company is now expanding the solution to its Blue Rhino division to fuel enhanced levels of customer service across its nationwide network for propane tank exchange.
Advanced TMS Capabilities Open Up New Opportunities
In speaking with customers over the last few months, we have seen a significant increase in transportation teams taking more control of their inbound freight. Historically, most of the return on investment (ROI) for transportation management systems (TMS) was focused on outbound transportation by optimizing across less than truckload (LTL)/truckload (TL) and cutting freight costs while creating increased visibility and customer service. Now, with the advent of cloud-based transportation management systems that support a wider range of modes (e.g. parcel, fleet, air and ocean) and better supplier connectivity, the opportunity to expand the use of TMS to reduce the cost of inbound shipments is greater than ever.
Headquartered in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster Farm Fresh Organics (LFFO) is a non-profit organic farmer’s cooperative of over 160 family farmers that provides fresh, certified organic fruits, vegetables, and other farm fresh products to wholesalers and through a subscription initiative also known as the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
