With the latest Budget indicating significant green shoots of recovery popping up across the country, the logistics industry should soon see those benefits too as trade increases. After some tough years, most in the industry will consider this potential upturn to be welcome. However, in anticipation of better times ahead, many companies should ask themselves if they been using these years to keep their services updated? Is the back end infrastructure sufficiently in place, for example, to take advantage of increasing volume, especially given high standards from hard-kept clients and consumers alike. Logistics has moved on despite a stagnant business climate.
Logistics is the lifeblood of many British businesses. It is essential that modern logistics services keep the pace with change and drive forward best practice when it comes to keeping Britain’s businesses moving. As the leading operator in this space, ByBox has worked hard to keep innovating and developing our service, which offers convenient and responsive end-to-end delivery for field engineers across the UK, even for items required at short notice, around the clock and in remote locations. Recognising the central role of logistics to our customers, ByBox has also developed capabilities to look after warehousing, inventory, return and repair, and even offer engineering resource for customers.
One delivery revolution which has taken place in recent years is the growth in flexible locker based collection points, which liberate users to pick up their parcels or even their weekly groceries from 24/7 accessible units at their own leisure. This is especially important for service engineers, who need to pick up time critical machine parts on a countrywide basis. As demand for delivery flexibility has grown, so too the footprint of locker availability around the UK has spread. As the leading locker provider, ByBox now offers thousands of collection points for its field services and consumer collections in convenient locations from petrol stations to supermarkets and rail terminals, meaning that field personnel no longer have to wait around for parts to be delivered. Secure, accessible by card, code or key, and available in a variety of sizes, locker collection is becoming a mainstay of modern logistics – one which can make a day in the life of modern field engineers much more effective.
The benefits of this ‘drop box’ and collection approach go far beyond convenience. The flexibility works both ways: if engineers need to return parts to suppliers they can simply drop them back off at a local locker which are then dynamically routed back to the originator, creating a faster return loop and ensuring they arrive at the correct final destination with total traceability. In addition, because the delivery vehicles are travelling from one single point – their depot – to another – the locker bank – the delivery system becomes more efficient and environmentally friendly, as drivers and engineers do not have to visit multiple locations before repairs can take place.
The modern logistics provider needs to look at more than physically getting the product into the hands of a customer, however. Companies looking to future-proof their businesses and drive further efficiencies are now even employing logistics partners that are able to offer full supply chain capabilities to manage the whole cycle of supply and maintenance. Instead of simply providing parts, these ‘smart’ logistics companies can collect goods from suppliers, hold them in their warehouse and then even replace or repair low level problems on site, removing the need for a separate engineer to be called out. This effectively enables maintenance and engineering customers to outsource the whole maintenance process to the logistics firm, offering considerable man power and cost savings.
Technology has also significantly streamlined the supply chain process. For example, ByBox’ proprietary Thinventory™ supply chain management system provides complete visibility for customers over the entire delivery process, providing added piece of mind and making sure all expectations on delivery times and services are met. It provides 100% visibility to clients on status of their order delivery, from picking and packing through to delivery on the van and returns. Given the pressure which remains on businesses and their customers, logistics providers have to be as open as possible and each step of the journey needs to be as visible as possible to match and exceed customer service expectations. Making sure the back end infrastructure is as aligned as possible to match these customer demands is crucial in a competitive business landscape.
As the country looks to stabilise and get back to growth, it will be the logistics businesses of Britain delivering this change. Making sure they are also delivering customer expectations, cutting costs for businesses and making simple changes to streamline the processes along the way will serve companies in good stead for building strong business in the long haul.
ByBox
Tel: 0844 800 5219
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