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Article
Gearing Up in North America: These transportation tech upgrades
support safe, fast delivery
Getting products to customers when and where they need them is what we aim to do. To help drive greater efficiency, new digital tools are shifting the multi-step delivery process across our private fleet and carrier partners into high gear. The Transportation industry can now benefit from easy access to real-time supply chain data, simplified processes for added efficiency, and reduced paper needs. Read on to learn about four ways we’re driving technology forward for the future of distribution.
1. Where’s my shipment? Samsara and TMC Navisphere deliver real-time route tracking
“Where’s my shipment” is one of the top questions our Transportation team is asked. Samsara telematics installed in our North America private fleet deliver real-time visibility into vehicle location – TMC Navisphere does the same for our third-party carrier partners – so customers can easily access information about their deliveries. Even more, Samsara data helps us stay ahead of maintenance needs, helps Univar Solutions drivers operate their vehicles more safely, and improves route planning. Real-time route information contributes to improved overall efficiency and lower costs. Benefits include helping reduce fuel consumption and finding a faster way to meet regulatory requirements such as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate requiring commercial drivers to use electronic logs to track their hours of service.
2. Electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD) digitizes delivery document paperwork
Rolling out to USA Customers now, ePOD is a true gamechanger. Univar Solutions drivers in the USA are being equipped with handheld devices that can instantly capture and digitally save electronic signatures of at-the-time-of delivery. Even more, ePOD also captures signed Bills of Lading (BOLs), Certificates of Analysis (COAs), and Weight Tickets for bulk deliveries. Customers will get quicker access to documents and billing via UnivarSolutions.com. Customer Account Partners have real-time information in SAP. This saves time spent on post-delivery processes such as scanning paper copies and searching for documents, and also reduces how much actual paper we will use.
3. Better Data with Transporeon means better carrier rates
When the need arises, our third-party carriers are an extension of our team and Transporeon seamlessly links historical route and rate information, which in turn, helps us leverage our buying power to lock-in optimal annual rates across all modes. Univar Solutions is also adding the Transporeon rate management module to our technology lineup, supporting our enterprise route guide to automate rates electronically into SAP, reducing manual time inputting data across multiple systems.
4. Cloud-based carrier collaboration gets orders on the road faster
Cloud-based systems, including E2OPEN Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and SAP Logistics Business Network (LBN), are speeding up how we coordinate shipments with carriers using electronic communications. Carriers can easily and electronically access shipment tenders, event status updates via PC, in-truck tablets and smartphones, which means less paper, printing, filing, postage, and document retrieval. This technology also provides event status updates from multiple devices. With less manual work on our side, we’re able to get through the transactional parts of the common carrier logistics, so we can update customers sooner and get shipments on the road faster, with greater visibility to status updates along the way.
These tech tools are making our Transportation team more efficient than ever. With real-time access to the information we need to get on the road quickly, we make it easy to do business with and deliver for our customers anytime, anywhere.
Learn more about our private fleet – the largest inside the chemical industry – in our Smart Acids™ podcast covering the product and transportation markets.
