Logistics
Every status call is a system you did not build.
In logistics, customer service load is a direct measure of how little visibility the customer has. Give them the answer and the calls stop — along with the cost of answering them.
How the business actually runs
Before any software is discussed.
Orders arrive by email, portal and phone. Dispatch is a planner, a spreadsheet and a set of calls to drivers. Proof of delivery is a signature on paper or a photo in a message. Customers ring to ask where things are. Invoicing waits for the paperwork to come back from the road.
- Freight
- courier
- distribution
- haulage and last-mile operators
Where the money leaks
Four leaks we see in almost every one of these businesses.
Not generic inefficiency — the specific places where revenue, margin or time escapes a logistic business.
- 01
The status call
Each one costs staff time and tells you the customer could not find out for themselves. At volume this is a department funded entirely by missing information.
- 02
Dispatch held in one person's head
Routing and allocation that depend on a single planner cannot scale, cannot be audited, and stop when that person is away.
- 03
Proof of delivery on paper
Paper arrives days later, goes missing, and delays the invoice. It is also the weakest possible position in a dispute.
- 04
Invoices behind the work
Every day between delivery and invoice is a day of someone else holding your cash.
The system
One connected flow, end to end.
Each stage feeds the next, and every stage is measurable. This is the shape of what we would build — the detail is decided with you.
- 01 Order
- 02 Plan & dispatch
- 03 Driver app
- 04 Delivery
- 05 Proof
- 06 Invoice
- Customer ordering and tracking portal
- Dispatch and allocation system
- Driver mobile app with capture
- Electronic proof of delivery
- Automated invoicing from completed jobs
- Performance and exception reporting
- On-time delivery rate
- Status calls per hundred consignments
- Cost per delivery
- Days from delivery to invoice
A worked example
Illustrative, with the assumptions stated.
Assume
- Say an operator handles 3,000 consignments a month with 18 vehicles
- Customer service fields a status call for a meaningful share of them
- Proof of delivery returns to the office in batches, days later
What changes
- Customers see live status themselves, so the reason to call disappears
- Dispatch runs from one screen with the plan visible to everyone who needs it
- Drivers capture delivery, condition and signature at the door
- Invoices generate from completed, proven deliveries the same day
Assumptions for illustration. The status-call count is usually the quickest number to establish and the easiest to move.
Is this you?
Worth a conversation if any of these are true.
And worth saying plainly when they are not.
- Customers ring to ask where their delivery is
- Dispatch depends on one planner and a spreadsheet
- Proof of delivery is paper, or photos in a chat
- Invoicing waits on paperwork
If your vehicles are full and your constraint is capacity or driver supply, the system should wait until it is solving a cost problem rather than a growth one.
Further reading and other industries
Tell us how the business runs today.
We will map where the revenue leaks, show you the system that closes it, and say plainly if the numbers do not justify building anything.
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