50% of customers penalise suppliers for missed deliveries
That is the salutary statistic that was reported on talkinglogistics.com. Therefore, carrier
performance is important, which is why Diamond formally report carrier stats every 3 months but
we keep eye out DAILY for any blips. We have 100% transparency of carrier performance – as
do our clients – so any exceptions are flagged daily, and any remedial action taken.
All notes are kept on every individual booking so our clients and indeed their recipients get to
see where their delivery is – and if its delayed what we have actioned to do about it. The email
that sends out booking confirmation has a TRACK MY SHIPMENT button for ease of use too.
In the not too distant past a carrier has gone bust (Citylink), been snowed in (Yodel) or suffered
a huge IT issues (TNT) and this means parcels get stuck. There are also the fluctuations around
peak times in performance when some of the carriers get exponentially busier – or do not cope
so well. So daily monitoring is essential – something we do for all of our sites, here at HQ. Our
site gives feedback to us too if there are any potential issues repeatedly occurring.
The joy of our Despatchlab platform and it’s multi carrier ability is that there is always more than
one choice of carrier – which makes for great business continuity in case of any of the above
happening. Simply put, if a carrier falls over, we can switch them on or off at the flick of a switch
and redirect consignments elsewhere. Its why we always have two of each – low cost carriers,
parcel or consignment carriers – there is always a plan B in the event of non-performance or
service melt down.
Also monitoring performance truly shows, mostly, what an exceptional service our carriers
deliver. If you read most carriers online reviews or Facebook pages they are littered with
disgruntled customers. But our professional monitoring of them all tells another story. Most
function well within the 2-3% forecast failure rate. Which is exceptional actually, if you think of
the sheer volume of what they do and how a consignment cost is relative to distance
from collection to delivery. But again, it takes data based industry knowledge and daily
experience to analyse and advise our clients who is performing best – and which carrier is best
for their deliveries.
For our last quarters analysis you can check out our report HERE
And if you’d like the best logistics advice on your deliveries be sure to get in touch via the form below.
