Logistics industries deal with the transportation of goods or products on-time from the place of construction to the place of consumer in order to accomplish user needs and wants. These products can be anything like books, clothes, machines, kitchen appliances, food items, electronic devices etc. Courier services, delivery services and many other are listed among this category.
Time, money and resource management : Biggest concern of logistics industry
Logistics industries have always been worried about if their customers are receiving the ordered products at time or not. ‘Full Customer Satisfaction’ and ‘Timely Delivery’ are the two main motives of any logistics company. A number of solutions have been introduced since the birth of these striking complications. But, any of them could hardly resolve the issue related to a proper balance and management of time, money and resources.
The less satisfactory outcomes enforced human intellect to apply more reasoning on their mind and these efforts resulted into most competent solution in form of GPS Tracking. With its best features, it has almost overcome the pressure of logistics industry.
What is GPS Tracking and how it is useful for logistics industry?
- GPS (Global Positioning System)
GPS is a radio-navigation system made up of around 24 satellites. This technology is used in many devices to find the exact location of any entity on earth, water or in air. Though GPS works very accurately but sometimes change in weather or climate may affect its preciseness.
- How GPS works?
GPS is a satellite based system, satellites circle earth twice in a day and send signals to the GPS devices. The devices use trilateration to the informations associated with these received signals and find the exact location of the device.
- What is GPS tracking?
GPS tracking is used in any portable device, vehicle or person that uses the concept of global positioning system to find the location of things to which it is associated. In any moving entity, it is incorporated to find its exact position.
- Importance of GPS tracking in Logistics industry
Before the invent of GPS technology, tracking sales staff and organizational resources were like a dream. Managers had no idea if their staff was working productively or not but as soon as the GPS concept was introduced, it took very less time to find its feet in the business industry. Now it is boon for managers as they can keep their eyes continuously on each small activity for which they are investing bit or huge.
An Example of GPS tracking in courier service
In today’s digital world, people prefer doing any small or big work with the help of laptop or cell phone than scratching head outside. This mentality is the main reason of fast growing e-commerce businesses.
Suppose you place an order for kitchen appliance from Amazon, following are steps how GPS tracking helps in quick, safe and on-time delivery:
Step 1: Order is taken and listed under the records.
Step 2: Store manager tracks his team and find the nearest sales executive to the place where the item is to be delivered.
Step 3: With the help of GPS tracking sales rep finds the best shortest way to reach the customer place.
Step 4: Sales professional reaches to the customer to hand-over the requested item and takes his/her biometric as the acceptance.
Step 5: Store manager receives the notification of successful delivery and sends an intimation message and mail to the customer.
TeamSpoor: A GPS-Based Tracking Application
TeamSpoor is an android based App for sales reps with web based dashboard for managers. It is a sales force tracking App which the top management uses to track on-field employees in real time.
If field executive says he/she is busy in dealing the prospect then TeamSpoor will help you to show that picture in form of real time data with the help check-in check-out concept of the software. As soon as the rep checks in from the App, GPS automatically tracks the prospect’s location. The address field in the App automatically gets filled with the data received through GPS tracking.
With the help of this software, sales executives can mark their attendance from anywhere at time especially when they are busy in the meeting their customers. Thus, you can call it attendance-absenteeism management software too. This feature is a great help to implement discipline and transparency in the system in order to meet revenue goals.
Apart from this, DSR Automation is unique and key feature of TeamSpoor application. DSR here means daily sales report that has a very significant importance in business industry. Each executive is asked to send the sales report at the end of each day. Maintaining DSR manually is a time consuming job and can be erroneous too if data entered is not authentic.With the help of this App, the real time DSR is automatically prepared and can be seen on the dashboard under the respective columns like which sales professional dealing to which prospect and how many visits an executive does in a day etc.
Benefits of TeamSpoor in courier/delivery services:
- Fleet management & last-minute business deal
With the help of TeamSpoor, the top level staff can track field executives in order to get an idea about where all vehicles are. Sometimes a random call might demand for a visit, in that case if no vehicle is available then TeamSpoor helps how to track them and call the one located to nearest for serving the purpose. This is how TeamSpoor eases fleet management task for managers. Tracking and assigning the lead become very easy and less time consuming with the help of this software.
Suppose a person orders for portable charger from Amazon and pays extra for instant delivery, in that case the upper management either assigns this task to the dedicated person or if whole sales staff is busy then he traces his whole team and directs the order to the one who he finds closest to the consumer. It comes under last minute business deal and are valuable in revenue generation.
- Cost reduction
Although it is true that sales team works hard but sometime they get trap doing their personal tasks that too in working hours and using the corporate resources, which is not good for organizational growth. With the help of TeamSpoor App you can monitor your team any time and get the real time information about where they are exactly.
For example, a Pizza delivery boy has to make a number of visits in a day so he might think if, in between, during the visit he could take out some time for his personal purpose. Well, companies don’t give their equipment for personal comfort as it is organization’s loss of time and money.
- Find best routes to optimize productivity
Since TeamSpoor App gives managers an insight of different routes between store and consumer point when they have something to deliver, so they can find the best shortest way to deliver the item. The shortest path takes less time and fuel, which, in turn, can be used for more making more deliveries. In this way the overall business productivity can be raised with persistent efforts.
For example, if a sales rep is said to deliver 3 items in the same region at different places then he can find the best path connecting to these three places that will take lesser time.
- Notify manager for successful delivery in real time
As mentioned above, TeamSpoor is based on check-in check-out system. Whenever the field employee reaches to the location where order is to be delivered, he presses check in button in the App, at the same time GPS tracks the consumer’s address and ‘address’ field in the App get fulfilled with address of person who made the order. Then the sales rep asks customer to fill the ‘order accepted’ in the ‘other’ section of the App and finally presses check-in button. As soon as he checks out all the information is sent to the manager and he can see on his dashboard in real-time. Means, as soon as order is delivered, the TeamSpoor App notifies to the management for the successful delivery.
- Modify sales team management strategy
Managers have a detailed report on their dashboard about who made how much successful item deliveries and it helps them to manage team in more better and organized way calculating reps’ potential.
For example, two people might drive bus, truck or anything at different speeds so they will certainly take different time to deliver the same order following the same path. The fast driver would take less time and can efficiently utilize the remaining time for other deliveries. Reports reflect the capability of professionals, based on which more orders can be assigned to the deserving ones. It helps in bringing benefit to business.
- Save time and cost for canceled orders
Many times it is seen people cancel their order for some reasons and sometimes they do it after order dispatched. In such case, TeamSpoor helps to find the exact location of the order so that sales executive can be stopped and diverted to other route for rest tasks. Thus, with the help of this real time tracking solution, fuel and time can be saved from wasting on non worthy deals.
