This article is the sixth part of the Youredi Best Practices Series, intended to help all logistics industry actors increase their operational efficiency and grow their business.
In this part, we discuss the benefits freight forwarders can expect from combining real time flight tracking data with flight status updates, as well as outline a solution allowing freight forwarders to enable complete visibility on all their air freight hassle-free.
In the modern business world, to succeed in logistics operations, freight forwarders need to ensure the movement of goods responsible from source to destination is executed efficiently. With air freight leg, flight status update messages delivered by the airlines are the most common way to keep an eye on air freight movements.
The flight status update messages provide information on the status of the consignment once the event has occurred. One challenge here is the late reception of the status update information at the freight forwarders’ end, possibly due to technical delays. Here, the freight forwarders will fail to make informed, timely decisions on the operational level, affecting the efficiency of their operations and often their customer service. This is where the real time flight tracker data becomes a vital source of information for the companies handling the consignments.
To better understand why having only flight status updates on your hand is not enough, we need to compare it against the data you can get from the flight tracker.
Flight tracker data is updated every minute, whereas flight status information is updated approximately every thirty minutes. Flight tracking gives more accurate information on the location and status of the flight, whether there is any delay or it is on time. Though the status is updated every thirty minutes, we are unsure when the requester will receive this information. But, the flight tracker information is received immediately upon request to the flight tracker API, with no delay. The faster and more accurately the information is received, the more effectively it can be used. By using flight tracking information, you will know the exact arrival time of the shipments. You can anticipate the delay in receiving the shipments or even identify soon enough if the shipment is lost.
Freight forwarding companies have started to acknowledge the advancements in technology like real time air tracking, as they would not like to miss out on the opportunities to serve their customer better.
Real-time tracking is already becoming the new norm. However, today, most of the transportation management systems and software freight forwarders rely on to manage their operations and cannot provide these data. Hence, the companies need to develop solutions in-house or partner with data connectivity providers like Youredi to get a turn-key solution ensuring complete visibility of air freight.
In-house development always implies investments and is quite unpredictable in terms of time horizon and results. So if you feel resource allocation might be challenging, or your business cannot afford this unpredictability, it is better to use the other option – leverage the turn-key solutions.
Youredi is offering a fully managed data connectivity solution that allows freight forwarder customers to enrich and complement the flight status data and updates received from the airlines with the flight tracking information. This way, a freight forwarder can ensure the visibility of freight at any given moment.
The whole process of receiving and transferring flight tracking information can be outlined:
By having real-time flight tracking data enabled, freight forwarders can ensure these benefits:
The ability to track shipments in real time helps freight forwarders improve their logistics planning and processes, coordinate with different departments, and improve customer services. All the factors discussed above finally converge to real time tracking of the shipments helping to fill the gaps that affect the efficiency of the logistical process in the supply chain world.
To learn more about Youredi or the solutions we provide for freight forwarders, please schedule an online meeting with our team.