Key Tips to Improve Your Transloading Operations

It is perfectly possible to find yourself in a position where getting your goods to their destination requires more than one method of transportation. In such cases, transloading becomes a necessity. In order to streamline the process, we have put together key tips to improve your transloading operations.

Optimize and coordinate your transloading operations better

Since transloading is all about getting your shipment from one mode of transport into another, one way to improve your transloading operations is to optimize the process as much as possible. The simplest and most straightforward way to do this is by ensuring that your schedules actually follow accurate arrival times. In other words, do not operate on the assumption of when the shipment would theoretically arrive at its destination alone. Instead, try to keep track of travel times, calculate the averages, and then arrange things with the logistics companies you are working with accordingly. Of course, it is still smart to give a slightly loose timeframe in order to account for road congestion and other accidents. But this still helps prepare the partnered logistics companies for the arrival of your shipment better. If you pair this with trying to improve your fleet efficiency, you can achieve great results.

Implement better fleet and shipment tracking

As the experts from Apollo Moving note, it’s extremely important that you always know where your trucks and teams are at any moment. As such, if you have not worked on improving your fleet and shipment tracking yet, we recommend you do it as soon as possible! This is because tracking lets you detect accidents and delays very quickly and respond to them in a timely manner. If you keep track of your trucks and one suddenly stops, you can quickly contact the driver and check-in. From there, you can respond in a suitable manner to any emergencies on hand. Shipment tracking is also useful once the shipment is out of your hands. Transloading relies on transferring shipments quickly from one transport to another, but this opens the process up to errors. With tracking, you can quickly notice if your shipment is on the wrong delivery route.

Work on fostering long-term partnerships

If you need to use transloading in shipping, then it’s likely not to be a one-time thing. As such, one of the best ways to improve your transloading operations is to work on fostering your connection to the companies you rely on in the process. This is because a closer relationship with them makes absolutely every step of the process easier. You can better coordinate your transloading schedule and avoid delays caused by waiting times. You can account for any problems on your or their end because you will be informed promptly. They are even more likely to be willing to assist you or show you special consideration. This can be extremely helpful for businesses that deal with sensitive or perishable goods.

Try to consolidate your shipments

Smaller shipments can be a good idea in certain situations. However, if you want to improve your transloading operations, it is better to consolidate your shipments instead. This is because arranging for the transloading of all the separate shipments becomes taxing if there are too many of them. Even if you elect to use software to automate most of the process, you still need to be able to respond reliably to any problems for each and every one of those shipments. And transloading can be a bit riskier than single-type transportation. This means that the workload placed on your company’s employees increased significantly.

Insist on well-trained employees

The final way to improve your transloading operations is to work on your employees’ skills. Highly-skilled employees can complete the transfer of goods from one mode of transportation to another quickly and reliably, all the while minimizing the chances of any accidents or major problems occurring. Of course, this means you need to be selective with your selection of partners, too. If they don’t have reliable employees, then even if you do your best to optimize things on your end, you will run into problems. Granted, since it is impossible to run a reliable logistics business without skilled employees, it is in your interest to invest in their training regardless. But it is still better to work with businesses that value the same level of performance as you.

Working to improve your transloading operations further

You can increase your effectiveness and efficiency by using our key tips to improve your transloading operations. With that, you will be a step closer to having a perfect logistics network that can properly support the needs of your business! Of course, new tech and ways of approaching transport can open up new possibilities, so it’s always best to keep up to date with the latest tips.

For over 30 years, 18 Wheels Logistics has strived to be the most customer-centric trucking, warehousing, and logistics company around. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 18 Wheels relies on experience and integrity to make customers happy and remain on the cutting edge of shipping and logistics management.

If you have any questions about this article or you would like to talk to us about your shipping needs, please call us at (604) 439-8938.