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The five most frequent problems in land transport of goods

The five most frequent problems in land transport of goods

Faster, more efficient, safer, more transparent. Land transport of goods is constantly improving its benefits. However, that does not mean that they will be completely safe from incidents. This week we’re going to do a robot portrait of some of the main suspects when a problem occurs.

Most frequent errors in land transport of goods
Wrong data

The ABC of a shipment has to start, necessarily, because it is well documented, both by the client and by the logistics operator. Land freight transport companies insist to our clients on the importance of having all the information possible from the outset. How much merchandise must be collected, of what weights and dimensions, complete collection and delivery locations, telephone numbers and contact persons, etc.

In the must of the logistics operators are the errors that can occur during the recording of the expedition data. For example, a typo in the name of the contact person can be easily corrected. But in the case of the postal code, an erroneous digit can send merchandise to the other end of the country, causing delays (and extra costs for the carrier).

absence of the person

“There was nobody at home”. It is possibly the most feared phrase for both companies and recipients. In the world of parcels and deliveries to individuals, it is undoubtedly the first cause of failed deliveries. For this reason, numerous initiatives are being developed to reduce this casuistry: shorter delivery periods, advance notices to the client, appointment changes in the event of unforeseen events, etc.

From the recipient’s perspective, the fear resides in the bad practice of some companies of pointing out the absence of the recipient as the cause of the incidence when he has stayed at home specifically waiting for said delivery. Few things are more annoying than these situations.

breaks

At this point we can differentiate the cases in which the responsibility falls on the carrier or the shipper. Among the first cases are those in which land transport of goods have problems during handling (loading and unloading of trucks or warehouses) or during the journey (it does not have to be a collision, a simple hard braking in a truck with more of twenty tons of cargo can lead to damage).

Among the failures usually attributable to those who send the merchandise is its preparation. It is difficult to overstate how important it is to assemble a good pallet so that it arrives at its destination as it came out. The journey of a pallet often includes several loads and unloads and hundreds of kilometers. If your preparation is precarious, the easiest thing is for us to soon have bad news.

Pricing in land transport of goods

Not all shipping problems have to do with the movement of the merchandise. Sometimes surprises come when we see the price, which is often related to not knowing the rate (either because it has not been explained to us well or because we have not seen it carefully).

Among the most frequent cases are those of those rates that are expressed in kilos. The most normal thing is that all these rates have, at the same time as a price per kilo, a conversion factor from volume to weight for those light but bulky merchandise. Other factors that you have to take into account can be reshipments to small towns, the fuel factor -more common in international-, etc.

Delays (misrouted, traffic, faults)

On this issue you have to take the bull by the horns: in land transport of goods there are sometimes delays. Sometimes they will not be attributable to the carrier (a breakdown in the vehicle, a traffic jam that is difficult to foresee…). But on other occasions, yes, such as the error in the documentation that we mentioned before, a failure in the preparation of an order, a poorly designed delivery route, etc.

We have started the article by explaining that logistics services offer a higher level of performance every day. However, in each section we have seen areas in which logistics operators can and must continue to improve. And that encourages us to try a little harder every day.

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