The organisation of transports is part of the core business of every forwarding company and the dispatcher is at its centre. From procurement to unloading, he is involved in most of the work steps in the company. He makes orders, assigns tasks, allocates transport areas, and tours and manages the service provider's resources. To keep everything in view, the employees in scheduling need technical assistance, especially in transport monitoring. Mobile apps offer valuable functions such as:

• tour management
• position monitoring
• arrival time calculation
• status transmission
• proactive information

With these options, dispatchers can take on an increasingly comprehensive range of tasks in transport organisation. In the process, many logistics companies are establishing a paperless way of working with the applications.

Organisation

Mobile apps control transport tours

The most important work of dispatchers includes route scheduling. To do this, they align transport goods to existing vehicle resources of the freight forwarder and purchase additional freight space if necessary. As soon as the planning is complete, the scheduling department controls its implementation, passes the tours to drivers and their vehicles and draws up loading lists together with the stop sequence. By using mobile apps, it is possible to dynamically adjust the planning up to the loading time of consignments and packages onto the local transport vehicles. The applications map loading lists digitally, eliminating the need to hand over paper lists. With the software on mobile data terminals (MDT), drivers or the handling staff carry out the loading scan for the individual packages, prevent incorrect loading of the goods and implement the intended stop sequence.

Transport route

Mobile apps allow real-time monitoring

As soon as a driver has started his transport tour, the mobile apps support the dispatcher in monitoring the course of the tour. The apps transmit the GPS position of the vehicles in real time, calculate the estimated time of arrival (ETA) from the route plan and the traffic data. For temperature-controlled transports, they also display the current load compartment temperature and send proactive warnings in the event of deviations from the specified temperature corridor. They also provide the proof of delivery (POD) or document with photos and GPS coordinates that a consignment has been deposited at the authorised drop-off location.

Administration

Mobile apps facilitate documentation

In addition to the active control of tours, the strengths of mobile applications for the logistics industry include in particular the documentation of the individual work steps. During the processing of tasks, they not only transmit each new status in real time to all authorised participants. They also document it in connection with the respective tour and the associated transport order. In addition, the apps also register the departure checks at the start of duty or with the start of a dangerous goods tour as well as the proper securing of the load using predefined workflows without additional administrative effort or media disruptions. In the event of truck accidents or damage to individual packages, the software solutions also allow the damage to be recorded, photographed and the accident report to be transferred to the scheduling department or directly to the insuring company.

Conclusion

Mobile apps accelerate and digitalise logistics processes

In the day-to-day business of freight forwarders and logistics companies, mobile apps transmit a lot of information that dispatchers need to perform their tasks. In particular, they facilitate the monitoring of ongoing transports through real-time status communication and arrival time forecasts for the next scheduled stop. This eliminates the need for a large number of telephone and written enquiries. In logistics, this makes the digital solutions an indispensable aids for dispatchers.