The aforementioned result is one of the stand-out findings contained in the Transportation Pulse Report report, which sets out to identify solutions for rebuilding trust in the supply chain.
Written by Adrian Gonzalez, President of Adelante SCM and Founder of Talking Logistics, the document combines quantitative insights from more than 280 shippers, carriers and 3PLs with the opinions of industry experts.
When it comes to trust, more than half of participants “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with the statement “you can’t be too careful when dealing with people across your supply chain”. This coincides with the problems identified in digital supply chains: 58% of respondents state that the lack of transparency and data sharing among trading partners was in need of fixing. Almost half of the respondents also state that a lack of real-time visibility was a problem.
Moreover, the survey found that a rising number of logistics professionals (25% compared to 18% in 2020) believe that there exists “very large” room for improvement in the way transportation processes are designed and managed. Another 48% of respondents see “large” room for improvement (compared to 47% in 2020).
More specifically, respondents consider the biggest room for improvement to reside in the physical (68%) rather than the digital supply chain (32%).
According to Dr. Thomas Lieb, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics and member of Transporeon’s Advisory Board, this is “obvious”. The former CEO of DB Schenker added: “it’s currently the physical supply chain that is causing all the headaches, which is why building trustful and reliable relationships with your supply chain partners, having real-time visibility, and taking care of your people are so important.”
Elsewhere, survey respondents stated that “Matching demand with capacity more efficiently” was the highest priority for them in 2022. “Enabling greater visibility to real-time demand, rates & capacity” and “Eliminating manual & paper-based processes” were their second and third priorities. Reducing carbon footprint has also become more important since 2020.
In addition, further results of the study show that the integration of technology and logistics was strengthened within the last year. Software still matters, but the platform approach has become even more important with 77% of respondents stating that size and scope were “very important” or “important” criteria when selecting a TMS or logistics service provider.
Industry expert Adrian Gonzalez, who put together the report, summarised the findings as follows:
“What we do know is that very large opportunities for improvement still exist in transportation, and that to achieve them, the logistics industry needs to become more data-driven, and there needs to be greater transparency of data across all stakeholders.”
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