What challenges have you already overcome this year? And which one are you still looking forward to? We are 6 months into 2022. A good time to see where you are and where you want to go. What does the market look like 6 months after the start of the year? Where are we standing right now? What obstacles do you have to overcome?

The 4 most important challenges for 3PL

1. Resources

The tightness of the current labor market presents challenges in all sectors. Many logistic entrepreneurs have sleepless nights about the disappearance of knowledge by Baby Boomers who are retiring. On the other hand, there is the enthusiasm to work with new talent. But attracting and retaining this new talent remains difficult. Added to this is an additional challenge: the driver shortage has hit record highs. This is visible worldwide, but also in the Netherlands. With a direct adverse impact on the supply chain. This can hinder your further development.

2. Rising transport and energy prices

Rising costs are nothing new under the sun. But the prices that you as a logistics service provider are confronted with are already higher than last year. And that is something to swallow for many entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, 42% of the road transporters expects to further increase their prices in negotiations with the client. This is apparent from a survey by Statistics Netherlands. A development that has a direct impact on your business. Because your trucks still have to hit the road. logistics entrepreneur these days doubts the usefulness and necessity of, for example, a fuel clause. Approximately 80 percent of the entrepreneurs in the sector use this and the risks of strong fluctuations in fuel costs can thus be avoided. These rising prices can be processed in your logistics software.

3. Globalization

We don’t stand still. Globalization has taken off enormously in recent years. There is sufficient capital on the market. At the same time there is the inflation specter. Large parties seek each other out, as a result of which the smaller parties are cornered. Smaller companies appear to be too small to survive in a volume market where price pressure plays a role. Or companies have no successor and seek security for their employees for the future. As a result, we see one takeover after another.

4. IT Developments

Developments are accelerating. Greater strides have to be made to keep up. More and more companies, both in IT and logistics services, can no longer keep up. Result: stop or continue on a dead end. Most companies already understand that IT is necessary to stay ahead. Yet there are still companies that see it as a necessary evil. These companies only change if they really have to: they are reactive. With the current speed of developments, that could mean that you are too late. That you sit at the back of the peloton and get ridden off the track.

But what’s next?

We have listed the 4 most important points of attention to drive a winning ride:

The pace picks up. Technological developments must be followed even faster. What do you need to keep up? Automating processes and workflows. We are talking about being able to adopt innovations. You want to be able to respond directly to customer wishes. You need access to the latest options for that. Whether it concerns a specific workflow or a link with the system of third parties.

The challenges in the market cry out for data. And specifically the successful use of data. Tools such as Power BI can help with this. But whichever way you look at it, it starts with the registration of data in your logistics software. This is where you lay the foundation for reliable reports. There you ensure that no step is skipped to exceed customer expectations. See how you can use your processes smarter and what can be automated. There you can see where you incur extra costs and where you can save. That’s where you build a winning strategy.

We will continue to work together. Only together can we keep up with the pace of the peloton. And that is not always easy. Elevate-IT does this by collaborating. Our peloton of winners – each in their own domain. But with the same dose of ambition and guts. Going together for the best result. Innovate together. Performing at the highest level.

Stay flexible. Keep up. This also requires you as a customer to invest in IT knowledge. So that you can make changes independently. This requires us to support our customers as much as possible. Our innovations are also aimed at that. But the choices for the platform of 3PL Dynamics – we have also started the route towards the cloud. Logistics software that gives you the option to scale up or down. Fully geared to the growth of your company. We rely on the Microsoft Cloud for this. A cloud-based solution, on servers, fully managed by Microsoft. In other words, a cloud solution in the Microsoft SaaS. That is the course the peloton is heading.

Would you like to know more about how 3PL Dynamics is supported in the cloud? Mail to info@elevate-it.be.