Supply Chain Transportation Assets: Is Your Fleet Mix Right?
While operating your own transportation network and assets gives you significant control over your supply chain, establishing and maintaining your fleet at the right scale—and with the right mix of vehicles—can be challenging.
Have you reviewed your transport operation recently? If not, how do you know if your fleet is still scaled optimally to meet your business’ needs? Is your vehicle mix still appropriate?
Small variations over time, in goods volumes, customer distribution, environmental and regulatory factors, can mean that a once-optimal fleet starts to negatively impact logistics costs and service levels.
Fleet mix is also a critical consideration when working with outsourced transportation. Is your 3PL partner providing the right level and mix of assets for your operation? Again, the need to review occasionally is paramount.
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Our transport consulting assignments have ranged across the world and include countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States & Vietnam.
Issues to Consider in Fleet Optimisation
- Determining the correct range of vehicle and equipment types
- Understanding the costs of:
- Overheads
- Equipment
- Labour
- Fuel
- Maintenance
- Deciding on the best fleet ownership option
- Cost benefits and risks of in-house transportation
The above considerations are all critical for establishing and operating a fleet of transportation assets. Even if your transportation is outsourced, an understanding of these factors is vital for effective management of your 3PL partnership(s).
As onerous as it may be to periodically review your fleet makeup, or that of your transportation service providers, neglecting to do so can lead to efficiency and cost issues that affect your organisation’s performance, and where revenue is involved, profitability.
Optimising Your Transport Fleet: What’s Involved?
If you have outsourced your transportation to a third-party logistics partner, of course it might not be possible to control the size of fleet available to your business, or its makeup.
Nevertheless, if the 3PL does not get this right, your supply chain performance can suffer—so it still makes sense to analyse how your partner is using its assets to support you, especially if your outsourcing contract specifies asset availability and fleet management conditions.
If your company has an in-house fleet, keeping it optimised for your business takes a lot more work, including the necessity to complete the following tasks at regular intervals:
- Quantifying freight throughput and ensuring assets are correctly matched to the workload.
- Reviewing equipment levels and types, and updating/changing as necessary.
- Capacity and utilisation modelling.
It’s also worth reviewing asset ownership options from time to time, especially following significant events such as a business merger or acquisition, or a large change in transportation demand.
Alternatively, if your core business activities leave little time and few resources for keeping on top of fleet management and design, Logistics Bureau’s transport consultants will be pleased to assist.
- We can take on your review and modelling activities, either as one-off or regular exercises. We’re equipped with the tools, technology, and expertise to determine optimum fleet requirements for your business or organisation, regardless of your commercial sector or industry.
- If you prefer to execute these activities using your team and resources, but would like some advice and guidance to help you along, we’re happy to offer consultation sessions, following a structure that suits your needs.
Companies that Trust Us
Our Fleet Management Credentials
The type of projects, including those related to fleet management, which you might undertake only occasionally, make up a large part of our consultant’s day-to-day. Solving transportation problems is a core element of the Logistics Bureau service portfolio.
- With more than 1,600 completed projects under our belt, spanning around 30 different countries, our transportation specialists are well-practiced, and while Logistics Bureau has been operating for more than 20 years, the combined experience of our consultants amounts to many decades.
- We’re ready to help your business or organisation with any aspect of fleet management or design, whether you just need some tips and guidance, or need a team to manage a large-scale project. We’ve assisted clients across a broad spectrum of industries, ranging from high street deliveries to bulk coal and ore transportation.
A Free Transport Management Consultation to Get Started
Are you itching to get at the root of some problems with your transportation fleet, or looking for advice about fleet design? For these or any other fleet management challenges, we’re delighted to offer a free 15-minute consultation by phone. During the call we will:
- Review your current situation.
- Identify the main issue(s) causing the problem(s).
- Develop a 3-step action plan to begin making improvements.
- Leave you with a clear picture of your strategy and positive actions to resolve the issue(s).
Book your call now.
Where You’ve Seen Us
Get in Touch and Let’s Talk Transport
Whether you’re outsourcing transportation for your supply chain and want help discussing fleet design issues with your 3PL partner, or need some assistance with the management of an in-house fleet, Logistics Bureau’s Transport Consultants can help or guide you.
To find out more, complete the form and we’ll be in contact to discuss your needs. You can also get us by phone if you prefer, at +61 (2) 8212 9775, or send an email to [email protected]