Everyone wants it. The ability to receive what you ordered on the internet within moments of hitting the order button. Until an at home “transporter” is developed (oddly, according to this article we might not be too far away), we still rely on the tried and true methods of getting our products delivered.
The struggle over the past 20 years has been the ability to deliver Fast AND Cheap. Historically, these have not gone hand in hand—you needed one or the other. With the rapid development of Shareconomy, this has become much more of the reality for today’s logistics and transportation companies.
When Shareconomy started taking off, it was positively effecting everything from cars to parking spaces and of course homes. Logistics providers soon looked at this model and determined they can also share their existing corporate and private resources to be more cost and time efficient.
How are logistics company participating in the Shareconomy?
Like most companies, logistics companies continually evaluate how to be more efficient. They have discovered that by sharing assets, warehousing capacities, and even truckloads they can bridge efficiency gaps. This also helps them reduce the cost of specialized services, and foster horizontal collaboration. Although things like security, insurance, liability, and tax implications are barriers for some evolution, here are 3 ways logistics companies continue to take advantage of the Shareconomy:
1. Coordination of web-only company logistics
As more and more businesses are developed as web-only, there is an increase of logistics companies needed to pick up, wrap, and deliver goods, as well as handle returns of an item. Logistics providers can of course provide these services, but they can also open up their facilities as parcel pickup points or deploy parcel lockers, to enable consumers to drop off their goods for a small fee. With the right technology in place, this can be done unmanned, and after hours.
2. Specialization and working with “Like Quality” products
By cooperating with competitors who often have similar supply chain requirements, companies have found a way to save on logistics costs. As logistics companies evolve, look for more and more of them to define specialties so like minded products can easily be paired up, stored or sorted. By doing this you can lower costs, and increase efficiency as well as reduce the carbon footprint of your supply chain.
3. Collaborating with Competitors and Neighbors
Sometimes breaking down the walls and seeing who’s doing the same thing next door might be beneficial. By sharing assets and infrastructure with other logistics providers, you can both increase capacity utilization and reduce costs. Sharing of forklifts on weekends or off hours, offering warehouse space with an on-demand approach or for short term projects can benefit all parties involved.
As the Shareconomy continues to infiltrate the logistics world, look for additional new business models to continue to pop up, and other innovative ways to become more efficient. In the end, the more efficient the supply chain becomes, the cheaper and quicker we can all get our products in hand.
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