Moving Ahead With Technology

One of the best presentations at the recent GAWDA Spring Management Conference in Chicago focused on the use of global positioning systems (GPS), and how they can help distribution businesses.

Global positioning systems can be used to monitor the location and speed of delivery trucks and, with advanced software they can be used to monitor a truck’s hours of operation so that maintenance can be planned and scheduled. In addition, the reports that they can generate can help distributors maintain accurate data for fuel tax and compliance reporting and for drivers’ records work and safety records.

However, one of the best potential uses for GPS is in customer service and satisfaction.

GPS has the potential to be a great money saving tool by combining it with routing software to optimize delivery routes for a fleet of trucks. Putting a computer to work for that optimization saves fuel and time to provide a direct return on the investment needed to put the system into place.

Besides such savings, the routing can give customers assurance that their deliveries will be scheduled more accurately than ever before so that they can rely on them and plan on their end to receive them.

Moreover, if a customer needs a special or an urgent delivery, GPS gives the home-based dispatcher the ability to find a truck on the road, and to reroute that truck to make the delivery with greater immediacy than ever.

A GPS used to develop improved customer service can be combined with an optimized warehouse management system to improve distribution efficiencies and provide new opportunities for growth.

As Associate Editor Clare Goldsberry writes in this issue, warehouse management systems do not have to be based on complex, and expensive, computer programs, but if they are well thought out, can be simple measures that eliminate warehouse problems.

GPS and warehouse management systems are proven technologies that can help a distribution business advance in efficiency and profit.