How We Achieved 67% Cost Savings by Automating Load Information Management for a 3PL Logistics

Challenge: Manual processing of load information management by referring email chains

• The legacy transport management system (TRITAN) required manual intervention for maintaining load information.
• Inefficient container traceability – To ensure that containers are shipped on time, the operations team tracked around 200+ items on daily basis. The system only shows tracking details in TRITAN based on the load delivery date range. To maintain proper container track events, the delivery range needs to be updated from current date + 10 days. Manually updating the large volume of items is a tedious and time-consuming task, leaving room for missed values and loads not being maintained in track for visibility. If delivery date ranges are not updated correctly, this can lead to missed opportunities for visibility and an increased risk of damaged or lost cargo.
• Lack of free day closure visibility – If the load’s last free days (LFD) details are not accurately reflected in TRITAN, the operation team will not have visibility on the container status, which led to delays, missed opportunities, and financial losses. This was challenging with large volumes of items involved (300+ approx. on daily basis), as updating each load’s LFD details manually can be time-consuming.
• Error-prone invoice update process – The team was manually updating the storage charges based on the email attachments to the Tritan system. The storage charges are incurred as soon as the container arrives at the destination ramp & a notification will be sent to pick up the next container. However, if a pick-up is not completed on or before free days, these storage charges continue to accumulate, leading to unnecessary costs until the container is outgated. Furthermore, if the invoice details are not uploaded correctly and on time to the TRITAN system, the payment process can be delayed and break vendor relationships.
• The client decided to automate the load information management & storage cost invoice modification by developing a bot to increase efficiency, reduce errors, notify last free days, and free up valuable human resources.