“Urgh! Late shipment AGAIN?! My customer is getting impatient!”

As businesses, we understand how frustrating to track the shipment and see our deliveries getting delayed. Late LTL shipment causes inconvenience to everyone: the shipper, the consignee, and also the carrier.

So what are the reasons my shipment gets delayed?

Peak Season

As the logistics industry has a very cyclical business cycle, it is difficult for carriers to plan for demand and capacities for their business. For example, peak seasons during e-Commerce sales period (11.11, Black Friday) and long festive seasons will result in peak demand as shippers rush to fulfil their orders resulting in high peak demand with large delivery volumes during these periods.

Weather/ Act of God

Weather plays a big role when it comes to shipment delivery. Bad weather will slow down the delivery process with late pick up and deliveries due to unforeseen traffic build up, eventually causing the shipment to be delayed. Besides, the likelihood of unforeseen events such as accidents, breakdowns etc increases during bad weather.

Missed pick-up or delivery appointments

There are usually only a few reasons why a courier is not present for a scheduled pick-up or missed delivery. For instance, rider’s schedule is up, issues such as road closure, or booking error where courier HQ doesn’t receive your collection schedule, traffic delays etc. Since LTL shipments are often consolidated with other shipments, if the courier missed a few of these appointments in a day, it can cause further delays in the shipping process.

Lack of manpower

There are currently a global shortage of drivers in the industry especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the logistics industry has largely rebounded after the pandemic, capacity are still yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. Rest assured, carriers are working on returning driver capacity to pre-pandemic levels.

Human error

Practice open communication with your carrier is essential to avoid delays. Make sure to double check and provide accurate shipping information, contact details of both sender and consignee.

Special services

It would be advisable to plan ahead and budget a few days extra for deliveries with special service needs. For example, customers that require liftgate services OR deliveries into limited access/rural areas will need to budget extra days due to limited equipment availability and schedule.

Minimizing Delays

In order to minimize risk of delays, it is important for shippers to be transparent about your shipment. This helps carriers to better plan and better serve your delivery needs.

Spots Logistics aims to simplify deliveries and logistics by digitizing and making logistics operations transparent.

We are a web-based 3PL logistics aggregator for businesses delivering to Malaysia and Singapore, helping businesses to fulfilling their logistic needs efficiently. We make logistics SEXY.

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