A sharp downturn in demand over the past year has hobbled shipping markets. Freight economists predict a slow recovery in 2024. Keeping customers happy in this environment is paramount, with hard-earned revenue being more complex and costly to replace.
Freight transportation and logistics is more than moving goods from point A to point B. What holds the key to keeping customer commitments and diversifying your services? Giving office staff and drivers clear-cut information and tools to meet customer expectations by planning and executing on-time, damage-free deliveries.
In addition to offering concierge-level service to customers, fleets need to improve driver retention. Research shows the first 90 days on the job are the most critical. That’s when approximately 35% of drivers will quit. How can you give new hires a smoother onboarding experience? By simplifying their work and improving communications.
This article showcases the benefits of using custom apps to deploy customer and driver-specific workflows. It includes examples of Ryder Systems reaping the rewards of putting this technology in motion.
1. Taking a Customer-Centric Approach
Consistent customer satisfaction creates brand loyalty, raising a bulwark against decreasing volumes and rates in a problematic freight market. Many trucking companies persistently meet customer needs with custom apps and location-based mobile workflows. The technology ensures drivers have all the information and tools they need to do the job right the first time and every time.
Keeping customers is far more profitable than replacing them. It costs between five and 25 times more to acquire a new customer versus retaining one, according to research by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, who invented the net promoter score. Perhaps more significantly, his research shows that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% will increase profit by 25% to 95%.
With custom mobile apps, fleets can give drivers step-by-step, customer-specific instructions and forms to capture data and document loads. The technology also helps drivers get up to speed quickly to meet unique service requirements.
With a custom driver app, fleets can create, deploy, and edit custom workflows that meet specific customer and driver needs for anything between dispatch, pickup, and delivery. The workflows automatically reconfigure based on the customer and shipment data sent to drivers’ daily manifests in their app using real-time system integrations with transportation management software (TMS).
The options to create unique workflows for customers are virtually limitless. For example, a fleet could add a short training video for drivers to watch before going to a customer location for the first time. When a driver arrives to pick up or deliver, the custom app can provide location-specific information like where to turn, who to ask for, and what number to call.
Custom apps can also prompt drivers to complete tasks on-site, like capturing a signature for electronic proof-of-delivery or capturing, indexing, and submitting photos of signed bills of lading and other documents. Other possibilities include loading or unloading instructions for specialized freight and custom forms prompting drivers to enter data or request payment codes for lumper services.
The Ryder Way for Delivery Success
Miami-based Ryder System, Inc., has thousands of drivers and hundreds of customers. The scale of its operations creates a unique challenge. The $12 billion logistics and transportation company provides supply chain, dedicated transportation, and fleet management solutions throughout North America.
How could the company best manage the unique load specifications of customers?
Ryder partnered with Eleos Technologies to develop a custom driver app that tightly integrates with its back-office and mobile systems to streamline customer-specific workflows. The solution has 23 different sets of workflows specific to customers in various sectors. The custom workflows have functions that cover detailed requirements for deliveries, pickups, documentation, and photos, explains Bobby Rogers, Application Delivery Lead at Ryder.
“Eleos is a great platform because of the customization features and the flexibility to use these features as needed,” Rogers said. “We can send individual drivers a customized message. We also do quite a bit of driver surveys, in addition to using our app for day-to-day trip execution, delivery, signature capture, and freight delivery.”
Barcode scanning is an innovation Ryder added to some customer workflows. This workflow ensures drivers deliver the correct products to the right places in the exact quantities. The app gives drivers a list of barcodes associated with each location, allowing for an efficient delivery validation that prevents errors.
The customized features of the app and the flexibility to make in-app changes as needed allow Ryder to continuously adapt its services and meet the diverse needs of its large customer base.
2. Embracing Custom Driver Workflows
Technology is pivotal in maintaining driver and customer relationships in today’s digital age. Fleets that use custom apps can improve these relationships with integrated mobile workflows that increase accuracy, visibility, and speed of communications.
Gathering driver feedback is one of many ways fleets use a custom driver app. For example, fleets can prompt drivers to rank customer facilities and add written feedback as part of their custom workflows for pickups and deliveries. Fleets can share driver feedback with customers to work on mutually beneficial solutions.
Custom workflows can also improve driver performance, safety, and compliance. Fleets with diverse operations can use different versions of their driver apps for each division. For example, one version could be for dry vans, and the others could be for flatbed and refrigerated. The adaptability of the Eleos platform allows trucking companies to create apps that work seamlessly in all environments.
Ryder added custom driver safety messages, HR notifications, and surveys to its custom app. The ability to send targeted reminders and notifications ensures that drivers complete essential tasks efficiently when and where they need to.
Positioning for Long-Term Success
The Eleos platform enables fleets to create, edit, and adapt custom workflows for business needs. The technology can be especially beneficial during freight market turbulence by improving processes that positively impact customer and driver satisfaction.
The success story of Ryder and other fleets proves the transformative power of using adaptive mobile technology to weather the storm and be in a position to succeed on the road ahead.
Contact us to discover how to get ahead of the competition with a versatile app platform that allows you to customize your workflows.
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