Information technology for transportation.

There are many types of information technology for transportation. The first one is the basics bar coding, EDI, and track and trace. Bar coding is simple, we always see it in our live. For each product, it will have the bar coding that will give the information about it such as the expired date, the manufacturer and many more. Next is EDI. EDI means electronic data interchange. I will give you an example that is internet. When we want to order something using Facebook, we will chat with the seller and when the sellers reply our question, that’s means there are information interchange happened that using an electronic device that is internet.

Next is track and trace, track and trace will give us an information about our product location. It also using the bar codes but it is more advance because we can trace where the location of our product is and with this technology we always can control the movement of our product.

Another information technology is the internet emerges. We can use internet as information resources, communication, and transaction. Transportation requirement planning is the way that shipper and carrier can contact during the transaction. Next is internet-intelligent applications, this technology is more to transaction business and process.

More than that is transparent EDI. With this technology, the seller and buyer can share the information but there have other people that still can know about the information. That’s mean, the information is for public. Next is data warehousing. Before this warehouse company only can contact with the transportation company but for the future warehouse, they can link their database for another system of warehouse.

Carrier strategies

Now we would like to discuss about the carriers strategies. There are many strategies that used by the carrier to improve their service. The first one is intermediate handling should be minimized. Means, we need to minimize stoppage. When we always stop our operation, the cost will increase and there are many time will loss.

Second is the full capacity of the transportation vehicle should be minimized on each run. That’s means the vehicle that we use must fully utilized with cargo because with that we can save our cost with consolidate from the small shipment to a larger shipment.

Third is consolidation and break-bulk activities should be used to achieve full capacity for long-haul moves. Means, we must consolidate and break-bulk for long distance move and with that we can save cost and we also can achieve economy of scale.

Fourth is movements should be scheduled and dispatched. The transport that we use must be scheduled carefully because without schedule we cannot run our operation smoothly and that will give a bad effect to our operation such as delay and shortage. The delay and shortage will decrease the customer satisfaction and that also will give a big impact at our company reputation.

Last is empty mileage should be minimized. That’s mean the truck that we used must be fully loaded with cargo. When our truck is not fully loaded, there will be a waste and that will increase the cost. Even it looks very simple but it is very important to make sure our operation is running efficiently and effectively.

Next strategies are using the technology and equipment. For example is the larger vehicle, or the more freight or passengers that can be moved in it. That’s means, the strategies with using the larger vehicle because with the larger vehicle, we can carry more cargo and more passengers.

The second reason is that larger planes, trains, trucks, and so on carry more payloads without a proportionate increase in crew equipment. Means, even the vehicle is become larger, the number of vehicles is still remain.

Another strategy is using hub and spoke route system. Hub and spoke system have many advantage such as save cost, save time, no need to invest more vehicle, the operation also will become more efficient.