Logistical sharing in the context of the crisis

Of course, the context of crisis that we are living in the last months has boosted the creative ability of companies to leave their status quo, with the review of their processes, ways of contracting suppliers and evaluating new ways of serving their customers.

In this sense, logistical sharing, with the use of the same resource by more than one company for the execution of a logistical service, for example vehicles or warehouses, becomes an interesting way to face the new challenges that the pandemic has brought to the supply chains.

Figure: Sharing logistics can be a strategic solution in terms of economics and the level of service offered. Source: Tumisu by Pixabay

Next, the benefits of this solution will be presented through the economic and service level aspects.

economic aspect

Considering the scenario of economic crisis that has proven inevitable in Brazil and in the world, at least for the year 2020, the need to reduce costs, including logistics, becomes increasingly evident and urgent.

Let's think about last mile urban distribution transport (B2B). Note that here we are not talking about fractional transport to serve the final consumer (B2C). Often, vehicles that carry out urban distribution for a single shipper operate with great idleness due to the limited time available to carry out deliveries and the driver's journey.

Therefore, sharing this vehicle with another shipper that serves customers on the same route or that deviate minimally from it can be an interesting alternative to optimize the use of the contracted vehicle, increasing its occupancy and, consequently, reducing last mile transport costs, through its apportionment with another shipping company. Even when we talk about loads with different characteristics, such as dry and frozen, this solution can be applied, using, for example, split vehicles.

Dispatching loads from the same warehouse can be essential for this operation to be viable, since, as already mentioned, the time available to carry out deliveries is usually the limiting factor of the operation and, for this very reason, load sharing must affect you as little as possible. Therefore, sharing the same warehouse with another partner shipper, in addition to the distribution fleet, is another way to capture the benefits of shared logistics.

Service level aspect

Now, leaving aside the economic aspect and entering the issue of the level of service offered to the customer: when we think of regions or customers of a shipper that are currently served with a low delivery frequency, for example because they have low demand and/or are far from the facilities from which the loads are dispatched, it is possible to offer a service with a higher delivery frequency through load sharing. After all, when more than one shipper uses the same vehicle, the cargo consolidation period to make a trip economically viable tends to decrease.

Strategically, improving customer service is undoubtedly a good way to build customer loyalty and even increase the company's market share. In other words, especially when we are talking about the current scenario, reducing the uncertainty related to supply, increasing the delivery frequency and, therefore, providing a differentiated service in the market can translate into an increase and even recovery of a portion of the lost demand. by the effects of the crisis.

Final considerations

At no time was it said that the solutions proposed here are trivial to implement. Certainly, there are some aspects that can make logistical sharing difficult and even unfeasible, especially when we are talking about companies with different cultures and processes.

The existence of barriers to collaboration between competing companies, non-consonant risk management rules, difficulties in shared fleet management, conflicts of interest relating to which customer of which shipper has priority in service in extraordinary situations, such as delays in operation and possible peaks in demand are some issues that must be taken into account before implementing a shared operation.

However, let us take advantage of this moment of multiple difficulties to give new solutions a chance, even if at first they bring new challenges to be overcome. After all, we are talking about the possibility of promising results not only for now but also for the new future that awaits companies!