4 Keys to Choosing the Right 3PL Freight Software

3PLs are the unsung heroes of last mile logistics. They help businesses extend their delivery capacity and keep their customers happy, all while navigating the same complex delivery hurdles that always come with the last mile. It’s a difficult job, and getting it done right requires the right tools.

Shippers these days demand higher efficiency, more visibility, and faster response time from their 3PL partners. For logistics providers, this means ditching manual processes and replacing them with new technology is quickly becoming a must.

Luckily, new technologies with advanced functionalities can offer real value for 3PLs. In the world of  machine learning, artificial intelligence, and complex supply chain integrations, you need to consider a wide range of possible functionalities when choosing 3PL freight software. 

Why Implement 3PL Freight Software?

The success of third-party logistics providers largely depends on whether they satisfy their clients or not. Just like modern end consumers, your clients want to ensure that their orders are delivered accurately and quickly, and they want the ability to monitor the freight at any given time.

That’s precisely why having 3PL freight software is advantageous for logistics providers. 

Here are a few of the specific benefits of the right 3PL software solution: 

1. Time savings

As a 3PL, you can save yourself and your clients considerable amounts of time by automating and integrating some aspects of the supply chain process. Automation and integration allow for easy tracking of orders and payments, rapid route optimization, no-touch customer communication, seamless generation of invoices, streamlined reporting, and more. The result is that manual effort is reduced at every step of the way.  

2. Better accuracy

In the same way, you can improve the accuracy of their deliveries with the right solution. Modern 3PL software allows data to be stored and integrated easily to minimize errors across the different stages of the order fulfillment process for both the logistics provider and the clients.

3. Improved transparency

If you can track your performance (i.e. whether you're meeting promised SLAs or not) and gain visibility into what’s happening on the day of delivery with the help of your logistics software, you can more easily manage exceptions and improve your efficiency over time. Here, reports provided by your 3PL software helps you identify problems in your workflows, such that you can address the needs of clients more effectively.

4. Cost optimization

Simply put, all of the above allows you to streamline your processes, resulting in a reduction of costs via decreased manual effort and increased efficiency. At the end of the day, each of the benefits we talked about above can be leveraged into a more appealing bottom line. 

What Does the Best 3PL Freight Software Offer?

Not all 3PL freight software solutions are created equal. There are plenty of 3PL solutions available in the market, but these five features are particularly important to seek out if you want to ensure a high probability of ROI.

1. Intelligent route optimization

Modern 3PL solutions help in managing complex routing requirements. Responding to customers' demands for fast and accurate shipping requires an effective, efficient route planner that factors in the various routing constraints of both shipper and 3PL. Your software should enable you to define your own parameters and constraints and then rapidly optimize routes based on your desired outcomes (e.g. cost reduction vs. more accurately meeting time windows). 

Not only is it effectively impossible to do this successfully by hand, it’s also extremely time consuming. Thus, the right software for 3PL providers can save considerable time and effort on your end. 

2. Total fleet visibility

3PL freight systems have in the past struggled to provide fleet operators with real-time visibility due to the complexity involved in presenting a real-time view of operations in the field. These days, advanced 3PL management software can collect data from both internal and external systems and interpret the information they gathered seamlessly to allow 3PLs and their clients to act smarter and faster. 

This provides you with a higher level of visibility, which in turn makes it easier to manage exceptions on the day of delivery, monitor asset utilization over time, and better understand your last mile operations. Another benefit is that with this level of visibility in one place, you can rely on a single system to track fleets and deliveries. Since you don’t have to flip back and forth between different apps or grapple with ambiguous data, you can act quickly when the unexpected happens or when changes need to be made.

3. Flexible customer experience tools

Your clients trust you with their brand—and you have to deliver on that promise just as consistently as you deliver on your other SLAs. That means putting the end customer first in your delivery planning and execution process. 

Not only do you need to offer delivery notifications and alerts at multiple touchpoints throughout the process, you need to do so in such a way as to highlight your customers’ existing corporate identities. That means segmenting your customer communications based on who you’re delivering for and utilizing their logo and corporate tone. 

This can be a lot to manage without the right tools, but the best 3PL freight software solutions will simplify both the process of generating branded messages and sending them out en masse. 

Here, it can be valuable to offer end customers the ability to track their orders in real time via their own devices. Some software providers also offer AI-powered capabilities for handling simple customer questions, which can save time and money for your team. 

(Of course, some of your clients will want to manage most of the customer experience themselves. In these cases, total visibility and integration is absolutely crucial. See more about that in the next section.)

4. Carrier and Client Portals

Advanced 3PL solutions provide logistics providers and their customers more control over their needs in any number of ways, but one of the most critical is providing visibility and integration with carriers and clients alike. How? By providing dedicated portals as needed in order to empower and provide visibility for supply chain partners. 

Portals are powerful tools as they allow 3PLs to collaborate more seamlessly with their clients and carriers. In this way, they allow both 3PLs and the business they serve to implement faster delivery and response times.

This is especially critical for clients who may want to manage part of the customer support or customer experience workflow themselves. The more transparency you’re able to provide, the more confident they’ll be and the more excited they’ll be to keep using your services. 

Conclusion

In the end, there’s no denying how important it is to find new ways of making clients' lives easier and operating more efficiently. With 3PL freight software, logistics providers can improve efficiency, streamline workflows, enhance visibility, boost revenue, control cost, and maximize profit margins. 

Ultimately, the right software really can increase clients’ loyalty and improve your bottom line. The trick is just to make sure you’re actually using the right software. By prioritizing a solution that offers real visibility for you, your clients, and your customers, you can offer best-in-class delivery service across the board. 

Add dedicated route optimization, delivery tracking, and customer experience capabilities into that mix, and you’ve got a recipe for reduced costs and better logistics performance.