The transportation business is becoming more complex with each passing year. As these complexities seep into your day-to-day operations, it becomes more difficult to plan efficiently — and to ensure that your network is fully optimized for maximum revenue.
The days of solely using manual processes for planning and network optimization are over. Manual processes are time-consuming, expensive, and prone to error. Now there’s a better way to plan out the future of your business.
Digital twin technology powered by Decision Intelligence is transforming the way freight brokerages and logistics service providers approach the tasks of planning and network optimization. Without these modern solutions, organizations risk falling behind the competition and losing market share. Worse yet, they struggle to reach their potential.
This post outlines the role that digital twin technology plays in the planning and network optimization processes. Continue reading to learn more, and get in touch with one of our experts to learn more about modernizing planning and network optimization across your organization.
The Importance of Network Optimization in Trucking and Transportation
The post-pandemic era has been filled with challenges for the trucking and transportation industry. Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten any better at the start of 2024. Today, organizations are dealing with:
- Fluctuating demand
- Volatile rates
- Rising fuel and operating costs
- Regulatory pressures
- Increasing customer demands and expectations
- Driver shortages
All of these dynamics must be accounted for as firms attempt to optimize their networks for maximum revenue. And this is where traditional, manual processes fall short. It’s nearly impossible to account for all of today’s relevant dynamics when you’re optimizing by hand and attempting to use experience and intuition to make the best decisions.
Decision Intelligence and digital twin technology help you move from gut instinct to data-driven planning.
Introducing the Digital Twin: A Revolutionary Tool for Network Optimization
Software developers have long used sandbox environments for a simple reason: They provide a low-risk space to test applications and ensure they are working effectively.
Digital twin technology does the same thing for trucking and transportation companies: It allows you to navigate previously unknown variables and complex business needs, simulating the impact of sudden operational changes.
And it’s not just trucking and transportation firms that have realized the potential of digital twins. They are now commonplace in the healthcare, construction, manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, and retail industries.
Digital twin environments have become so prevalent because of the advantage they offer to users. When you implement digital twin technology, you enjoy access to a safety net that allows you a dry operational run in a controlled environment without real-world risks.
Test your operational hypotheses.
Identify previously unknown risks and threats.
And increase your ability to maximize revenue.
That’s the power of having digital twin technology during the planning and network optimization processes.
Leveraging a Digital Twin to Make the Best Decisions for Your Truckload Network
When you have digital twin technology for the transportation space, you can edit different variables to explore what network optimization would look like in different scenarios. Those variables include volumes with key shippers, lane volumes, drivers at new locations, customer bids, plus more. Using these variables, you can run simulations to build plans for:
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Dedicated solution design
- Customer analysis
- Service level impact
- Bid response
- Operational tuning
You can also analyze and plan your fleet decisions related to driver retention strategies, driver home locations, fleet sizing, driver mix, plus more.
Beyond better planning and network optimization, your team will benefit from increased productivity and more confident decision-making. Digital twin technology and the Decision Intelligence that powers it can supercharge your team’s capabilities, allowing them to do more and to do it more effectively.
Standard Logistics: A Network Optimization Success Story
Dallas-based Standard Logistics, with 300 tractors across 17 locations nationwide, faced planning and network optimization challenges as it more than doubled its business. Recognizing the need to make better decisions and find a way to confidently plan for an unknown future, the firm implemented Optimal Dynamics’ platform to create efficiencies and enhance decision-making.
Standard Logistics started by using Optimal Dynamics as part of its expansion planning efforts, answering questions like:
- How many trucks should we have in a specific location?
- What specific routes should those trucks be doing?
Over time, Standard Logistics started backing up its “anecdotal decisions and assumptions” with data that validated (or invalidated) them. The result for the company has been faster-paced decision-making that helps optimize operations and identify new revenue opportunities.
With Optimal Dynamics in place, “something that could take a week, ends up being an afternoon,” said Standard Logistics’ Robert Stevens, Manager of Fleet & 3PL Operations Analytics. “One of the big benefits,” he added, “especially when you’re trying to grow, is just how fast you can make those decisions.”
Another benefit is uncovering new revenue opportunities that would have previously been overlooked. “The uncovered Colorado lane has quickly become a profitable route for Standard Logistics, currently bringing in 15% higher revenue per mile than our target,” stated Volker Bargenda, President of Standard Logistics.
These results aren’t limited to just Standard Logistics. Optimal Dynamics’ Proof-of-Value studies indicate that users of digital twin technology and Decision Intelligence can, on average:
- Increase revenue per truck per week 23%
- Increase loaded miles per truck 17%
- Increase fleet loads moved 8%
At a time when the freight recession has made it more difficult than ever to thrive in the trucking industry, Decision Intelligence and digital twin technology can deliver a competitive edge and real bottom-line results.
Read the full Standard Logistics success story.
Optimal Dynamics: The Decision Company
At Optimal Dynamics, we work every day with organizations across the trucking and transportation landscape that have recognized the need for help in planning and network optimization. They use Optimal Dynamics as a single platform that streamlines the planning, bidding, and execution decision processes. Users enjoy:
- Dynamic load planning
- Detailed strategic analysis
- An increased planning horizon
Relying on traditional planning and network optimization approaches in today’s complex environment is akin to working with a blindfold on. Things take longer. Team members work more slowly. And organizations fail to realize their full revenue potential.
The benefits of Decision Intelligence and digital twin technology are just a click away. Schedule time to meet with one of our experts to take a first step toward creating a significant advantage for your business. Schedule your demo now.
