AS visibility research shows shippers tracking too many milestones

A new Visibility Benchmark Study from American Shipper also found that third-party logistics companies have a major problem delineating their cost to provide visibility to shippers.    Shippers track more freight milestones than they need to and third-party logistics companies (3PLs) have little understanding of what it costs to provide visibility to their customers, according to new groundbreaking research from American Shipper.
   A new report, A Clear View of Supply Chain: Visibility Benchmark Study, finds that nearly two-thirds of shippers are using their visibility tool to track five or more milestones but nearly three-quarters say fewer than five milestones are critical to their operations. This is a key finding, since it forces visibility suppliers to provide non-critical data, and creates extra data for shippers already awash in a sea of data points.
   Meanwhile, the new report finds that 3PLs struggle to understand what it costs them to provide visibility to shippers. Around two-thirds of 3PLs have no better than a moderate understanding of their cost to provide visibility. 
   Complicating matters, only 12 percent of 3PLs say they’re able to price visibility as a standalone offering to all customers. Simply put, 3PLs have little insight in what it costs to provide visibility and virtually no way to price it separately anyway.
   That’s largely because visibility has evolved to become a necessity rather than a luxury for shippers. Nearly half of shippers characterize visibility as giving them an end-to-end view of their supply chain with business intelligence and analytics tools attached. That’s compared to only 4 percent of shippers who characterized visibility the same way when American Shipper asked this question three years ago.
   The study also provides perspective and analysis on:
     • How shippers and 3PLs get or provide visibility;
     • Whether visibility is a monitoring or decision-making tool;
     • Shippers’ ability to determine ROI from their visibility investment;
     • Transportation visibility blindspots for shippers and 3PLs;
     • And data latency levels from current visibility tools.
   A Clear View of Supply Chain: Visibility Benchmark Study is based on input from 229 shippers and logistics providers polled in August and September. It is the latest in American Shipper’s benchmark research initiatives, which address critical shippers and 3PL freight transportation and trade compliance processes and technology usage.
   American Shipper’s complete library of research is available on our website.