Freight Visibility: What It Means and How to Achieve It

Back in the 1990s, one hot trend was Magic Eye posters. These posters at first glance appeared to be mundane, computer-generated patterns and colors. But if you stared at these posters long enough with your eyes crossed, eventually a secret, 3D image would suddenly appear. Sometimes it took awhile for your eyes to adjust to the optical illusion and see the magic. And if everyone else could see it but you? Total bummer.

Today we’re looking at another hot, sight-related trend. Freight visibility is a popular discussion topic in many supply chain circles. And rightfully so. In the wake of the pandemic, e-commerce boom, and subsequent supply chain crisis, the world needs solutions. We all inherently understand the theoretical premise of modern freight visibility. Knowing the whereabouts of our shipment at all times! As the supply chain world drives for resilience and efficiency, that’s a clear-cut value proposition.

The transition from theoretical to actual implementation is a bit more complex. Many organizations are considering expanding their freight visibility. This conversation typically centers around a few key questions. For example, what does an investment in freight visibility actually entail?

So, let’s define freight visibility. Is it an all-or-nothing thing? Then, let’s take a look at what technological tools must converge to achieve freight visibility. And ultimately, what’s the business case driving a freight visibility investment?

Defining Freight Visibility Then and Now

Freight visibility means real-time tracking information of freight shipments shared across the supply chain. In other words, the shippers, carriers, 3PLs (third-party logistics providers), warehouses, yard managers, and customers all have the same actionable data.

That premise seems clear enough, right? But one could argue there’s some gray area in that definition.

For example, not long ago, real-time tracking meant giving the driver a check call on their cell phone. You’d ask the driver for their location, a roughly estimated time of arrival, and maybe give them your fax number for the bill of lading. Internally, maybe we shared a little data on a spreadsheets. Yeah, looking back, we were sharing real-time data in a way. And if you squint hard enough, I guess that was technically freight visibility.

But now it’s clear how much real-time tracking has evolved. Tracking precision and accuracy are night and day from the era of check-calls. That new precision is thanks to technological advancements in tools like GPS, IoT (Internet of Things) devices, telematics, and digitization software. Subsequently, an entire industry of software companies now focuses on freight visibility.

Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms (RTTVPs)

You know you’re doing a good job as an industry niche when the folks at Gartner make a magic quadrant for you. That’s the case for real-time transportation visibility platforms (RTTVPs).

According to the Gartner website, they define the RTTVP market as follows. “RTTVPs provide commercial customers and consumers with real-time insights into their orders and shipments once they have left the brand owner’s, supplier’s, or service provider’s warehouse.

Such platforms, owned and managed by third-party software vendors, represent a part of the end-to-end supply chain visibility market, predominantly—but not solely—addressing the domestic road transportation mode. RTTVPs obtain data through integration (for example, API or EDI) with carrier systems, direct feeds from telematics (for example, in-cab or trailer devices) or other devices (for example, mobile or smartphone).”

In case you don’t know, API means application programming interface, which is what allows computers or software programs to talk to one another. EDI means electronic data interchange, which is when the computers at different companies exchange standard-format documents related to business. So, you can see that they’re different but related concepts.

In general, RTTVPs align with the overall supply chain trend toward digital transformation. Freight visibility sells itself through a host of hard and soft benefits. These include:

• more accurate transit times
• improved yard management
• reduced dwell times and detention costs
• maximized on time in full (OTIF) compliance
• improved planning and inventory management
• integration with a digital twin
• increased customer delight
• improved exception management
• integration with control towers

Each one of those benefits is worth consideration. But ultimately, that last one might be the only selling point any of us need.

Exceptional Vision

When shipments run smoothly and we hit our OTIF metrics, who needs freight visibility? At the end of the day, it’s the exceptions to the rule where the entire freight visibility industry earns its salt. When there are issues, we must attack. But the flipside of every exception is a question: how much time do we waste making check calls on normal shipments?

One estimate on the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Aramex-Inawisdom site suggests that “80 percent of incoming calls are customers asking where their shipments are.” And now in turn, with AWS’s freight visibility platform, “because we are able to use the machine learning models on AWS to calculate shipment transit times more accurately, our customers can access this data in real time through our website.”

In short, freight visibility platforms automate normal shipments. And they also create a road map for managing those abnormal exceptions.

For example, another Amazon mash-up, Gnosis Freight, categorizes abnormal shipments into four behavioral classes:

• identifying the exception
• managing the exception
• prioritizing the exception
• predicting the exception (which in turn loops back into exception identification)

The takeaway is this: Control what you can. If your container is bobbing in San Pedro Bay, or raided by thieves in Los Angeles, that’s out of your control. But communicate what you know. Freight visibility is about expanding what we know and how we communicate it.

Be Visionary About Freight Visibility

Freight visibility is a hot topic as one way the global supply chain can bootstrap out of crisis. Leaders require a vision. And good leadership can see the past, present, and future potentialities of an organization all at once.

Perhaps that’s why there’s an all-seeing eye on the dollar bill. But even the things in life that don’t involve money still require vision. We’re told growing up, “Dream big!” People encourage us to create a vision of the future. Someone asks, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Of course, the future remains uncertain. We hedge our lack of a crystal ball while pitching customers and stakeholders. We say, no one can predict the future. There are no guarantees other than death and taxes, right? But that’s not entirely true, is it? Because we know people throughout history who accurately predict the future.

Of course, these people are often considered contrarians. Until their prediction comes true. Then a strange, alchemical process occurs. People suddenly applaud the crazy person for having “the gift of sight.”

Give the Gift of Sight

Freight visibility is the expansion of this premise in a few ways. For starters, I know many organizations are dysfunctional because people hoard information like it’s all patented trade secrets. Folks operate under tribal knowledge and hardly ever share their secret tricks with outsiders. Information barely gets written down on paper, let alone logged in the software system. I think this comes from a scarcity mindset that served past generations better.

Leaders need to understand that past. But if the challenges of the present are ever going to be overcome in the future, the old dogs will need to learn new tricks. And yes, I understand that new software introductions can make a person’s eyes cross.

If you want to achieve freight visibility, start with one step. Get off paper. Digitize your documents. Look into partnering with a digitization company like Vector. Vector partners and integrates with many leading companies that can take your tech stack wherever it needs to go. Document digitization is the first step in your organization’s digital revolution.

We’ve been staring at a two-dimensional supply chain with our eyes crossed for long enough. But technological tools are converging and iterating. Things are getting better. The dream of end-to-end tracking has made it through the Overton window into reality.

In summary, the world needs more leaders who can see with magic eyes. Let’s digitize, de-silo the data, integrate freight visibility platforms—and watch the supply chain evolve into another dimension.

This post was written by Brian Deines. Brian believes that every day is a referendum on a brand’s relevance, and he’s excited to bring that kind of thinking to the world of modern manufacturing and logistics. He deploys a full-stack of business development, sales, and marketing tools built through years of work in the logistics, packaging, and tier-1 part supply industries serving a customer base comprised of Fortune 1000 OEMs.