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Why It’s Important to Hire A Professional Logistics Consultant

If you own or run a small or medium-sized enterprise and have difficulty managing containerized freight shipping, it might make sense to look externally for help. A reputable supply chain consulting firm can assist you with all the challenges.

From finding a suitable logistics partner to understanding costs, ensuring compliance, and training staff to become a freight shipping experts, professional consultants can aid and support you.

Along the way, they can help your organization gain the knowledge, skills, and expertise you need to enjoy more success with international trade by successfully navigating the complexities of international container-freight shipping.

Of course, you can always rely on external consultants as a long-term solution providing the cost would not be prohibitive. However, by enlisting help to evaluate your processes and relationships with logistics partners, optimize them and transfer knowledge to your team, that period of paid support should position you to ship international freight more successfully and with greater confidence in the future.

At Precision Global Logistics, we field an expert team of supply chain and logistics consultants, several of whom specialize in helping clients with container shipping.

An initial consultation call with one of those specialists will yield much success for your future logistical needs.

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Stay On Top of Freight Shipping During the Holiday Season

With the holiday season upon us, it’s important to stay on top of your freight shipping strategy. Extra volume, complex shipping windows, and other outside factors accompany the millions of gifts that have been ordered this year.

To get a firm grasp on the demand of the season, you will first want to collect all of the facts to understand where possible delays may occur and how to best utilize the resources at your disposal. Let’s look at a few ways you can navigate the holiday freight shipping season.

Thinking ahead of the holidays.

One of the biggest holiday freight shipping obstacles to overcome is understanding the window you have to work with. While certain dates are blacked out completely, others are operated with modified service. Staying aware of these peak season dates is extremely helpful in building out your overall strategy.

Just because your freight is placed on a trailer before the holiday does not necessarily mean it will arrive there in time. Small and medium-sized businesses have to take extra precautions and really look at the bigger picture. This means that you must leave a few days in between to account for unexpected delays along the way.

Knowing what factors could affect your holiday shipment.

Another component of creating your holiday freight shipping plan is to understand the delays you may end up facing. In addition to knowing your blackout and modified service holiday dates, you need to know which day of the week they fall on.

Also, keep up with the weather, especially on the destination side of things. Weather can turn on a dime, and you don’t want a small snow squall to be the factor that stood between your freight and its final destination.

Finally, take a good hard look at the amount of freight you are planning on shipping. It might seem to be a simple enough task, but underestimating how much volume you have could lead to roadblocks later on. Take inventory and triple-check freight dimensions to ensure everything will fit on the trailer.

Take advantage of your resources.

Diving into the holiday freight shipping season can be quite an undertaking, especially if you’ve never done it before. Consider pairing up with an online freight service provider to help make sure you are staying on track and navigating the unexpected.

Working with a freight service provider has several benefits you may not be aware of, such as easier tracking and better access to a large carrier network. They will also offer alternative options should anything unforeseen occur. Walkthrough your plan with your provider ahead of time so that you can better allocate your time and money, utilize space, and boost productivity.

Remember to monitor the factors that could potentially cause delays and keep consistent communication so that your holiday season will be filled with nothing but joy.

To learn more about how to plan for this holiday shipping season, make sure to contact us today to speak with one of our experts.

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Outsourcing

So, you’ve decided you don’t want to spend too much money, time, and nerve cells on the recruiting process. That’s understandable. Luckily, you can turn to one of the common approaches to outsourcing: nearshoring, offshoring, and onshoring. While they all represent the same notion of paying a third party to do some work for your company, understanding the differences between them is critical.

Offshoring is known as the most budget-cutting approach to outsourcing. Companies offshore their processes to outsourcing vendors in distant countries, usually India (link to India page), China (link to China page), or the Philippines (link to Southeast Asia page), where the talent pools are complete, and the expenses are low. The time zone difference here plays a significant role in keeping your business working around the clock.

Nearshoring means outsourcing to a nearby country, preferably a neighboring one or that’s at least on the same continent. This helps to travel and hold face-to-face meetings more frequently, at a lower cost. You can also get more control over your business if you often visit and keep the team spirit high by inviting the development team to your HQ. Cultural compatibility reduces any chances of misunderstanding and facilitates work coordination.

Onshoring is basically outsourcing to another city in your country. By using this approach, companies don’t face the risks associated with offshoring like cultural differences or foreign taxing policies, not to mention they invest in their country’s economy.

Resilience is Key

A good logistics partner helps customers create resilience. It should be an extension of a customer’s formal logistics team or a replacement of an in-house logistics team for those customers who prefer to outsource the totality of their transportation cycle. You should be able to sleep at night knowing your goods are getting to their intended destination with no snags.

At first, it may seem like the difference between offshoring, nearshoring, and onshoring is only the distance. But in our ever-changing world, territorial proximity shouldn’t be your key factor when deciding which of these outsourcing approaches to consider. First, you must set your priorities straight and define what you’re trying to achieve by adding new blood to your team. What do you expect? Is it the lowest cost, the least fuss, or a balance of everything?

We want to see our customers succeed. Their success is our success. Our ultimate goal is to preserve the integrity of our customer’s supply chain by ensuring safe and total transportation offerings to the final destination while handling all the intricacies that occur in the process, regardless of sourcing location. We strive for both innovation and excellence, as do our customers; it’s just how we do business.

Only when you have a clear vision of the responsibilities, the duties, and the required skills of your future employees can you decide which approach to go for. And if you still have questions related to outsourcing, don’t hesitate to contact Precision Global Logistics.

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