For anyone passionate about logistics innovation and efficiency, cross docking is a fascinating concept.
It was born in 1930, became globally popular in the 80s and today not only continues to be in force, but is one of the main logistics strategies, especially in pallet shipping services, used by all types of industries and for almost any product.
El cross docking As a novelty, it provided a new intermediate phase in the logistics chain, which constituted a great innovation in logistics. Instead of transporting goods from A to B directly, products from different customers are unloaded at a center and stored temporarily, usually for a few hours. When the pallets or packages that share the same destination reach a sufficient volume, they are load the merchandise in the truck to complete the route.
It is true that cross docking slowed down delivery times compared to direct transport, but it optimized routes and offered a more economical shipping solution. This logistics innovation has proven to be enormously effective. How is it possible that the logistics competitiveness of many industries continues to depend on a strategy from almost a century ago?
It is evident that cross docking has been evolving over the last decades, that solutions have been incorporated that optimized different transport or storage processes, but as a strategy it has remained practically intact, turning this intermediate storage phase into a standard in the shipping business.
Reinventing cross docking, pending logistics innovation
At Ontruck, we have been working on logistics innovation since 2016. We apply new tools to the transport of goods by road because technology is the fundamental element to increase operational efficiency in this sector. Throughout these years, our algorithms have evolved to finally reach a new level of optimization with which we reformulate the concept of traditional cross docking and with which we are revolutionizing the shipping model for pallets and large packages.
The key to this logistics innovation, which we present to the market through our new service 'Economy', is that we have managed to reach a new level in the level of data optimization that allows us full, real-time synchronization between the demand of companies that request our transportation services and the availability of the more than 4.000 carriers that operate with Ontruck.
This rapport gives us a definitive result: we save the process of consolidating merchandise in warehouses, which means quality, economical pallet transportation and a reduction in delivery times for our shipments.
The explanation is simple, although the process to achieve it has been quite a challenge. With Ontruck Economy, We redefine the traditional shipping market strategy because we directly eliminate the intermediate step of consolidating the merchandise in physical warehouses. Our technology allows transport orders to be stored in a kind of virtual cross-dock, in which the merchandise is routed dynamically and optimally for delivery the next day. In this way, we are able to make a trip as fast as the direct service, but at a similar cost, or even cheaper, than a 24-hour service.
Savings and speed, the key variables for chargers
These advantages are decisive for loading companies, as pointed out by the XIII Barometer of the SIL Logistics Circle 2023, presented this April. The survey, in which they participated 974 Logistics or Supply Chain directors, points out that up to 58% consider savings as the most valued aspect when outsourcing a logistics service; while 31% make this decision based on the speed with which these services are provided.
We can use any type of industry as an example to see that technology has also allowed its daily processes and activities to be cheaper and faster. It was only a matter of time before technology found the key to efficiency to provide more productivity when shipping pallets and packages, and finally adapt the cross docking strategy to the 21st century.
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