Who answers "where is my shipment?" now?

At a logistics company, the phone never stops ringing. Customers ask where their shipment is, when it will be delivered and when the proof of delivery will arrive; the operations team calls the driver, gets the answer and calls the customer back. For a logistics company, going digital starts with shortening this loop. Whether you're a freight carrier moving full or partial loads, a logistics company offering warehousing or an international carrier, most of the questions are the same.

The quote form should ask the right questions

In logistics, a large share of quote requests from the website arrive with incomplete information: "We have a load from Istanbul to Ankara, can you give us a price?" Pricing that request takes at least a few phone calls.

A good quote form asks for the following information, but doesn't pile it all on at once:

• Pickup and delivery points (province, district; postal code if needed)
• Load type: pallets, parcels, bulk, machinery, dangerous goods
• Weight and volume, or number of pallets
• Whether temperature control is needed
• Loading date and flexibility
• One-off or regular

Fields that open based on the visitor's choices let you get the right information without making the form longer. A company asking about regular loads and a one-off household move shouldn't have the same priority; the form can make that distinction from the start.

How do you give customers shipment tracking?

The way to cut down on "where is my shipment?" is to put the answer on the customer's own screen. There are two levels to this:

1. Status-based tracking: Picked up, in transit, out for delivery, delivered. Each time the status changes, the customer gets a short message. Simple, but it solves most of the problem.
2. Location-based tracking: The location from your vehicle tracking system is shown to the customer only for their own shipment and only while it's in transit.

The second level depends on whether your vehicle tracking provider can share its data. Most providers offer an API, a connection point that lets systems talk to each other. Setting up this connection, and noticing when it breaks, is the job of integration work.

A caution: the driver's live location is personal data. Location should be shared only during working hours and only for the relevant shipment, and drivers should be informed about this as well.

You don't have to wait for the proof of delivery

Many corporate customers pay the invoice only once they have a signed proof of delivery in hand. Getting that paper document to the office can take days, which delays collection.

A flow in which the driver photographs the document or collects a signature on screen at the moment of delivery and uploads it eliminates this delay. The document is automatically linked to the relevant shipment and sent to the customer. We covered how to design a driver app like this in our article on field team apps; being able to work offline when the signal drops on the road is especially important.

How do corporate customers evaluate you?

When a large manufacturer or retailer chooses a new logistics supplier, this is what they look for on your site:

• Which types of service you provide and which regions you cover
• Your fleet structure: the balance of owned and contracted vehicles, vehicle types
• If you have warehouse space, its size and features
• Your operating licenses and insurance coverage
• Whether you offer shipment tracking and reporting

The last item is becoming more and more decisive. Your customer may want to receive shipment status in their own system automatically. Being able to offer this puts you ahead in a tender.

Then there's the month-end report. Corporate customers often ask for the monthly number of shipments, on-time delivery rate and damage records. If this report is prepared by hand in Excel every month, it takes time and carries a risk of errors. When shipment data is kept in one place, the report comes out in a few clicks, with each customer's own data.

Checklist

• Does the quote form capture load type, weight and date?
• Are regular load requests flagged separately?
• Can customers find out the shipment status without calling?
• Does the proof of delivery reach the system the same day?
• Is the driver's location shared only for the necessary time and scope?
• Are service types, regions and licenses clearly shown on the site?
• Is it possible to send data to a corporate customer's system?

How we do it at Globya

In logistics projects, we start by listening to which question your operations team answers most. As your single point of contact, we build the quote form, the customer tracking screen, the driver app and the connections to your vehicle tracking or accounting systems, so the pieces don't end up disconnected from each other. If needed, we prepare a simple mobile app for the driver side. For our industry-specific views, see our logistics and transportation page.

Frequently asked questions