It’s inevitable that, as businesses grow, they’re going to need to start branching out and adding new elements. This is simply a natural part of a business’s evolution, but that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy. One of the most common, and most challenging ways in which many businesses attempt to expand their business is the introduction of logistics. In the early days you might have used another company for the manufacturing and distribution of your products, but as your business becomes larger and you have more experience, it’s understandable that you’d want to take that into your own hands. However, a lot of companies tend to slip up when they try to introduce logistics because they fail to fully grasp just how much of a complex and multifaceted part of their business it really is. In order to make sure that this doesn’t happen to you, here are some the most important things to consider before bringing logistics into your business.
Cost
One of the main reasons that a lot of businesses decide that they want to handle logistics themselves rather than outsourcing it to an external company is that they can manage the costs much more closely and hopefully save money in the long run. However, even if you get past the costs that are involved in setting up a logistics division for your business in the first place, it is very easy to let the costs of running it spiral wildly out of control. For one thing, you need to manage fuel costs. Check out this Quarles fleet fuel card comparison to see some of the ways that you can get the best possible deal on the fuelling for your fleet. Not only that but you need to be aware of tax and insurance costs. A lot of this depends on being able to manage the scale of your fleet. It’s tempting to grow as quickly as possible, but it’s important that you don’t try and bite off more than you can chew right away.
Staffing
As with any expansion to your business, you’re going to need to bring in more employees. One of the most common mistakes that many business owners make is that they assume that they will only need to hire drivers. But it’s important that you also hire engineers and mechanics who can keep your fleet on the road in the first place. Not only that but it’s a good idea to hire someone with experience managing the logistics division of a business. You might have management experience but managing a fleet of trucks and drivers requires a whole different skill set to managing a team of people working in an office.
Time management
One of the most important things that any manager you hire, as well as your employees and yourself, will need to be aware of is a time. When you’re dealing with logistics time is perhaps you the most important elements. Your customers are expecting products delivered on time, and whether this is private customers or stock that you’re taking to a retail chain, that’s not something you can afford to mess up. You need to make sure that your fleet is running like clockwork at all times. Otherwise, the whole thing could well come crashing down on top of you.
