Common career options in the transport and logistics industry include logistics consultant, data analyst, supply chain manager, logistics manager, and procuring officer. A logistics consultant is an expert who provides strategic and tactical advice on all aspects of transport and logistics. A consultant helps in developing the organization's transport and logistics strategies. Data analysis and advanced information technology to help the company in providing timely, cost-effective, and secure services.
The transport logistics industry involves the movement of goods and products from the point of origin to the point of destination. Goods can be moved using air, road, rail or sea. The transport logistics industry involves a number of players including freight forwarders, shippers, carriers, brokers, dispatchers, trucking companies, motorized wheelchairs, non-fuel powered automatic shuttle buses, air freight brokers, freight forwarding companies, non-profit organization that promotes the use of rail transport, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. The transportation logistics industry has made tremendous advancement since the early 20th century. The US alone handles over two million vehicles annually.
The transport and logistics industry makes use of a sophisticated supply chain management software system to enable real-time tracking of shipments, assets, and location details. This helps in efficient management of transportation and freight costs. The software also enables the transport and logistics professionals to identify potential problems in the supply chain process such as deficient liquidity, exceeding of allocated lead times, poor transportation practices, and poor security measures. These issues cause delays in production and hence, lead to reduced customer satisfaction.
For effective transport and logistics operations it is necessary to develop an integrated freight forwarding and logistic system. This system should be capable of generating the needed inventory levels, collection and allocation of shipments, providing for the safe and timely transport and logistics of goods and products, maintaining adequate communication links between freight forwarding and logistic departments, and providing real time export/ imports data. In addition to these functions, the freight forwarding and logistic company should also be involved in other functions such as export and import licensing and customs clearing, warehousing, custom valuation, international trade management, cross docking, among others. These functions are all crucial for a successful transport and logistics process.
The concept of logistics has evolved since the advent of commercial vehicles. Earlier, transporting goods meant hiring trucks, horses, carriers, and so on. But now, we can use the internet to do almost everything we need to do to transport our goods. The internet is a rich source of information about transportation and logistic subjects. One can get information about different types of transport systems, mode of transport, rates of transport, freight forwarding and logistic services available in the market, etc. There are also websites which provide tips and guides related to transport and logistics companies.
In today's modern world, transport and logistics are a science rather than a simple art. This is evident from the fact that there is no space in the budget for simple inventory management. A big data analytics system is being set up across the world to integrate all aspects of transport and logistic operations for better management of the supply chain. In addition to this, big data analytics will help companies make better use of their existing supply chain networks and improve efficiency and productivity. Read more about logistics here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistics.
