BluJay Solutions, Regional Director ANZ Paul Soong in an exclusive interview with Freightcomms to capture his thoughts on global disruption in the logistics and supply chain industry and the fast adoption of software technology.
With disruption globally, what are the factors affecting freight rates for both sea and air and how has this impacted BluJay business?
Disruption generally causes a level of uncertainty in the supply chain process. Historically, this has meant an increase in the level of risk associated with predictive analysis and availability of delivery channels. In 2020, factors primarily caused by COVID (although factors such the changing relationship between China and America and Brexit are other examples) have been reflected in air and sea freight rates, with a sharp increase starting in March, with its peak in May-June. While rates have slowly trended downwards, current rates are higher (nearly double) to the same corresponding period in 2019.
As a provider of supply chain software, Blujay has become a critical component in providing companies visibility of rates and a high level of optimisation to allow real time decision making to increase operational efficiency.
What is the backup strategy for BluJay solutions in the second wave of COVID-19, especially considering lockdown in most of the European countries?
Blujay’s current experience with dealing with the uncertainty of Brexit for European companies, translates into other high-pressure environments (such as the second wave) of COVID. Companies are able to adjust and adapt to ever-changing disruptions to supply chains (such as border closures). The reliance on real-time information is paramount during these “uncertain” periods, with this likely to become the new norm.
As we are at the new year, how do you see the logistics and supply chain industry adapting to changing business needs?
If I were to predict the major theme for 2021, it would be resilience. 2020 truly tested the global supply chain to the max; particularly in terms of backlogs caused by social distancing requirements, closed borders and the explosion in online shopping as physical retail stores were forced to close.
Therefore, the priority for supply chain and logistics firms this year will be to ensure the same degree of disruption does not occur again. For this reason, on the consumer side of things, we are seeing investment in solutions that enable increased visibility on shipments. This allows logistics firms to manage customer expectations in case of a delay as well as afford the customer more flexible delivery options.
On the industry and manufacturing side, we are seeing businesses investigate new parts and manufacturing supply chain models that move away from the current ‘just in time’ model that has previously been the industry norm. In light of ongoing COVID related disruption, many manufacturers simply cannot afford the extreme level of supply chain disruption we saw last year to continue, so localised supply chain models may be more attractive as a way to minimise risk.
What is the role of market intelligence and transport management systems in today’s changing business needs?
Transport management systems are more important now than ever before. We have seen that TMS solutions are moving beyond being just a freight management tool and are now seen as a vital enabler of high-quality customer service. The best TMS solutions today enable clear and up to date delivery tracking and also allow delivery providers to offer more flexibility for customers, meaning they can select the most convenient delivery times, alter final destination details and allow for contactless drop off if need be.
Today’s business requirements of increased resilience whilst also ensuring fast delivery mean that logistics firms must be capable of scaling up capacity, speed and tracking functionality whilst also ensuring social distancing and employee safety requirements are met. For this reason, TMS solutions have a vital role to play to ensure delivery firms can stay ahead of future delivery peaks, minimise disruption and therefore secure lucrative ongoing relationships with industry.
With increase in online shopping, How is BluJay solutions helping to deliver customer expectations?
Recent BluJay research revealed that despite current disruption, today’s consumers have heightened expectations around the delivery experience, pointing to free and fast shipping as well as flexible and traceable deliveries as key motivators for making a purchase online. Considering that the current explosion in online retail is here to stay, it is therefore vital that retailers and delivery firms work together to ensure delivery experiences meet and exceed customer expectations.
BluJay helps delivery firms to achieve this goal by providing a suite of software solutions that covers all areas of the supply chain, from pre-postage to delivery. BluJay solutions enable delivery firms to provide superior package tracking and delivery flexibility for customers across multiple touchpoints, including social media messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp as well as delivery and retailers’ own websites. Further BluJay also helps to boost retail supply chain resiliency by enabling efficient contactless delivery as required by COVID-19 legislation in many regions across the globe.