Freights reaching their destination quickly and safely is just as crucial for customer satisfaction as the quality of the goods. To streamline their workflows, carriers need to prevent loss of shipments, eliminate friction in the delivery process, and create transparency at all costs.
Make your employees’ jobs easier with Freight Scan Document Management.
With average shipping transit times of up to 10 days for air freight and up to 25 days for sea shipping, modern tracking technology is in high demand. This enables businesses to determine the current and past locations of shipments across the whole supply chain.
Find out how a mobile Barcode Scanner SDK can be the cornerstone of comprehensive Track and Trace systems.
Track and Trace solutions – create transparency along the whole supply chain
Whether for raw materials within manufacturing processes or in commercial package shipping: Track and trace systems have become increasingly popular. Used by vendors to track the position of vehicles and containers, or to register their departure and arrival, modern technology allows for continuous improvement along the value chain.
Businesses who don’t treat track and trace systems as a critical component inside their value chain potentially suffer from consequences such as:
- High chance of product duplication
- Delays and errors damaging efficiency
- Inventory mismanagement causing financial losses
What advantages does Track and Trace with barcodes have over RFID approaches?
A number of companies rely on RFID tags to connect objects with their track and trace software. Unfortunately, this solution has a number of practical downsides:
- Reliability: Materials like metals and liquids can affect the signal and interfere with the tracking process.
- Cost: RFID tags cost between $1 and $30, making them up to 30x more expensive than barcodes.
- Accuracy: RFID tags are less accurate than barcodes.
- Implementation: Integrating RFID tags into your workflow is time-consuming.
- Compatibility: RFID tags are not as widespread as barcodes, leading to compatibility issues.
As you can see, barcodes are a budget alternative to expensive RFID tags. They offer the same robustness due to automated error correction, as seen in 2D symbologies such as Data Matrix or QR codes. The implementation of a reliable barcoding system is as easy as 1, 2, 3, and can be complemented with accurate barcode scanning capabilities inside your mobile app.
Let’s now explore what an optimized track & trace workflow could look like using the Scanbot Barcode Scanner SDK.
Reliable parcel tracking with the Scanbot Barcode Scanner SDK
Particularly in parcel delivery, companies have to contend with increasingly high workloads. Considering the value chain of a parcel delivery service, fast and smooth processing on the last mile is vital. Delays, errors, or downtimes can rapidly cause significant costs. Additionally, customer satisfaction is notably influenced by the speed of deliveries and the quality of their personal experience with the delivery workers.
Here, Track and Trace software comes in handy. It allows for a transparent delivery process, enabling both staff members and customers to determine a package’s location any time.
But how does this approach create real-time visibility for customers and companies alike?
The following tasks can be covered by adding the parcel barcode scanner to your internal and customer-facing apps.
- Loading the van: Employees can easily capture multiple barcodes at once with the Multi Scanning feature.
- Sorting: Local post offices can leverage barcode scanning technology to sort parcels by simply extracting information with smart devices.
- Package tracking: Staff can register packages at each step of the delivery process within milliseconds by scanning the attached code. Senders just need to scan their receipt barcode using the deliverer’s mobile app to see their parcel’s current location.
- Proof of delivery: Barcodes can be scanned to confirm a parcel’s delivery.
- Proof of submission: One scan is enough to register a parcel when handing it over to the courier.
Each of these steps only takes a few milliseconds. Thanks to lightning-fast scanning, your users can scan barcodes within 0.2 seconds with an accuracy of 98.7%.
Would you like to learn more about the advantages of using the Scanbot SDK for your track and trace system? Our solutions experts are looking forward to discussing your use case with you. Let’s talk.
