Problems and puzzles in logistics enterprise management

Problems and puzzles in logistics enterprise management

When it comes to the problems and puzzles existing in the current logistics industry, many people have a deep understanding. Drivers are difficult to manage, information is not smooth and distorted, safety accidents occur frequently, and service is poor ... These problems and puzzles are very troublesome, so what are the main reasons? The following is the knowledge about the problems and puzzles in logistics enterprise management that I brought to you. Welcome to reading.

First, the driver problem.

In all fairness, drivers are the most valuable labor force in logistics activities, and other labor needs to be carried out around them.

As a group of people with the greatest risk and the hardest work in the industry, when the customer service staff are busy with the monitor like white-collar workers in the air-conditioned room, the driver drives a truck carrying millions or even tens of millions of goods in all kinds of complicated road conditions without blinking an eye! When the stevedores return to the dormitory to take a shower and lie in bed watching TV after a day's work, the drivers and brothers may eat a bowl of instant noodles for 30 yuan (reimbursed by themselves) because of heavy fog or traffic jams. In order to prevent the fuel from running out before going to the gas station, they dare not open hot air to keep warm in the cold wind of MINUS 10 degrees! Not to mention the car broke down on the road without a village or a shop, and risked his life at any time!

It is difficult to manage a driver, and it is even harder to be a driver! Pay only half the money when you leave, and always deduct a little when you arrive at the station. "Oil shortage" is a disaster for drivers. Only 200 yuan of gas at each gas station is enough to run to the next gas station! Everyone has to line up. It is even more troublesome to meet the traffic police. At present, no one in China can guarantee that there is nothing wrong with his car. Besides, there are so many local policies in the country, how can you not be scared when you meet traffic police! Supply information is in the hands of logistics companies. There are several cars grabbing a ticket, and the price is out of the question. Most of the year is guaranteed operation, and only in the peak season can you get points.

The reason why I want to talk about the difficulties of drivers is because this is the basic attitude of managing drivers. Only by understanding the driver's distress can we understand the root of his bad behavior. After all, the driver is not easy!

Anyway, let's talk about the driver in detail now:

(1) The topic of oil

First of all, the most criticized driver is stealing oil (of course, those drivers in the team who steal their own oil! ), after all, fuel costs are the bulk of transportation costs, and it is difficult to formulate strict and enforceable vehicle fuel consumption standards. Why do you say that? Because there are many factors that affect automobile fuel consumption, and each factor is difficult to quantify:

1, the vehicle structure itself

It can be said that even if the fuel performance of the same model car produced by the same manufacturer in the same batch is different, the fuel consumption of the same car at different stages of use is also different.

2. Driver's driving skills

The same car, different drivers, the fuel performance will not be the same.

3. Speed

Different vehicle speeds will lead to different fuel consumption. Too low and too high vehicle speeds will increase fuel consumption, but there are often many restrictions on vehicle speed on the road, such as road speed limit, too many vehicles, rainy and foggy weather and so on.

4. Road condition difference

Urban areas, uphill roads, bends and irregular roads will all lead to high fuel consumption.

5. Climate impact

Rain and snow consume more fuel than normal weather, and using air conditioners in summer will also increase fuel consumption.

6. Fuel quality

The quality of oil products at gas stations varies greatly, which is a national condition.

All of the above, it is difficult for you to quantify fuel consumption scientifically unless your business is simple, but there are few such cars in the country, which is not of universal significance.

In the driver management behavior, for oil management, the industry generally adopts the following countermeasures:

1, all-inclusive by itinerary

The agreement management between the dedicated line and the driver is relatively common, that is, all expenses (vehicle depreciation, fuel consumption, road and bridge fees, driver's salary, labor cost and transportation profit) are paid by the itinerary. Although there is no specific fuel consumption data in the agreement, everyone knows it well. This method is simple, but you have to bargain every time. In fact, it is not management but trading! It masks many factors that need to be managed. The driver has great freedom, and he can hardly interfere with the driver's behavior on the way, and he is basically out of control after starting. If customers ask for restrictions, it will inevitably lead drivers to respond by increasing fuel consumption subsidies.

2. Lock the fuel tank

The fuel consumption of the driver is not assessed, but the fuel tank is fully enclosed, which requires that both ends can be filled, and there is no need to refuel along the way (the fuel tank should be large enough! )。 But in this way, drivers have no enthusiasm for saving fuel, which has a great impact on transportation safety (most drivers are fast drivers)! Compared with the way to assess the driver's fuel consumption, this method often has a big fuel consumption gap, and 3 ~ 4 liters per 100 kilometers is very common!

3. Average fuel consumption per 100 kilometers

Generally, it is used to distribute vehicles in the city and operate vehicles in a single line, which belongs to simple fleet management. Drivers are prone to rebellious psychology and unfairness (one of the common problems of egalitarianism), and their enthusiasm for labor and fuel saving is very low, which is prone to negative deceleration and deliberate waste. If drivers often hand over vehicles, it will often cause unnecessary internal disputes.

Step-by-step fuel consumption management

Calculate the fuel consumption level of each business line according to the actual operation conditions (load, road conditions, climate, etc.). ), and calculate the total fuel consumption according to the pre-determined grading fuel consumption standard. This method is more scientific and fair. However, there are many difficulties. First of all, the preliminary measurement work should be in place, and secondly, the work record of each operation should be very detailed and meticulous. Manual recording is obviously impossible, and people don't know much about this new technology specifically for vehicle fuel consumption management.

(2) True or false road and bridge fees

Road and bridge fees occupy a very important position in transportation costs, so we must pay attention to them.

Different charging standards in different places often plague the transportation industry. Pay by weight here, collect money by category there, pass normally here, and be punished for overloading there! This pound is 25 tons and that pound is 35 tons. Chaos has become the norm, and people everywhere are puzzled.

In such a chaotic environment, the freedom of drivers has greatly increased! Because there are too many uncertain factors, the cost of formulating corresponding system norms increases. Because the team manager doesn't know enough about the actual situation of transportation, he is at a disadvantage in obtaining information, and he is always passive in the game with drivers, always feeling that drivers are taking advantage of loopholes!

The loopholes in the management of drivers' bridge tolls are mainly manifested in the following aspects:

1, make a false report by detour.

The route set by the company is always inconsistent with the interests of drivers. For example, when you take a single trip to the whole of expressway (in order to meet the customer's time limit, even if you take the national road, the risk of default will increase), drivers think that taking the national road will not delay the time (they are definitely more experienced than the managers). At the very least, even if there is a delay, you can prevaricate and perfunctory, and he will take the national road.

2. Reimbursement of false documents

Fake documents emerge in endlessly, which brings great difficulties to management.

3. Tons of bills

Choose the cheapest toll station to pay, and buy a receipt for increasing tonnage after leaving the station. You can't tell whether it is the scale error of the toll station or the driver's prank, because the scale of the toll station is very inaccurate!

4. pinch a little above the station

It has greatly affected the time limit, but this is an indigenous way for many drivers to deal with the overload, because the overload is the responsibility of the owner and the driver has to bear it. Who is to blame? !

So what was the team's response? It seems that they can't think of any good way except to investigate counterfeit money. Is it really so helpless? Of course not. First of all, it is very necessary for car owners to control overload. In addition, you must really understand the driving process and route of the vehicle, make the whole transportation process transparent to you (at least don't lose too much in information possession), and then increase the punishment for fake bills.

Obviously, the most important thing we can do is to make the transportation process transparent! Because of this, I can see the detour, and the counterfeit money can't justify itself during the stop time. 90% of the fake bills are afraid to show up, and the management is much less difficult.

(3) Fine

The problem of fines along the way should be the most difficult problem to manage.

Most team managers put this problem on drivers, which simplifies management, but intensifies the opposition between managers and drivers, because not all fines are caused by drivers, except for obvious drivers who are fully responsible for running red lights and not following the line, the following items should not be borne by drivers, or drivers should only bear part of the responsibility.

1, speed limit, overspeed or insufficient speed limit

In many places, traffic management departments have too much bureaucracy and bureaucratic ideas when formulating local highway laws and regulations and enforcing the law. For example, the one-way four-lane speed limit is 60 km/h, and the maximum speed limit is 40 km/h (whether it is because there is a heavy car in front! )。 I believe that too many drivers have suffered such losses!

2. Overload

This should be borne by the owner, but because many cars have found ways to overload without fines or less fines (pinch a few stops, hire people to park, pay fines first, and so on). ), the owner will naturally ignore this fine and it will be borne by the owner (mostly the driver).

3. Car condition

If the vehicle is modified, it is both legal and illegal. It is legal in the licensed area and illegal in other places. Whose fault is this? Moreover, the owner saw the car before loading it, and no one can say whether there will be a fine on the road. Everyone is very lucky.

4. Restricted lines

The driver is unfamiliar with the road conditions, the consignor specifies the route, the customer's prescription requirements, etc. It may lead to illegal driving of vehicles on restricted routes. Don't all drivers pay the bill?

Therefore, it is not advisable to impose all fines on drivers across the board, and it should be treated in a specific case. This brings another problem: how to solve the problem of giving tickets 1000 instead of 200? Because the driver only needs to use it once, it is equal to the profit of one more trip! To solve this problem, as a team management, we can only do a good job in public relations along the way, strengthen the application of humanized management and team building, increase the punishment for fraud, and prevent it to the maximum extent. But don't blame the driver for choking on food. In that case, drivers will try their best to recover their unreasonable losses and bring more problems to management!

(4) Road maintenance

Generally, the motorcade has its own designated repair shop, so it is easier to manage the maintenance in the factory. The most difficult thing is when the car has problems on the road and needs to be repaired and replaced.

Because the threshold of the automobile maintenance industry is very low, especially the roadside maintenance points, most of them are unlicensed and will not do high-tech work such as overhaul. It's nothing more than changing tires, adding water and gas, and selling accessories. But their profits are unimaginable.

So what are the ways for roadside repair shops to make money?

1, fake parts

Most roadside shops have no repeat customers. If you catch one, it's one. Do not kill white, do not kill white! Even experienced drivers are helpless in the face of the situation that there is no shop in the middle of nowhere, and they still hold the idea of "making do with standing".

2, put the tire ready to change the second tire.

Many team drivers who are not strict in tire management often can't stand the temptation of the store (there are many types of bad tires to choose from in the store, so they can go back to the team for a job).

Over the years, people have thought of many ways to deal with these problems. Let's analyze what methods are available.

1, fixed-point maintenance

This method seems to be feasible only after the emergence of a large national auto repair group, and it still seems unworkable at present. With the improvement of expressway network, such enterprises may appear in the service area mode, but according to the current management situation of expressway in China, the largest one is in the province, because the automobile industry is fully competitive, unlike PetroChina and Sinopec, which have formed a national monopoly.

2. Total repair cost

That is, the company is not responsible for the maintenance along the way, and the maintenance fee is paid to each car according to historical data. Statistically speaking, historical data is a very scientific statistical method, which seems relatively fair on the surface. However, for every driver of every car, its statistical risk has become something that the management very rejects. This kind of risk should have been borne by the company, a larger operating entity, but it was borne by the relatively weak driver group, thus losing the fairness of management.

(5) scheduling difficulties

One of the advantages of a large-scale fleet is that it can uniformly allocate a large amount of capacity and arrange transportation in time to meet the urgent needs of customers. However, because drivers are on the road, it is often difficult for managers to dispatch them. The so-called "not handsome outside."

In fact, the way to make drivers obedient is very simple, that is, to unify the interests of drivers with the requirements of customers. Everyone knows this, but it is not easy to implement.

We know that the goal of individuals or groups in economic activities is to get the maximum return with the least investment. As for drivers or car groups, it is understandable that all drivers should try their best to make themselves relaxed and less risky without affecting their income (even if they provide false certificates). Therefore, once the team manager's policy is formulated, drivers will almost always have corresponding methods to play games. For example, on the way from Shenzhen to Beijing, the driver drove to a place 300 kilometers away from the finish line, which happened to be 5 pm, and the customer had not received the goods after the afternoon 10. According to the agreement, the team will pay a penalty of 2000 yuan for being late the next day, and the dispatcher asks the driver to arrive at full speed. There is a contradiction between the interests of the company and the driver. First of all, according to the time limit required by the motorcade (the assessment time limit is generally 4 ~ 12 hours looser than the normal time limit), it is not illegal for the driver to arrive before 12 o'clock that night, but if he arrives at 9 o'clock, he will bear three major disadvantages: high-speed safety risks, physical difficulties in not eating lunch, and high-speed increase in fuel consumption and losses. If the manager doesn't consider these factors and just asks the driver to hurry up according to the order, he will definitely not get the driver's cooperation. Even if he promises verbally, he will always find some reasons (such as traffic jam) to prevaricate, but according to the system, the manager can't punish the driver. Therefore, it is necessary to link the timeliness of customers with the interests of drivers, such as timely arrival incentives and fuel consumption subsidies.

(6) High cost and difficult evaluation.

First of all, due to the lack of monitoring of drivers, drivers are easy to cheat, and will inevitably steal oil, falsely report road and bridge fees, and collude with the maintenance offices along the way to make profits, which will bring a lot of expenses to enterprises.

Secondly, the transportation process lacks effective management means and requires frequent telephone contact with drivers, which undoubtedly brings a lot of communication costs and increases labor intensity and manpower costs.

At the same time, the historical data are recorded manually by the driver, and then the clerk arranges them into vehicle files according to the driver's records. In this way, drivers usually block some unfavorable information, and it is difficult to ensure the authenticity, reliability and integrity of these data, which brings inconvenience to the assessment.

It can be seen that it is very difficult to manage drivers well in the case of asymmetric information. If we don't solve the current situation that managers know little about the transportation process and reduce the extremely asymmetric information between drivers and managers, any management means will scratch the boots and can't solve the real problem.

To sum up, drivers, a special and ordinary group, are always playing a management game with managers. The so-called "there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom". All the bad behavior of drivers comes from dealing with the corresponding vehicle management system. As the saying goes, the road is one foot high and the magic is ten feet high.

All management systems can't put an end to people's selfish desires, but can only be reduced as much as possible, and the corruption is limited to a reasonable and acceptable range. Any management behavior is so contradictory. Selfishness is the key It is not only a demon that we need to guard against, but also an indispensable core driving force for economic activities. We can only guide, not eliminate. Just like Dayu governs water, guides it, relaxes it and benefits it. Don't learn from Yu's father and prevent it from blocking it and harming it.

It is natural for drivers to pursue profits. Management is to guide drivers to turn choosing the right road, driving a good car, saving fuel consumption and completing transportation tasks safely and smoothly into their own best interests.

Let the driver "make money in the open" is the key. Think from the driver's point of view, put yourself in the driver's working environment, and let all the driver's behaviors flow to the destination required by customers along the reasonable institutional channel under the impetus of personal interests!

Second, the information problem.

As the key information of logistics information, transportation process information has attracted more and more attention of logistics practitioners. How to obtain real, effective and high-quality logistics information in time has become the key to the informatization construction of logistics industry.

The development trend of logistics industry is the continuous application of information management, which is very important to improve the efficiency of resource integration, reduce logistics costs and shorten the supply chain cycle.

Informatization, as its name implies, is to obtain information in time by means of modern information technology. In fact, the transportation process information has always been available, just because our collection methods are backward, which leads to the unsmooth and distorted transportation process information.

In the past, people had very limited means to transmit information over long distances. From the earliest bonfire to modern telegraph, telephone, radio, modern mobile communication and internet technology, people's technology of obtaining information is more and more advanced, and information transmission is more and more true, comprehensive and reliable. However, in the logistics industry, until now, most of the information about transport vehicles is obtained by relying on the experience judgment of managers and telephone contact with drivers.

Different enterprises need different transportation information. For example, the managers of highway express industry are most concerned about the real-time location and estimated arrival time of vehicles. Transportation of fresh and frozen food needs to know the real-time temperature of the goods, while liquefied gas transportation vehicles pay more attention to tank pressure, static electricity and other parameters. All managers need to know the historical parameters and statistical report analysis of vehicle operation.

When you get traffic information by telephone, drivers usually block information that is unfavorable to them, because you can't ask the supervisor to come from the person being executed! And many professional data drivers are simply not clearly described.

At the same time, because there is no direct interest and business contact between the manufacturer and the driver, it is difficult for the manufacturer to contact the driver directly (some carriers don't give the contact information of the manufacturer's driver at all), and the transmission of transportation information has to go through many hurdles. The lack, error and concealment of any link may lead to poor information and distortion.

Therefore, the current means and channels to obtain transportation information are extremely unreasonable, and it is no wonder that customers are often very dissatisfied with the transportation information provided by transportation units.

It can be seen that to solve the problem of poor and distorted traffic information, the key is to make the traffic process transparent, so as to get rid of the dependence on drivers when obtaining traffic information, and obtain all kinds of traffic information openly and in real time to ensure that the required information is true, comprehensive and reliable.

Third, security issues.

(1) transportation safety

1, vehicle driving safety

There are 500,000 traffic accidents in China every year, and the number of traffic accident deaths exceeds 654.38+million, ranking first in the world. Statistics show that one person loses his wheel every five minutes, and one person is disabled by traffic accidents every 1 minute. The economic losses caused by traffic accidents are as high as tens of billions of yuan every year.

Car accidents are fiercer than tigers, so we must attach great importance to safety issues and not just pay lip service to them. There are many reasons for safety accidents, such as:

There are too many debts in the driver qualification examination, and many people who do not meet the driving requirements drive on the road;

Drivers' safety awareness is weak, and illegal driving behaviors such as speeding, drunk driving and fatigue driving occur from time to time;

The road conditions and traffic load don't match, so many sections can't keep up with the development of traffic. Bridges with a load limit of 30 tons often pass through freight cars with a load of 100 tons.

Market factors lead to serious overload, and the inaction of automobile production enterprises and transportation management departments leads many cars to pass the annual inspection, which provides convenient conditions for drivers to overload;

Dealing with traffic accidents by means of punishment, the illegal cost of the person responsible for the accident is too low, which leads the driver to underestimate the severity of the accident;

So how can we solve the problem of driving safety? For government reasons, we can only appeal to the government to strengthen supervision and implement policies; Market reasons need to be improved through market competition and overall economic development; So what should logistics enterprises do themselves?

Of course, we need to strengthen safety education for drivers and improve their safety awareness, but in addition, we also urgently need to change the current situation of opaque transportation process. If we can't make the transportation process transparent and strengthen the monitoring of drivers and vehicles, everything is superficial and can't get to the point.

Only by clearly understanding the transportation process and drivers' behaviors can logistics enterprises turn passivity into initiative, realize safety supervision, provide drivers with transportation guidance and information assistance, standardize drivers' behaviors, avoid drunk driving, speeding, fatigue driving and arbitrarily changing driving routes for personal gain, and call the police in time when there are safety problems on the way, so as to truly implement safe driving.

2. Cargo safety

Because logistics is the physical flow process of goods from suppliers to consignees, it is very important to ensure the safety of goods. In the traditional logistics transportation process, goods are stolen and robbed from time to time, and it is more common that goods are damaged, deteriorated and destroyed due to collision, extrusion, high temperature and high humidity. However, traditional logistics supervision methods can't find these situations in time.

For example, electronic products are often damaged or even destroyed in different degrees due to collision, extrusion, high temperature, excessive humidity and other reasons during transportation, which brings great losses to customers. At the same time, because of its high value and small size, it often leads to theft and robbery by criminals. As the person in charge of the whole road transportation, drivers may also steal from the inside, and traditional supervision methods cannot be found in time. Even if they are found, they are often difficult to deal with because of lack of sufficient evidence.

Another example is cold chain transportation, where goods must always be kept at a certain temperature. In actual transportation, in order to save money, some drivers often turn on the refrigeration equipment as required after the customer installs the refrigerator. However, in the process of transportation, when they feel frozen, they turn off the refrigeration equipment and turn it on at the destination, which cannot guarantee the whole process of refrigeration. When the frozen goods are delivered to customers, they seem to be well frozen, but in fact they are likely to have deteriorated. The root cause of this phenomenon is that the cargo owner has no effective supervision means to obtain the temperature information of the cargo hold at any time, and the temperature is out of control, making the "cold chain" a "cold end".

There is also the transportation of dangerous goods, which is the general term for flammable, explosive and corrosive goods. The transportation of dangerous goods is extremely dangerous, and a little carelessness may cause material losses or casualties. Therefore, the whole transportation process of dangerous goods must be visible to managers, so that managers can obtain the state information of goods in real time through monitoring and avoid accidents.

(2) Accident handling

As the saying goes, "How can you walk by the river without getting wet?" As long as you are doing logistics, accidents will inevitably happen. Now that the accident has happened, the follow-up treatment is particularly important.

However, the current situation is that accidents are often handled at will and it is difficult to implement the responsibility.

Due to the lack of monitoring and understanding of the transportation process and the lack of basis for the division of responsibilities, once a safety accident occurs, it is easy for both parties to wrangle over the division of responsibilities, shirk their responsibilities and have constant disputes.

Therefore, it is necessary to make the transportation process transparent so that the whole process can be seen, which will reduce many chances of wrangling, make the division of accident responsibility easier and make the accident handling more reasonable and fair.

To sum up, the key to solve the safety problems in the transportation process is to make the transportation process transparent. Through the monitoring of drivers and vehicles during transportation, the information of vehicle running status and cargo status can be obtained in real time, which can effectively guarantee transportation safety, realize the transformation from "after-treatment" to "prevention and avoidance", and eliminate all safety problems in the bud.

Fourth, the service problem.

Logistics industry is a service industry, and service quality and quality are very important. At present, the overall level of logistics services is poor, and customer satisfaction is not high, which is manifested in the following points:

Poor timeliness-often the owner is in a hurry to get the goods, but the carrier can't deliver them.

The safety of goods is not high-as mentioned above, in the traditional logistics transportation process, goods are stolen and robbed from time to time, and the damage, deterioration and destruction of goods caused by collision, extrusion and high temperature and humidity are more common. However, traditional logistics supervision methods can't find these situations in time.

Poor customer experience-I can't see the transportation status of my goods. As the consignee, everyone wants to see the real transportation status of their goods, but at present, many logistics enterprises either can't provide the transportation status information of goods, or the practicality is very poor, and the status information remains unchanged for a long time.

Low customer response efficiency-there are many ineffective logistics links, and it is difficult for drivers to dispatch. Once customers have new needs, it takes a long time to meet them.

Simplicity and Homogeneity-At present, the service simplification and homogenization of logistics enterprises are serious, and the overall grade is low. Faced with the increasingly diversified and personalized needs of customers, they are often at a loss.

So to solve the problem of poor service, the key is to make the transportation process transparent. By making the transportation process transparent, ensuring transportation safety, optimizing transportation routes and reducing ineffective logistics links, customers can obtain the transportation status information of their own goods in real time, strengthen the response to customer needs, change the current phenomenon of single and low-level logistics services and improve customer satisfaction.

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