Industry Success: The Transportation Industry

According to SelectUSA, the U.S. Transportation and Logistics industry, a category of companies that provide services moving people, goods, or the infrastructure to support them, accounted for 8.3 percent of the annual gross domestic product, with spending in this industry totaling $1.45 trillion in 2014. Looking at one segment of the industry, the North American freight and logistics market, by roadways, accounted for USD 780.75 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 912.67 billion by 2023.

The Transportation Sector is fast-growing and covers a number of public and private industries, including categories as broad as airport operations and air travel, marine cargo handling, freight trucking, ground passenger transportation, pipeline transportation and management, public and charter bus transportation, taxi services, as well as employee and school bus transportation.

Key services might include such diverse efforts as:

• Highway projects
• Major incident or weather-related projects
• Rules and regulations around commercial transportation
• Information about the transportation network of roads, bridges, and ferries
• Guidelines for new or existing drivers
• Transportation policies
• Resources for contractors and partner organizations

Transportation is a massive industry and growing worldwide -- and technology is playing an increasing role, improving connectivity between partners and stakeholders, and providing distinct competitive advantages for those companies that can adopt and master the latest innovations. Transportation includes the movement of materials, manufacturing, air and sea travel, port arrivals, and warehousing. At each stage, stakeholders rely on real-time communication, document collaboration, and supply chain visibility. While many of the latest technologies remain future-looking in other industries, transportation organizations are already leveraging the latest in artificial intelligence, machine-human interaction, and collaboration to improve logistics, automation, and knowledge management.

According to Paul Pessutti, global vice president at SAP, the transportation industry is “ripe for change,” and the cargo industry faces disruption from transportation innovators. As is happening within other industries, the sector is quickly learning that the future requires maximizing its operational, administrative, and customer service technologies.

Behind every Transportation-based organization, there are any number of logistics projects or initiatives underway. “When you think about an indent shipment from the time an order gets placed to when it gets delivered to a customer, there’s probably 35 to 40 documents that you have to exchange in that process,” Pessutti says.

Each of these logistics efforts will often include external stakeholders, including suppliers, sub-trades, external contractors, other partner organizations. Extranet User Manager can help organizations simplify the administration and management of these external users.

Some of the common concerns that Extranet User Manager helps address include: 

• Providing field workers access to supplier portals in a mobile friendly, responsive form
• Customers at the receiving end of the transported good need secure access to up to date tracking information
• Drivers may need a secure login to submit vehicle inspections to abide by government enforced regulations
• Contractors need access to self-service features such as forgot password resets to be self-sufficient in accessing secure information

To better serve the increasingly digital needs of their customers, companies within the Transportation and Logistics industry need to create tailored solutions to redesign services and products, manage the impact of the talent gap, simplify processes, and ensure coordinated movement from origin-to-end-user through each and every supply chain segment. Building and maintaining a secure and efficient extranet is a core tenet of any business transformation.

For Transportation organizations looking to improve their external communication and collaboration capabilities, be sure to review our in-depth case studies about how Extranet User Manger helps create better experiences for the sector. Find out more on the EUM Transportation Industry Success site, or test drive our solutions today.