Brokers, carriers and shippers are all searching for more accurate information when it comes to the supply chain. Gartner has predicted that 50% of enterprises will have invested in real-time transportation visibility solutions by 2023.
For many, accessing this functionality requires large investment in new technology or transportation management systems (TMS). EKA Solutions, though, has introduced a real-time predictive visibility platform that is available as part of its EKA Omni-TMS platform or as a standalone product for non-EKA subscribers.
“Industry experts forecast predictive transportation visibility will soon be a requirement for all supply chain trading participants,” said JJ Singh, founder, investor and CEO of EKA Solutions. “Existing visibility and ETA [estimated time of arrival] services are expensive and create structural misalignment and primarily cater to large shippers and 3PLs. EKA’s predictive visibility solution empowers carriers and brokers of any size to proactively lower operating costs and offer real-time visibility to all customers at costs that are competitive with their large competitors.”
Singh told FreightWaves the solution is an added cost for EKA Omni-TMS subscribers or available as a separate item for nonsubscribers.
“However, it is a very affordable cost versus existing major and standalone providers of visibility services,” he said. “Also, we believe EKA ETAs are very robust and accurate because of the robustness of the ETA algorithm that considers driver hours-of-service availability metrics, driver stops, route considerations, traffic, weather conditions, etc.”
Mark Walker, investor, president and chief digital officer for EKA, said the solution is built upon leading technology to deliver accurate ETAs.
“EKA’s solution relies on flexible location data sources including [electronic logging devices] and driver apps, cutting-edge ETA algorithms, low-cost data systems integration and visibility layers to deliver real-time, accurate visibility into where goods are and when they will be delivered,” he said.
Singh said the solution can provide visibility within multiple time intervals, including minutes, based on the configured service level. The information can be transmitted by the carrier or broker to the end customer through most common transmission levels, including email, text and electronic data interchange.
“Embedding affordable predictive visibility solutions to help EKA subscribers — carriers, brokers and shippers — deliver on time and optimize their operations, among other things, has always been a primal or founding strategic thrust of EKA Omni-TMS platform deliverables,” Singh said.
According to EKA, improved visibility leads to:
- Improved customer satisfaction and retention
- Improved on-time delivery performance
- Increased labor efficiency and productivity
- Improved ability to utilize real-time data to make active, cost-reducing “decisions in transit,” such as rerouting
- Reduction in on-time, in-full (OTIF) penalties
- Reduction in detention cost
- Higher asset productivity due to reduction in detention and dwell costs
- Reduced inventory costs due to reduction in buildup of safety stock requirements
- Improved collaboration with trading partners through strategic data sharing
EKA provides a transformational digital freight management, dFEMX, ecosystem platform to manage all the customer’s freight businesses, including freight exchange and third-party services. EKA serves as the system of record across multiple applications and seamlessly ties into other freight solutions (TMS, driver apps, etc.) and third-party services.
In June, EKA announced the availability of its EKA Omni-TMS for small and medium-size carriers.
Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.
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