Rhett Talley
NWI National Product Manager – Dimensioning & QLD Vehicle Weighing Sales Manager
Top Eight Questions to Consider
You are a senior manager in a fast paced less than truckload (LTL) express or general freight service provider shipping palletised goods throughout Australia. Recently you have been thinking about investing in an automated, legal-for-trade (LFT), pallet dimensioner to accurately measure the pallet freight you carry so that your company can legally, fairly, and transparently charge the right amount for the transport service you provide.
Great idea. Revenue leakage from customer under-declared cubic dimensions is a big problem in the freight industry and thus revenue recovery a daily challenge in this sector.
There are several suitable brands and methods you can use to automate the capture of legal for trade dimensions and weight of palletised freight and large cargo. But which one is right for you? Here are the top ten questions you need to answer:
The Questions to Answer
1. How do you charge for freight? Do you charge a standard pallet rate and hope the pallets you receive do not encroach an area greater than 1200 x 1200mm? Or do you charge a dimensional weight formula for the greater of the weight or cube? AND – do you currently use item-level barcodes per piece of freight or consignment-level barcodes?
Why this matters: is you charge for pallet rates then it will be less likely that you can benefit from capturing LFT cubic dimensions and weight. You can determine that the pallet of goods does exceed the 120 x 120cm LW measurement. And you can charge a surcharge.
However, charging an industry standard dimensional weight formula for the greater of the weight or cubic dimensions is the gold standard for suitable use of the pallet dimensioner.
2. Barcodes – are you currently using unique item-level barcodes per individual piece of freight – meaning a unique individual barcode for all items in the same consignment; or consignment-level barcodes – meaning the same barcode for all items in a consignment?
Why this matters. If you are currently at unique item-level barcodes, then hallelujah! You are ready for item level automation. Much easier to track an item if it can be distinguished individually by unique barcode. Much easier to search for an image if the jpeg is named by individual barcode. Track and trace easier, automation easier, everything is easier – unless of course we are talking about the original system transition to get you to this modern state of operations. That was hard – but bravo, well done.
3. Total number of individual pallets, skids, larger cargo to be measured each day.
Why this matters. The need to measure only 50 pallets a day is a comparably smaller problem than the need to measure 500 pallets per day. The total invoice value for 500 pallets is much greater and the lost revenue potential much greater. However, it is possible to lose $1,000,000 per year in revenue even if you only shift 200 pallets per day – see here: Is Your LTL Freight Depot Losing Revenue? | NWI Dimensioning
4. Window of time to do this = throughput per hour required.
Why this matters. If you have 800 pallets per day to measure and you have 8 hours to do this in then that is a 100 pallets/hour problem to solve. On the other hand if you only have 4 hours to process these in a fast paced cross-dock then that is a 200 pallets/hour problem. Throughput per hour needs are critical to understand at the very start of your considerations.
Static throughput per hour versus in-motion throughput per hour.
Most static pallet dimensioners incorporating a static platform scale take only 3-5 or 5-8 seconds to capture pallet dimensions, eight and images. So a throughput of 240 pallets/hour is possible in theory but impossible in practice. Make no mistake. Time in motion is the critical factor whether static or in motion.
How the pallet is completely processed
- Pallet is forked to the Dimensioner and placed onto the scale
- Forklift reverses out of the measure zone (to not be part of the measurement)
- The pallet item barcode is scanned thus initiating the start sequence
- Pallet is measured and weighed and photographed. All data digitally transferred.
- Pallet is retrieved by the forklift
Total time of the above, regardless of the brand of static device is around 30 seconds simply due to the time in motion required to move palletised goods by forklift. But that does equate to 120 pallets per hour completely processed which is a good throughput rate for a single static device. Can you go faster? Yes, but that is all on the operators.
Remember, that rate of throughput is dependent on the freight company’s ability to safely move 120 pallets of goods, one every 30 seconds -sometimes ugly and irregular in shape – from one zone to the next, typically the final line-haul, put-away location.
For an in-motion or Drive Thru method, seeking to perhaps double that throughput per hour, the time-in-motion management is even more critical: can you organise to have 240 pallets or 1 forklift/15 seconds carrying a pallet of goods through a defined portal?
Above: Freightsnap FS5000 Pallet Dimensioner with 1.5m x 1.5m 3,000 kg platform scale
Above: CIND Drive Thru Pallet Dimensioner with Integrate 4-sided Vision Barcode Scanning Tunnel.
How will you have the item-level barcode measured? By hand using an operator, thus slowing down or stopping? Will the barcode always be facing the operator with the hand scanner? Or will you try to pass through an integrated barcode-scanning tunnel to automate the process? Can you even safely present 240 pallets per hour through a portal? And do this consistently? And how are you to capture the weight? And integrate the captured weight with the barcode and cubic data? This is do-able of course, but harder in practice than it is in theory.
5. Freight profile: mostly cuboidal/square pallets? Or many uglies and irregular shapes.
Why this matters. If most of your freight is nice and square and cuboidal in shape, then this is easier to measure by hand or by automation than if the freight is irregular in shape. Have you ever tried to measure a large irregular item by hand? FS 5000 Pallet Dimensioner Demonstration using Ugly Freight. It is not easy nor is your hand measurement legal for trade. Thus the uglier your freight or the more of it you have, the more you will benefit from an automated pallet dimensioner.
6. Typical weight profiles – everything under 2,000kg? Does you freight mostly “cube out” or “weigh out”? Or, many uglies and irregular shapes?
Why this matters. Are you transporting nails and steel goods (dense and heavy) or plastic moulded goods (larger and lighter), and so on. The more your freight “cubes out” the more you will benefit from an automated pallet dimensioner. The more revenue you will likely recover.
Also, if your freight is mostly 2,000kg or less, then a standard platform scale of 1.5m x 1.5m and 3,000kg for static; or forklifts that have 2,000kg legal for trade fork tines may be adequate. However, if your freight is fairly large and heavy and ugly by industry standards then a static pallet dimensioner with an extra-large scale – ie, 2.5 x 2m or 2.5 x 3.5 m may suit you better.
7. Average invoice value and distances the freight travels. Typically the further the freight travels higher the invoice value.
Why this matters. Money is why. If you are transporting a big pallet of goods from Brisbane to Bundaberg the chances are you will not be able to charge as much for that service compared to transporting the same big pallet from Ballarat to Broom.
Price per chargeable “kg” really matters as well. Premium Express transport providers can charge more per kg than non-express general freight carriers. The higher your chargeable kg rate the greater the chance for revenue leakage.
Above: Freightsnap FS5000 with XL 2.5m x 3.5m 3,000 kg platform scale. Ideal for larger, bulkier, or irregular items.
8. Is yours a pallets-only business or pallets and parcels? Do you currently have legal for trade equipment providing legal for trade measurement data in near-real time for parcels? Or will this be completely new to you?
Why this matters. If yes, you are already using LFT dimensioning equipment to provide item-level measurement data in near-real time for parcels then whoopee! You already have back-office processing that automatically and digitally reconciles customer declarations to captured cubic and weight results and uses business rules to amend the charge or use them as provided.
Not having this in place means that you now have to put this in place to use the real-time data to get the free monty you are leaking. You must change both your physical process flow and your digital process flow. This is a transformational, enterprise-wide exercise with multiple interested stakeholders, from IT, Business Development, Accounts and Admin, Operations, you name it.
There you have it, the top eight questions to consider. Okay, that was way more than eight – see how I under declared? There always are more questions when contemplating investing in automated pallet dimensioning for revenue recovery in the LTL palletised freight sector. Still, question eight is often the deciding factor. But every question matters when all things are considered. Best of luck!
About the Author
Rhett Talley is the NWI Group National Product Manager for Dimensioning and QLD Heavy Vehicle Weighing Sales. Rhett has a keen interest in data and digital transformation in the supply chain.
Contact Rhett
rhett.talley@nwigroup.com.au
1300 669 162
0403 805 540
