Archive for the ‘delivery tracking logistics software’ Category
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
The PIN code system was introduced in 1972 by the postal department. Before the PIN code system, the mails were sorted based on district. A unique six digit code has been assigned for every post office in India based on which the mails will be forwarded. Totally there are 155,000 post offices and 25,000 of which are departmental post offices (DPO). The rest are extra departmental post offices or branch offices (BO).
There are nine PIN zones in India and the first digit of the PIN code represents the zone.
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First digit of PIN
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Areas included
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1
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Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir (including Pakistan administered Kashmir), Chandigarh
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| 2 |
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
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| 3 |
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli
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| 4 |
Goa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
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| 5 |
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
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| 6 |
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep
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| 7 |
Orissa, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
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| 8 |
Bihar, Jharkhand
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| 9 |
Army Post office (APO) and Field Post office (FPO)
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The second digit indicates the sub-region, and the third digit indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices. PIN codes of Mumbai start with 400001, where 4 shows the PIN zone and 40 determines the Sub region. Thane also belongs to the sub region “40”. Other sub-regions in Maharashtra include areas starting with PIN codes 41, 42, 43 and 44. The PIN code of Pune is 411001 and hence Pune belongs to sub region “41”. Kolhapur and Sangli also belong to the same sub region. Bhiwandi and Nashik belong to sub region “42”. Aurangabad belongs to sub region “43”. Nagpur has the PIN code 440001 and thereby belongs to sub region “44”. The third digit in PIN code indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices within the region.
The PIN code system is into the 40th year now and has certainly revolutionised the entire Indian postal system. Many parcel, cargo, freight and logistics providers sort their consignments and deliver them based on the Indian PIN code system.
Posted in delivery tracking logistics software, india, mumbai, sa-fms, tracking | No Comments »
Monday, August 8th, 2011
If a branch receives 1000 calls per month on enquiries and each call lasts for approximately 2 minutes, a total of 2000 minutes (34 hours) of an employee can be saved by using the two way sms feature. 34 hours account to almost 17% of the employee’s overall work duration per month. That means financial equivalent of 17% (17% of the salary) is saved or this saved time can be used for other productive purposes. Considering the approximate salary as Rs. 10,000 per month, the savings will be Rs 1700 per branch per month. If the company has 50 branches, the approximate savings will be Rs. 85,000 per month and the annual savings will touch Rs 10,20,000/-
SA-FMS has been providing SMS notification facility to the clients using which the status of the consignment will be sent to the concerned person when it is booked, despatched and delivered. Now we have moved a step further with a two-way sms feature for our logistic software clients’ customers.
With this feature, the consignor / consignee can send the waybill number as SMS to a given number, and the last status of the consignment will be sent back. For a consignment that has been booked, the SMS will have the details including consignment number, source and destination, booking date and booking time. If the consignment has been dispatched, a response will be the sent to the SMS which will have the consignment number, source and destination, dispatch date and dispatch time. If the SMS is sent for a consignment which has been delivered at the destination, the reply will be sent back with the consignment number, destination and the delivery date.
This feature reduces the workload of the employees, as the consignor / consignee will be able to know the status by sending SMS from his mobile phone. They don’t need to call the respective branches for knowing the status of the consignment. The accurate information hence increases the customer satisfaction as well as a reduced workload for the employees.
SA-FMS is powered by Software Associates, the pioneer among the logistics software companies
Posted in consignment tracking, cost savings, delivery tracking logistics software, logistics software, logistics-cost-savings, sa-fms, sms, tracking | No Comments »
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
The senior manager of Mumbai booking region has been embezzling the freight logistics organisation for a decade and it took a few years for the management and audit team to realise the fraud
A Indore based consignor filed for missing package claim at booking office and Bangalore delivery tracking locations, collected claim cheques from both these centers.
3 bundles of a consignment reported missing from Kolkata by a consignee was sold in the black market by one of the freight logistics franchisees at Jaipur.
A branch manager from Hubli and a head office audit clerk at Chennai worked hand in glove to cheat the freight logistics company lakhs of rupees
Sounds familiar ? Yes it happens in most of the traditional parcel service companies… Why does this happen ?
- No checks and balances in the business process.
- Poor reporting methods and holding back information for head office
- Misuse of official stationary such as waybills and delivery receipts
- Lack of standard operating procedures
- Outdated methods adopted in reconciliation of vouchers
- No periodic audits for consignments
- Excess cash balances at branches and agencies
- Not yet adopted core banking at branches
SA-FMS Freight logistics software to plug loopholes in business processes and guarantees you peace of mind. Now available at Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Indore, Kochi and Kolkata.
Posted in delivery tracking logistics software, erp, logistics software, logistics-cost-savings, sa-fms | No Comments »
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
Managing a volume based freight logistics business in the chaotic semi organised sector is challenging, and often results in waybills being dispatched in parts, wrongly marked or loaded into trucks scheduled for different destination. Reasons being many
- Limited space available inside metro limits
- Godown resource constraints
- Abnormal peak seasonal traffic
- Season based truck availability
- Traffic restrictions during business hours in central areas
- Clerical errors on marking waybill number
- Similar sounding location names
- Goods transferred directly into trucks from smaller vans / carts from suppliers
- Odd working hours for loading and unloading consignments
- Lack of standardisation in packaging
- Wrong consignee business name specified
- Incorrect entry in forwarding note from the consignor or supplier
- incomplete list of statutory documents provided
The central short excess register is a convenient feature offered along with the SA-FMS ERP suite for freight logistics that enables all the customer touch points access the central information system to mark internal and external complaints on consignments such as short, excess, damages, wrong marking, wrong dispatches etc. These are subsequently match on common attributes by the ERP software in order to bring about efficient tracking, to deliver the waybills to the designated consignee on time and within budget.
Posted in booking, delivery tracking logistics software, dispatch, Freight logistic, Logistics management, logistics-cost-savings, packages, RFID, sa-fms, tracking, transshipment, truck, waybill | No Comments »
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Freight logistics companies operate through different models where some are on point to point while others are on hub and spoke. A few of the providers operate through owned trucks while majority have a mix of owned and hired trucks for haulage. While own trucks ensure safety and reliability, the hired segment offers agility during peak business seasons. Both have their pros and cons. In the case of the owned trucks, fleet management is an major cost centre, whereas in the hired truck engagement model, the truck hire reconciliation process are often a cause of headache for the operators. Let us look at the hired model in this post.
- Part advance payment at the booking point
- Part payments en route (agency, transshipment or branch)
- Final settlement at the point of delivery
- Full settlement at the time of submission of POD
- Manipulation of the hire document by the truck driver
- Excess payment made in a manual system
SA-FMS has a real time truck hire and settlement system integrated along with the consignment dispatch and unloading modules that allow each of the touch points to access information about the trips, state of the consignment whether delivered in full or part, assess breakages or shortages and make settlement accordingly.
- Make payment depending on the unloading status of the consignment
- Track complaints based on the truck provider
- Make part / full payment
- Realtime truck hire payment history
- Truck hire forecasting and fund management
Tags: freight logistics, logistics software, transshipment
Posted in booking, delivery tracking logistics software, Logistics management, transshipment, truck, truck driver | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Today's freight logistics business environment is complex and challenging, and to stand out from the crowd it is imperative for small and medium businesses reorient themselves and adopt informed decision making best practices so that senior managers and business owners can control what they can measure.
In an earlier post, we mentioned about management information from the Data analysis tool for SA-FMS. Here we are covering some valuable statistical data generated that can bring deep business insights for effective decision making.
Commodity analysis
- Business contribution of any given commodity transported
- Average freight realisation and packages carried by these commodities
- Percentage of short / excess reported on these consignments
Booking analysis
- Percentage of business contribution to different delivery centres
- Average freight realisation to all connected delivery centres
- Average dispatch time to between these centers
Transshipment performance
- Tonnage handled by each of the transshipment centres
- Wait time for consignment dispatches to various centres
- Consignment stock ageing analysis
Consignor and consignee business
- Business volume over a period with freight realisation
- Complaints registered on consignments
- Delays in booking dispatch, transit time and last mile delivery
SA-FMS is a logistics software solution that helps multi branch freight logistics service providers grow their business through better operational control and lower cost of servicing customers. Available in Mumbai, Bangalore, Indore, Kolkata and Kochi.
Tags: business insights
Posted in analysis, booking, delivery tracking logistics software, dispatch, Freight logistic, Logistics management, logistics-cost-savings, management information, sa-fms, transshipment | No Comments »
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu) based Vaigai cargo has selected SA-FMS lite edition, the leading Freight Logistics ERP suite for small and medium parcel operators to power their network of branches spread across the state to bring about improved operational efficiency and higher customer satisfaction
Vaigai cargo has daily parcel service operations to major cities in Tamil Nadu such as Chennai,Trichy, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem etc and to tier 2 / 3 towns such as Virdhunagar, Sivakasi, Dindugal, Theni, Cumbum, Cuddalore, Panruti, Neyveli, Chidambaram, Kumily, Periyakulam, Virudhachalam, Batalagundu, and Puducherry
Posted in booking, delivery tracking logistics software, india, Logistics management, logistics-cost-savings, sa-fms, Tamil Nadu | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
We often see that the cost of servicing the consignor is not taken into consideration while computing the freight, whereas clients are always on the lookout for the most competitive freight charges from logistics service providers . There is often the tendency for sales and marketing departments to offer special rates to consignors and consignees without proper knowledge on the expenses incurred on each transaction. It is often difficult calculate cost involvement manually for every waybill. The costs could include attributes such as
- Door collection charges
- Truck hire (Shared/full load)
- Loading and unloading charges
- Basic freight
- Door delivery charges
- Delivery collection
SA-FMS has intellgent reports that allow customers evaluate the cost of each transaction by applying the costs at various centers from booking, transshipment and delivery for the parcel service industry
Posted in booking, delivery tracking logistics software, erp, Freight logistic, Logistics management, logistics-cost-savings, management information, transshipment, waybill | No Comments »
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
We have implemented a web enquiry module for SA-FMS, our next generation cost saving ERP solution for freight and logistics industry. Our enterprise clients can enable customer self service for enquiries and would enable n back office cost savings.
- 24 x 7 access to information
- Shows up to date information on waybill
- Booking, dispatch, transit and arrival details
- Lower cost of providing freight related information
- Works as plugin on your existing corporate website
- Firewall friendly and hack proof
- Connects to FMS enterprise database
- Easy to install adobe flash application
- Truck location
- Optional GPS tracking with google maps
Tags: freight logistics, logistics software, web enquiry
Posted in consignment tracking, cost savings, delivery tracking logistics software, dispatch, waybill | No Comments »
Saturday, April 24th, 2010
Branch integration is one of the key factors that separates SA-FMS from solutions that are exist in mid-tier logistics ERP space.
Initially, at individual branches, the default search engaged is for local data whereas at central office, it is an organisation wide global search. At branches, once a local search based on a waybill turns null, it prompts the user to look for the waybill using global search – connecting booking – delivery – transshipment and transit consignments to return the last known status and the entire history of the waybill through various branches. Global search enables in faster responses to customer queries, reduced communication costs and better informed decision making.
FMS is being used by a few BGTA member companies
Tags: bgta, delivery tracking logistics software, transit, transshipment
Posted in consignment tracking, delivery tracking logistics software, erp, Freight logistic, Logistics management, logistics-cost-savings | No Comments »
