3 Invaluable Tips to First Mile Success

Businesses are striving, consumers are demanding warp speed, and the whole supply chain is feeling the heat.

So much emphasis has been placed on the last mile in logistics operations, but today's market calls for a critical role largely ignored in the past - first-mile optimization.

Forward-thinking organizations like SAL are already going that extra mile with a vision and logistics solutions made to offer more visibility and integration for businesses and government authorities.

Being sufficient isn't enough. People want instant gratification, and "tomorrow's delivery" feels like a lifetime. So, what's the secret to lightning-fast deliveries?

It's the era of the "First Mile," where the race to your doorstep begins far before the final sprint.

?

But first, what exactly is the first mile?

The first mile is the starting line. It's the invisible first leg of the delivery journey, where your package goes from the seller's warehouse to our distribution hub.

In some cases, it could be from the seller to a hired driver, who will deliver it to the line hauler, then to the airline pilot, who then will hand it over to the logistics operator at the final leg of the journey. Yes, that's happened because not everything can be dictated by a schedule when you need to trim minutes, sometimes even hours, off your delivery timetable.

What Changed?

Everything.

In the past, we've witnessed the evolution from 3-day delivery to next-day delivery to same-day delivery, overnight delivery, free and fast delivery, and bullet delivery within 2 hours! Then, the pandemic accelerated digital shopping and caused a surge in online purchasing habits. Those businesses that couldn't rapidly adapt to the increasing demand for online shopping and delivery couldn't survive.

As McKinsey & Co reported to Argaam, E-commerce is expected to constitute more than 25% of Saudi Arabia's retail sales by 2035, compared with 10% currently. To respond to the growth, a hefty amount of pressure is on logistics operations, causing a need to rethink everything from manufacturing to fulfillment.

The world's interconnectedness and expanded reach demanded more technological integration between countries and vendors. The last-mile part of a shipment was always visible because it was the part that logistics companies could flawlessly control and, thus, the most optimized.

The client and consumer needed more clarity, and the vision to integrate and optimize the first mile became necessary. Instead of tracking by milestone, SAL offers more visibility by providing live data on-ground and in-air, so the whereabouts of shipments are always known.

Tickets to First Mile Success

There are three keys to a game-changing first-mile process:

1. Technology: Modern technology can solve the most complex issues existing in logistics. Technology can help optimize the movement of goods, automate specific processes, and offer insight for cost reduction.
2. Integration: Many vendors are involved in handling global shipments, which means there's a gap in communication and information sharing. Auditing what ships and sharing the data from the start is essential to overcome any inefficiencies in the process.
3. The Right Partner: The one who ticks all the boxes, providing visibility and quality of service, is the one who can be trusted. SAL brings expertise and scalability, offers cost-effectiveness, and elevates its services and solutions on demand.

Businesses need a partner that has it all - the capabilities, capacity, and technology, that delivers savings, assurance, and flexibility throughout the supply chain. From the first to the final mile, SAL has businesses covered locally, regionally, and internationally.

When we focus on the first mile, we'll see a difference for the last, and that leads to many more happy customers.

The Road Ahead

Businesses that make their first mile smarter will have a distinct competitive advantage because in the world we're moving towards, the digitally native consumer will select brands based on speed and performance.