Out of all the public system management system, transportation management is the most demanding. But like any other profession has, it also has its own rewards and challenges. Universities have introduced transport management in post graduation level in the present millennium.

Read also: What are transport management and the career scope for the aspirants?

Rewards of being a transport management professional: Many promising and intelligent students have taken up this stream as specialization.

• They are absorbed by leading companies. Demand for this field is extremely high as much of the industry needs to maintain logistics.
• FMCG, retail management, and e –commerce have the highest demand for manpower. The most vital responsibility is to transport the finished product and drop at the client’s premises in the shortest possible time.
• More the years of experience more valuable the professional becomes.
• He can switch job and hop industry still his responsibility will remain the same.
• E- commerce boom has been the maximum in the 21^st century; Scopes and demand of transport manager is the highest
• Logistics Company has the highest demand of manpower in this respect.
• He can choose to become a consultant in near future. Thereby he can choose his retirement. Consultancy fees are charged per hour basis, this is truly rewarding.
• Since he has experience in a multimodal system he can be equally comfortable in case of land, water, and air transport.
• He can be promoted to supply chain manager in near future and take over as the departmental head.

There are various challenges in this field.  Effective planning is the main tool in this trade. In order to manage these situations easily, transport management software is installed to ensure easy planning and movement. Still, there are hazards while planning daily chores.

Read also: What are the different courses offered in transport management and the top colleges to pursue them?

• Shipping huge volume in a single day: In the case of e-commerce based companies, orders have to be shipped in various directions from the warehouse in a single day. Arranging for vehicle and ensuring their routes are the main planning challenge. If traffic is huge then the vehicles will get stuck thereby wasting time. If re-routed it needs to be taken care of keeping in mind timely arrival and control of cost. Costs controlled in every minute steps will account and thereby incurring huge savings to the company. Moreover, this entire procedure requires handling drivers and communicating in regular hours.

The best solution will be to encourage marketing and plan shipment friendly store, fixtures and other promotional items; spreading the inbound shipment over a week or more rather than a few days will ease stress on warehouse crew and capacity. Optimizing cube space while shipping replenishment helps a lot during the process.

• Adopting low raw material cost is a challenge in the agriculture industry: In the case of agriculture-based industry, the increased cost of farm products acts as the main challenge in maintaining effective supply chain management. Products like jam, jelly, sauces are made farm products. In this case, the varied cost of products like tomato, mango, strawberry and other fruits are subjected to change daily. The effect of the cost ripple is that the profit level gets affected. Professionals have formed a partnership with farmers leading to an understanding that they will directly sell their products to the company. The cost of procurement was controlled and transportation was effectively managed.

Giving incumbent carriers opportunity to the contract for revamping services and adapting to changing production schedules are a priority. Sourcing locations to support demand and coordinating transport activities with other departments are a priority in this case.

• Extreme weather conditions are a challenge to the system: For any company which is situated at a place which is exposed to natural calamities, will affect the transport management system a lot. In the case of landslides, heavy rain or earthquake these act as a negative effect on the time management of transportation.

In this case, it requires maintaining a close relation with the internal supply chain to identify saving opportunities. A transparency needs to be created amongst the closed loop process that tracks the order from placement to shipment.

In order to overcome all these challenges, software in transport system management is recommended to all major sections handling logistics. This makes the process much systematic and eases the procedure of booking transport and releasing the vehicles in a specified manner. Priority is always given to those vehicles which have to reach the client’s premise earlier than the one which could be released later.

Managing labor: Managing labor and labor strikes could be another challenge in this field. Manpower strike is a major issue which has a delayed effect on the transport system. If the client does not get his product on time, he might deduct the amount from the manufacturer’s bill. This will be equivalent to the amount he suffers due to a loss in production. The solution is to have a contract signed with labor union which will remain valid until the end of the operation.

Read also: How is the Transport Management as a career field? What are the prerequisites to be in the career and excel in?

Rewards and challenges are true for every field. Managing logistics is a vital issue for all the companies.  Professionals have high demand in the supply chain management system. It’s a good profession for aspirants who love field work and have the flair to manage suppliers and have high analytic skills.