Load Planning in Transportation

When it all comes down to it, much of the transportation industry is centred on one specific idea: lowering cost. While efficiency and speed rank high on the list of priorities for transportation companies, minimizing cost is the backbone of keeping the industry alive. High costs mean less efficient and readily available transportation of goods and services, which inevitably means less business, which could mean the bankruptcy of a company. Keeping costs low is at the forefront of every transportation company, because the more they can save means the more they can do. One of the things driving this quest for low costs is the concept of load planning. Transportation is just one of the great examples of automotive trades training B.C. offers that can lead to a rewarding and stable job.

Smart Planning for Low Costs

Load planning is a process in the transportation industry that sees shipments being combined, often turned into larger loads, to decrease the amount of vehicles needed to transport goods and therefore making trips more efficient. In this age of technological advancements and cost cutting, we’ve also been able to develop systems and software that dissects shipments and calculates the best way of transportation when routing is concerned.

Check out this video of Load Planner software being put to use:

The software takes aggregate models of the shipments and creates the most optimized shipment combinations. However, these programs are still very much in the testing stages, and we still rely heavily on highly skilled workers in auto careers to streamline transportation in the trucking industry.

Responsibilities of a Load Planner

There are multiple facets to the duties and responsibilities of someone who works in load planning, and it’s far from just cramming as much stuff into one truck or van as you possibly can – not only is that inefficient, it’s just plain lazy. Load planners have to have a grasp on multiple facets of the industry, not just how to properly load a transport vehicle.

Carrier selection is an essential and important part of the process, as well as juggling things like which shipping lanes to use, what the priority of shipments is, what the past cost and performance of specific routes and carriers has been and much more. All of these will combine to give you an indication of how efficient, convenient and cost effective a shipment will be. Your job as a load planner will be to maximize cost and efficiency, based on all of these factors.

If you’re looking for a rewarding job that involves a lot of planning, calculating and number crunching within the vast realm of automotive careers, load planning specialists are in high demand. The transportation industry depends on skilled individuals to ensure the maximum efficiency of shipments, as costs are rising and any leg-up companies can get on streamlining their business while lowering costs is nothing short of revolutionary.