For many transport companies, peak season is just a few busy weeks. For others, it’s misdelivery mayhem, an overworked workforce, nonstop phone calls, and customers who won’t be back until next year.
While it may seem that some companies just have more trucks, thus, more resources, it’s usually a matter of information management, access, and a company’s ability to make decisions when things are operating at twice the speed.
It Starts with Planning
The companies that seamlessly traverse their busier periods start their preparations well before the first rush order. They’re looking at last year’s data to compile when peaks may occur and bolstering systems that can accommodate volume.
There’s no guesswork. There’s concrete data surrounding how many deliveries occurred during similar timeframes, where chokepoints emerged, and what routes buckled under pressure. Companies with good records staff well-adjusted expectations, provide schedules people can meet, and offer customer expectations they can achieve.
On the contrary, the companies that struggle react instead of preempt. By the time they realize staffing is an issue, it’s too late. By the time they come to understand that the route structure for which they’ve relied upon for years needs revision, they’re already four days behind.
What Good Systems Do When Volume Hits Double
An operation that normally can function off of 50 deliveries in a day may be crippled after volume hits 100. Why? It’s not always that the work is too much; it’s that manual processes become impossible when resources are simultaneously stretched at unprecedented levels.
Should an operations coordinator handle manual job assignment, phone calls to drivers, customer updates and exceptions, there’s only so much time in a day to make it all happen. Even if they could double their staff overnight to handle push out communication systems—in addition to project management—without good systems in place, it’s still difficult to manage.
Companies that capitalize on a delivery management system that handles the menial task automatically can have drivers plugged into a route within seconds while customers do not rely on time-consuming phone trees to receive status updates. Resources can shift instantaneously when companies become fluid instead of bogged down by paper and people.
Thus, this is why some companies can handle seasonal spikes with existing teams while others have to hire temp staff who aren’t up to speed and whose learning curve renders them valuable yet inefficient.
The Communication Challenge
When peak season strikes, communication fails in a way that few expect. Unfortunately—for the customers—when businesses get busy, they don’t want fewer communications. They’re obsessively tracking their moves online for each twist and turn (frustrated at delays), at the ready with a phone call if there’s any hint of miscommunication.
Companies that effectively manage this have automated most of their systems regarding customer communication. Confirmation comes as soon as the transaction occurs. Customers are apprised when their deliveries are en route. Delays happen before inquiries need to be sent out.
Companies that struggle operate on reactive calls; for example, companies who tell their customers to call if they want to know more about their deliveries are inundated during peak with everyone and their brother on the line. It’s a perfect storm of nonproductive phone calls which result in operations coordinators ignoring legitimate logistical issues because they’re essentially covering customer service efforts instead.
It’s not better service; it’s service that’s automated to free your team up for exceptions that truly need human intervention.
The Peak Season Mix-Up
Finally, no matter how hard you plan for peak season and inevitably have your employees support the process with ideal solutions, it’s never enough. A driver gets sick. There’s traffic beyond expected. A customer decided they want their window adjusted at the last second.
Companies who can pivot seamlessly without all hell breaking loose have great systems in place that reassign jobs, recalculate routes, and notify all parties involved within seconds.
Companies accustomed to rigid planning fail here. Stuck in outdated systems—manual spreadsheets requiring updates on every front—by the time they recognize they’ve fallen behind fixing one issue, two more have emerged.
Real-time visibility makes all the difference. If dispatchers can see vehicles in real time and understand how every mile marker impacts each route, small changes can be made before they’re compounded into excessive issues.
The Driver Experience During Peak Season
Peak season isn’t just stressful for drivers; it’s stressful for companies—so those who keep their drivers happy under duress tend to be winners during peak season as well.
If drivers know exactly what they must do before they even start driving—they’re already given deadlines and clear expectations—they won’t receive phone calls every half hour (like operators) searching for answers about what they’re supposed to be doing next.
Companies who create chaos create havoc for their drivers who ultimately wind up working against their sense of good judgment because things are so scattered. Good drivers become frustrated when they’re presented additional tasks unrelated to their plans.
Technology that gives them everything they’ll need—optimized routes from scheduled intervals to customer requests down to proof-of-delivery tactics—makes them champions on the hardest day of their year.
The Reconstruction Period Nobody Talks About
Post-peak season, companies emerge clear winners or struggling with uphill battles for weeks thereafter. It doesn’t always have to do with volume; it has everything to do with clean-up efforts.
Companies with good systems at least get a recap of how everything went post-peak. They know what routes went well, which fell short, the actualized costs incurred, and where customer satisfaction remained stagnant or strengthened because it helps them prepare for next year.
Those struggling? They’re buried in paperwork backlogs, trying to reconcile records made throughout the past month that weren’t kept neatly due to every excuse in the book—and of course, reconciling all issues getting lost in the shuffle.
Building for Next Year
The companies that handle busy periods best year after year aren’t just surviving—they’re thriving. They’re investing in systems that naturally scale up without breaking down; they’re prepped for success with trained teams to adopt processes that reduce legwork and manual requests after things slow down.
They recognize that peak season should not be a pain to endure; it should be part of the regular business cycle you can embrace with open arms if only you make sense of calmer days before the busy segments arise.
The best time to improve your operation is not while it’s out of control during its busiest time; it’s while it’s calm enough between busy segments to implement new systems with trained staff who know what’s needed preemptively before others must ask repetitiously once things get busy.
Companies that think like this not only handle peak seasons better—but they have smoother operations year-round with less stress on their own teams and a reputation for reliability that gets customers coming back year after year.
