goods on time and cost effi ciently. One breakdown in the process can have costly, time-consuming, and reputation-shattering consequences for your business. When it comes to customer service, there are vast differences among logistics providers. Good logistics providers will: • Check in with you regularly about new developments in your business and fi ll you in on their new services. • Understand - and even anticipate - your business needs, and be a good source of solutions and options for your transportation challenges. • Offer creative solutions to help you better serve your customers. • Give you the same level of service as an established customer as they did when courting your business. • If providers work to build strong relationships with you, you’ll feel more comfortable trusting them with your customers’ needs.

Many logistics providers make the mistake of investing in customer service technology tools as a way to reduce headcount and other costs. If you bristle when you get an automated response, you’re not alone. Fifty-eight percent of respondents to a 2006 survey by Accenture global business consultants were “not at all satisfi ed” with automated telephone customer service, while 85 percent indicated some degree of satisfaction with live customer service over the phone. Make sure you can address concerns with a member of your prospective partner’s customer service department when you need to. But just getting an operator on the line isn’t enough. Be wary of providers who bounce your call to multiple operators, and customer service agents who have little to no expertise in the subject areas for which they are receiving calls. These are signs that customer service isn’t up to par. When you call your provider’s customer service department, they should deal with your issue professionally, accurately, and quickly. While automation has greatly improved the industry’s ability to track packages, schedule pick-ups, and oversee billing, a computer simply cannot replace some functions. It cannot reroute a shipment at the 11th hour, intercept a mislabeled pallet before it reaches the border, or understand the unique needs of a particular shipment. Only customer service agents can do that, and logistics providers who fail to see this are doing you a disservice. The resources a logistics provider puts into its customer service efforts are immediately apparent. A provider who values its customers, wants to exceed expectations, and is committed to being in the game for the long term understands that quality customer service costs money, and needs to be nurtured. Businesses have an interest in ensuring that their logistics provider is committed to consistently available customer service. Logistics providers ignore customer service at their own peril because, believe me, shippers will notice.

In the past, transportation effi ciency concerns primarily focused on areas such as route optimization, capacity planning, and partner collaboration. Today, efforts to improve service and reduce costs include an additional element: environmental impact. As new and aggressive social, environmental, and political pressures evolve, shippers and carriers must adopt and act upon “green” opportunities. Failure to do so will make it substantially more diffi cult for companies to operate in this new era of environmental awareness and social responsibility.

THE CHALLENGES
Transportation companies and shippers seeking to minimize their environmental impact have no shortage of issues to address, including biofuels, noise reduction, air quality, safety, competition, effi ciency, costs, and growth. The incredible rise in fuel costs, which could increase even more as tensions between the United States and Russia grow, is already changing our behavior. New, more effi cient engines are getting mixed reviews, and biofuels may not be as effi cient as once hoped. Many transportation leaders caution that the cost of modifying equipment to use biofuel is prohibitive, and that moving aggressively toward becoming green could drive operating costs sky high, reduce services, and potentially drive carriers out of business.

GETTING BEHIND GREEN
One organization that has been on top of the green initiative is UPS. The carrier operates the industry’s largest private alternative fuel fl eet, which includes more than 2,000 compressed natural gas, liquefi ed natural gas, propane, electric, and hybrid electric vehicles. Since 2000, UPS’s alternative fuel fl eet has traveled more than 144 million miles in the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. The carrier recently ordered additional green vehicles expected to reduce emissions by 20 percent and improve