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TAPA EMEA PREMIER PARTNER VIEWPOINT


TRACKING VS. MONITORING = NATIONAL FOOTBALL VS. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE


Today, tracking in the supply chain has become a commodity. It started as a way to urge drivers to be cautious and responsible and was quickly developed as a compliance and security measure. In most peoples’ minds, the term tracking is equal to a GPS device reporting a position and, in some cases, providing extra information related to the status of the vehicle, which is true. Many, confuse tracking to be monitoring, so the purpose of this article is to try to shed some light on this by a simple example.


As long as the transportation companies were operating on a national level, tracking seemed sufficient. It provided a level of visibility and kept a log for the managers to identify exceptions and defects, but when it was too late to react.


Football is a great example to describe how the supply chain has evolved during the last years. Given that the best-known or most proven players are playing in European clubs and in the Champions League, this league has become the most prestigious level of football to be watched by fans around the globe, and


is played by the best football players in the world. Thus, the Champions League can be considered the highest-level football club competition in the world, even though it’s only European football clubs that participate.


Manufacturers and 3PL/4PL companies prefer to work with freight forwarders that are ‘best of breed’ on cross-border routes, driving these companies to pass from “National Football” to the “Champions League”. At that point, flaws in simple tracking solutions came to the surface and the need for advising security experts and adopting high-end security


solutions emerged. Experts and organizations such as TAPA have been setting the path for many years now on how transportation companies can build supply chain resilience. The path to success looks simple, promoting standardization and structuring security trainings for the workforce involved. When companies start their journey to enhance their level of security, the path is true but not as simple as it sounds. Let’s see some of the challenges most of them are facing in daily operations ...


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