Many people tend to lump transportation companies and logistics agencies under the same rubric. It is a mistake since such is hardly the case. There are subtle but real differences between the two fields. They could not be farther apart take transportation, for example. It is on a much smaller scale than logistics. Also, it merely gets the stuff from one place to another. There the story ends.
Logistics is much more complicated. It involves a wide range of services. So when the bothersome ear-splitting headache of freight management is one of them. Logistics is much much more than just conveying the goods. It is also about their upkeep in a safe form, their manual manipulation, the fragile-handle-with-care packing process and finally the inventory. Many other factors also come into the mix. So it is indeed a complicated hotchpotch that we have in the form of logistics.
The heart of the matter is that the transportation sector works as a subfield of the logistics department. Transportation is the means, whereas logistics is the end goal—the former deals in land, sea and air routes. Without the guiding hand of logistics, transportation would not know what to do. It would not be able to even get off the ground. Bathroom renovations Ipswich outsource their transportation of materials like tiles, marble floors, taps, showerheads, lighting accessories, etc from a local logistics company in Ipswich.
When we speak about trade and commerce between supplier and customer, we have logistics as kingpin. Freight amenity is mandatory for both. Logistics also keeps its balance of goods in mind. The sheer quantity is carefully titrated by customer demand. It is all a matter of tracking, which happens to be one of the most challenging jobs in the world. It is way up there with other stressful occupations such as air traffic controllers’ notoriously tricky job.
Logistics is like the architect, while transportation is like putting the architecture on blueprint into action over time. They both have their importance. Yet what house has ever been constructed without a plan in the mind of an architect? Maybe a hut would be built from scratch without a goal, but that is the most primitive example one can think of.
Among some of the complexities and tricky bits, the logisticians have to face on a day to day basis may be listed:
- The Validation of Documents
- Container Approval
- Insurance Claims & Provision
- Import/Export Rules & Regulations
- Damage Control
- Vendor Behavior
- Risk Management
- Cooperation with Other Institutions
Furthermore, the novel technology that has taken over since the 90s has made the field one of ever-increasing integration and sophistication. It is by no means simple. Complexity is the word. What looks so easy from outside is a crown of thorns when looked at from within. Like air travel is not just about getting on a plane and getting off it, so logistics is much more than the stuff that meets the eye. The complicated rigmarole is daunting if you go into it in any detail. Nowadays, we have a fourth means of transportation, and that is outer space. The ISS has supplies provided for its astronauts via a space shuttle.
As for logistics management, it is neither an art nor a science. Instead, it is a strange amalgam of the two. A real hybrid field of endeavour, logistics uses TMS software today for its daily functioning. A thousand inputs lead to the operational basis of logistics. So we ultimately have the career of logistics optimization.
Many laypeople may use logistics and transportation in an exchange-of-terms manner. But the explicit truth is far stranger than this implicit and straightforward fiction. The fact is that logistics involves the psychology of the craftiest and most mind-reading marketing kind one can think of. Logistics is the whole, whereas transportation is a mere part. The parts cannot judge the whole.
Transportation deals with the two parties and does the dirty donkeywork for logistics, which manages the command and control centre’s job. In this, logistics is not that different from business administration. It too requires a lot of grooming as far as its personnel are concerned. Travel and transportation have been existent since the times of the first horse or wheel.
Logistics came into view with the first large scale war. So it came much later and is light years ahead of transportation. Finally, before parting, logistics can be compared with the director of a Hollywood movie, whereas the vehicle is like the actors, actresses and extras on the film’s set.
