How Our Systems and People Ensure Accuracy
In mid-May, Transportation Specialist Katie Tillman came into work just like every other day and prepared for a business morning tracking orders in transit, out for delivery and shipping that day.
Mornings are typically a busy time with transportation management at CTE Logistics, as everyone prepares for what needs to be done for the day. As much as it is important for the orders to be processed quickly, it’s just as important for us to manage accuracy.
So when Katie was doing her normal check of carrier tracking in the hustle of the day, double checking automated systems and carrier data, she knew it was important to look over every order with precision. That’s when she spotted it — a Carrier error that would delay a shipment that CTE Logistics already guaranteed to be on time.
Katie spotting the error was not just a result of her doing her job well. She was filling a process of what we, at CTE Logistics, call the Triple Check. Everything that is processed at CTE Logistics goes through at least three checks for accuracy, usually spread across different departments and through different team members to ensure we’re keeping our high standards of excellence with every shipment.
When Katie, one of the first lines of defense against potential tracking inaccuracies, recognized the issue, she was able to alert the CTE Logistics team immediately, which resulted in immediately giving the client a call to notify them about a potential delay before the client was aware of an issue. The proactive communication with the client turned into a conversation about ways to solve the issue, and soon after, we came to an agreement about the best way to a resolution.
The client was satisfied and remarked that he was impressed with the team’s quick thinking, and ability to react and recover to deliver service as promised.
As often as our systems are extremely accurate, we know the importance of utilizing our great team to make our processes even more accurate. In an industry that is known for making mistakes often, we’ve found that our Triple Check system is a rare and original system for ensuring excellence.
And while our Triple Check system is a point of pride, what really makes it extraordinary is our people. At CTE Logistics, we believe our people are better than any systems. It’s our team members who oversee the systems who are the real drivers of excellence.
“Systems and automation are great, but other organizations rely too much on that. They book it and forget about it,” said Blair Grant, Vice President of Operations. “We keep checking up on our systems as well as data integrations with partner Carrier systems throughout the process and duration of transit. It’s not just the question of ‘did this load get picked up?’ We take each of our shipments through the system and we regularly check the accuracy of the data, at least three times daily.”