The transportation industry is highly competitive. A rising number of consumers and businesses are demanding faster deliveries with more flexibility at lower costs.
With the rise in competition, several challenges and risks emerge.
There are several risks in running a transportation business that can have dire consequences if not mitigated. These include the loss of valuable deals, unnecessary costs, and missed deliveries.
So how can transportation businesses use technology to mitigate risks?
#1: Cyber Attacks on Physical Assets
Cyber vulnerability is the biggest risks facing players in the transportation industry today. Beyond damaging the company, a breach to your private network exposes customer data.
Transport telematics systems, which track the status, condition, and location of physical assets, create countless access points for hackers.
Transportation companies’ greatest threat is the threat that cybercriminals pose to a vehicle or its valuable cargo. For instance, criminals can hack a truck’s digital dashboard and shut down its cooling mechanisms, thereby causing thousands of dollars in losses in terms of spoiled food.
The railway industry, on the other hand, makes heavy use of automation, network technology, and electronic sensors. Power delivery, communications systems, track signals, and positive train control all depend on technology. Commodity rail carriers and high-volume carriers are particularly prone to cyber-attacks, especially by political actors due to their greater advantage for supply chain disruption.
The solution
The experts at JMARK can help you with security management and support as well as data analysis to ensure you reduce the risks related to cyber-attacks on physical assets.
#2: Server Failure
More and more transportation businesses are now relying on I.T. systems to link them to public networks. Server failure can cause interruptions that can be costly. It takes just a couple of seconds or minutes for server failure to cause severe damage to your business. Companies with a central database experience larger losses.
The financial implications of server failure largely depend on several factors. It also depends on which type of server is down—analytics server, web server, or email server? Finally, the duration the server is down also plays a role—longer downtime means greater losses.
Of great importance to note is that server failures aren’t caused by external sources only. Internal risks also threaten a smooth operation.
On top of protecting against external threats and hiring a 
professional to employ standard procedures related to disaster recovery, solid security concepts also include staffing and organizational measures. Companies can guarantee data security by redundant memory architectures as well as backup and recovery software.
The solution
To restore business-critical data quickly in case of server failure, you need server management and support services.
Here are the three main types of data backup you need to implement:
#3: Yard and Warehouse Management Risks
The yard and warehouse are the core of any transportation business. Their efficiency or inefficiency impacts the ability to compete and the cost of doing business directly. With IoT-enabled mobile devices tailored to track inventory data, vehicles and equipment, enterprises can offer their physical assets a high-tech voice.
By transforming the physical to digital, transportation warehouses can capture as well as share their mission-critical data through the cloud. Doing so ensures that they always get the right products at the right place and at the right time.
The risk in this regard is related to cloud, systems automation, and mobile devices. While these three facilitate the smooth running of operations at the warehouse or yard, they’re prone to failure at some point.
The solution
JMARK’s cloud computing solutions and capabilities go miles to improve the security and reliability of your I.T. Both your customers and employees will benefit from these world-class services. When it comes to your IoT-enabled mobile devices, you can rely on the company’s mobile device management services.
Final Words
With the industry’s mounting challenges, logistics and transportation professionals can have a difficult time knowing where to begin to make the necessary improvements within their network. By taking advantage of digitization, transportation businesses can cope with the different challenges and risks facing players in the industry. Technology is helping forward-thinking businesses to mitigate much of the risk via active running of contract performance by making sure that obligations are met.
JMARK has been helping transportation businesses optimize their technology for over thirty years. To learn how we can help you be more efficient, save money, and reduce risks, give us a call at 844-44-JMARK, or email JMARKIT@JMARK.com.
