Unilever — Overcoming Border Delays in a Pandemic

Unilever began its real-time visibility search in 2018 to help employees plan proactively, optimize processes and collaborate with customers. Integration with Unilever South Africa's TMS began in early 2019, focused first on data quality and tracking consistency. A bigger challenge emerged with COVID-19: establishing end-to-end visibility on carriers hauling cross-border shipments. South Africa shares borders with six nations, and the country was hit hard and early by the pandemic. Average border wait times of 4–6 hours skyrocketed past 10 hours a day due to congestion and new checks, just as demand for consumer goods across Sub-Saharan Africa surged. The team needed a fast solution.

Unilever used FourKites' Custom Geofence capability to create custom zones around border crossings and ports of entry, with FourKites automatically alerting team members when a shipment entered, exited or was delayed at a border beyond a set time. This let the team focus attention only on shipments in danger of delay. Alerts helped identify the cause of delays and reschedule customer appointments accordingly. More broadly, Unilever configured Notifications & Alerts to flag extended truck wait times at facilities, recorded actual timestamps for Completion of Delivery events to eliminate manual data gathering, and used 24-hour tracking updates plus Secure Shipments to optimize workflows and reduce outbound calls to carriers and drivers.

Within the first 12 months: Unilever South Africa's Transport Team now uses FourKites daily, improving cross-team communication and collaboration. Over 2,500 targeted notifications for elevated facility wait times were sent, enabling both immediate corrective action and historical trend analysis. Proactive customer communication on load status and delays now provides total shipment visibility.