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Transportation Management System: 3 Easy to Implement Technology Functions

Transportation Management System

Anywhere you look, technology is making an impact on our lives. It influences how we work, how we communicate, and how we play. For businesses, there are countless different uses for technology and harnessing the power of them properly is a good idea. Here at Cerasis, there are numerous technologies that we offer that are designed to help simplify the way your transportation management practices. If you’re not taking full advantage of everything available to you, taking a closer look at some key points can help.

Here’s a look at some how current technology solutions can do for your business.

1. Using a Transportation Management System to Streamline Transportation Management Practices

For many, the process of actually finding and setting up the right shipment for any freight – full load or LTL – can be the hardest part. There are plenty of different shipping companies out there, and using a transportation management system to manage all inbound and outbound shipping needs will put those shippers who use one at an extreme competitive advantage.

2. Have Easy to Analyze Actionable Insight Gleaned from the Data Created in the Transportation Management System

Transport Management System

In order to continually improve your transportation management best practices, having the ability to analyze important transportation metrics easily, is a must. There are, of course, tactical metrics for accounting functions like viewing open and paid invoices or the ability to identify when shipments are due, but also must include strategic metrics and reports for more in-depth analysis. It is these deeper reports which allow you to truly improve transportation management practices and include:

Matrix Report

Identify factors that impact your freight shipping costs. After setting a baseline cost per pound for your freight, the Matrix Report compiles the invoiced cost for your shipments and breaks them down into line-haul, fuel, and accessorial charges. Lists the weight and distance traveled (both totals and averages) and shows how many shipments were controlled by minimum charges. With this freight data, you are able to see how changes in you shipping patterns can affect your overall cost. transportation management practices matrix report.

Matrix Report cerasis

Lane Analysis

Allows customers to view their shipment details by lane (Origin/Destination Zip Codes, ST, Country, NMFC/FAK Rated Freight Classes by Carrier and Mode)

By Carrier On Time Performance

This report breaks down shipments by; Early, Late, Ontime, Excluded (includes an Accessorial which may affect actual delivery) & Unknown (Missing key EDI delivery data, so Status could not be determined). This data is specific to the customers and their locations and not simply the carriers overall On Time performance ratings.

Freight Class Breakdown

This breaks down shipments by the NMFC Freight Class & FAK Freight Class, if one exists, along with the associated number of BOL’s, Weight and Invoice Price at the Class level.

(13) Month Rolling & Quarterly Shipment Summary Data

This is a summary of key shipment attributes to include; Price Charged, Total Bills, Linehaul, Fuel, Accessorial and Savings etc. broken down by the current and past (12) Months.

Quarterly Net Spend Breakdown Graph

This gives users a visual depiction of an “At a Glance”, prior and current Quarter’s Transportation spend trend.

Analysis is one thing that you can’t overlook, and with technology working for you it’s easy to pay attention to things that you would have overlooked before. You can use a TMS solution to get an accurate report on freight data, costs, speeds, and much more. Every aspect of your shipping will be displayed for you to develop new strategies from.

3. e-Commerce is No Longer for Small Packages: Manufacturers and Distributors Looking to Go Omni-Channel Need Off the Shelf LTL E-Commerce Shipping Solutions

For e-commerce businesses who are now shipping larger freight, LTL shipping is now more of a daily event than it has ever been before. Thanks to Amazon, retailers with small packages have been forced to master e-commerce technologyfrom a small package perspective. However, as consumers are now expecting more and more from retailers, this mindset is also trickling down to those manufacturers and distributors now offering e-commerce to their B2B buyers. No longer can a manufacturer simply put on their site once the buyer has chosen the product: “Call us to arrange freight!” It is now an expectation of the buyer, just like the experience they had 5 minutes earlier when they bought shoes on Amazon.com, that the shipping costs and details are now presented and easy to understand. Conversely, like the great technology through extensions, plugins and applications have allowed for the business to fully have visibility and control in the management of e-commerce freight, so has our extension for LTL e-commerce which is already integrated into our TMS. All the same functions and abilities of the TMS are now available to companies wanting to manage this new channel.

These are just a few examples of how you can improve transportation management practices when you rely on the right technology solutions. Implementing these technologies for you company might seem like a hassle or an expense you can avoid, but if you regularly ship products it’s something that you can’t ignore. And, to boot, no longer are server side softwares needed in order to deploy this technology. Our web-based TMS is ready to go with just a simple username and login. No installs needed….and integration into your ERP or WMS is a breeze!

Contact us to find out more about our full range of technologies, each designed to provide you with better transportation management practises and technology.

Original Source: Transportation Management Practices

Cerasis provides transportation management solutions for shippers in North America, yielding hard & soft cost savings through proprietary transportation technology and managed transportation services with a focus on LTL freight management.

Somos un grupo de profesionales de la Logística y del Marketing Digital que cree en la divulgación libre del conocimiento como fórmula de crecimiento personal y profesional.