Transportation Management System Functions
Transportation management system software is a platform for various companies to manage their business. It’s something that 3PLs, freight brokers, and even asset-based carriers use. It’s a centralized platform for every internal user in the company.
They all use transportation management system to help manage the quoting process and the covering process. It helps qualify their carriers when using a full truckload. It also manages documentation.
In freight, it is very important to communicate with the customer and shippers. This includes everything including documentation for bills of lading and the rate confirmation sheets. It also includes:
- Tendering loads to the carrier
- Managing tracking
- Daily management of their manual check calls
- Providing real-time tracking information through a mobile app
TMS’s Accounting Functions
It is helpful for the 3PL or freight broker to provide all this track information to their customer. And of course managing delivery and even accounting. Our accounting services include bill management, auditing, and invoice auditing. Our transportation management system service makes sure that they verify carrier charges before they invoice. It makes sure they have the proper documentation. Through our collection reports, it finds out what money is owed to them. It even finds out what disputes they have when it comes to managing their carrier bills.
Reporting Functions Matter
Reporting is also very important. A transportation management system may offer standard KPI reports. Our platform has a report builder. It lets users create reports using their own information on our report templates. They can build reports that paint a picture of what their business is like. They could use to look for profitability information, sales information, or accounting information.
A Good Versus Bad TMS
The difference between a good TMS and a bad TMS is more about ease of use. When you look at TMS applications, a lot of them will have some of the basic functionalities. This includes dispatching, tracking, managing, and accounting. But different companies have different approaches to those basic functions. Here’s an example. Companies will say they have integrations with third-party accounting applications. This could mean different things. It could mean some companies approach it through a flat file import. Some companies will actually use a syncing tool that’s designed to sync into their system.
Teknowlogi’s TMS Platform
Even though it provides the same functionality, our platform provides different solutions. This is because one is more manual versus one being more automated. Our platform is easier to use. This means fewer clicks and pages that you have to visit to perform a function. This goes a long way to spend less time on managing a shipment.
Teknowlogi’s platform is different. This is because our services provide a full solution for a transportation company. Our Transportation Management System platform is easier to use compared to others. This further streamlines daily tasks for logistics companies. We also provide a host of other solutions that work with the Transportation Management System, such as our Tai Advisor application.
Teknowlogi’s Tai Advisor Application
The Tai Advisor application analyzes the data within its own Transportation Management System and outside platform, such as an ERP, WMS. From this, it makes recommendations to companies on information. It could be information that they want to communicate to a desk-level employee. So this information could be average days of pay has increased for a customer. We want our accountants to be aware of that. Here’s another example. It could keep track of which customers send partial payments versus full payments. This information can then be available to desk-level employees. It takes out a task for a manager to look up that report and provide that information to their employees.
Our platform also provides action items on those tasks, or on business topics that we bring up. By providing these action items, we could track what the employees choose to do about an issue. It could track customers or carriers who have the most disputes when it comes to LTL. What should employees be doing? Should they be contacting the carrier? Should they be educating their customers more on freight class, NMFC numbers? This is information that is valuable to the company. Providing these action items will help get the employees to resolve issues.
Shipment Visibility Defined
Another solution that we provide is shipment visibility for the logistics companies. Shipment visibility helps communicate detailed pick-up and delivery instructions to the drivers. It also gives visibility to the company and the customers when it comes to the location of their freight. They could use a mobile application to see the actual location of their freight every 15 minutes. They could determine if the shipment will show up on time for its scheduled delivery. It also provides documentation such as proof of delivery. This is required for most shippers to get invoiced.
Another solution that we provide is reducing freight costs through our marketplace. The marketplace can connect companies to different resellers to provide LTL rates. They wouldn’t have access to these rates through their own network. So by helping them reduce freight costs, we’ll, of course, help them maximize margins. Through the marketplace too we could actually refer them business. We can provide references for companies that are looking for more business. These references are other companies that are looking for competitive LTL rates. We also connect companies to the customer for them to work together. They could then manage any future freight shipping.
