Taking Analysis One Step Further with Customized Reporting

Are you utilizing a TMS (transportation management system) to streamline your supply chain, automate manual processes, and reduce your freight spend? It’s a time and money saver! If you have experience managing your company’s supply chain, you’re probably aware of the many benefits a TMS has to offer, even if you’re not currently using one.

There is one advantage only some TMSs offer that you may not be totally aware of: customized reporting.

Pretty much any TMS will be able to create basic reports that summarize general transportation information. These reports are useful, but they don’t allow you to do the detailed analysis required to see where you can cut costs and save money.

Some examples of basic reports:
• Freight spend totals
• Shipment statuses
• Shipment volume reports

Only best-of-breed TMSs – such as the TMS that Trinity offers our customers – can generate highly customizable and comprehensive reports. The main advantage of this capability is that the precision and flexibility of the reports allow you to analyze exactly where you could be saving money or streamlining your processes.

Examples of customized reports:
• Accountability reports (Are you using the lowest-cost carrier every time? Are you being charged unnecessary fees for late arrivals? Are you receiving unnecessary detention charges?)
• Analyzed freight spend reports (How do your customers, shippers, receivers, items, lanes, carriers, dates, etc. all affect your freight spend?)
• Lane analysis reports (How does the fluctuation in lane rates affect your freight spend?)
• Carrier performance reports (Are you using carriers who are costing you extra money and losing your customers due to their poor performance?)

Another perk of customized reports is their capability to be quickly filtered, sorted, organized, and graphed according to whatever parameters you choose, a feature not available when a TMS only offers basic reporting capabilities. This makes it incredibly simple for you to examine the patterns and trends that can help you boost your bottom line.

Sound intriguing? Get in touch with us and we’ll chat and see if a TMS is the right decision for your business.  Still need to get a better feel for what a TMS is all about? You can check out a description of Trinity’s TMS services here!