I’m sure you’ve heard the term TMS before in logistics, but what does it stand for? The term TMS is short for Transportation Management System. The reason you’ve probably heard that term TMS is that it is the most common and effective way for shippers to manage their logistics in one place. This technology allows companies to manage their transportation in one place. Transportation Management software offers you a way to view insightful data, gain visibility, and better manage all the moving parts in the shipping process. While a TMS might seem daunting and expensive, it’s become an essential tool for businesses to be successful.  

Who uses Transportation Management Software? 

If you have a business in which you regularly need to ship, move, and receive goods on a regular basis then a TMS is a technology you should consider. Many companies use a TMS, such as manufacturers, distributors, e-commerce companies, retail businesses, and companies that provide logistics services (like us). A TMS is best suited for companies that spend more than $1 million in freight, use an array of transportation modes, have several locations, get a majority of your freight via the spot market, or manage most of your data through Excel spreadsheets.  

Why You Need Transportation Management Software 

Transportation management affects every part of your logistics process, from planning to procurement and more. It’s a large piece of the logistics puzzle. If you’re not using a TMS, what are those processes? Are you using programs like Excel and Outlook to manage your shipments? How do you gather and view data? How much visibility do you have into your logistics? Simply put, a TMS makes your transportation easier on you, enabling you to serve your customers better. To give you a better idea of how it helps, let’s look at the benefits.  

What are the Benefits of Transportation Management Software?  

There are so many benefits to using a TMS. Through a TMS, you can automate and optimize your processes, gain visibility into your logistics, and view valuable data.  

Automation 

A TMS allows your company to eliminate your manual transportation processes. A TMS offers you automation with your load planning and execution through its advanced algorithms. With this, it can optimize each shipment, allows freight tracking by using real-time updates, payment processes are simplifying and streamlining invoices are audited, and develops reports through its in-depth data collecting.  

Optimization 

A TMS is a perfect resource if you’re looking for your logistics to be more efficient and optimized. For one example, a TMS can analyze many batch shipments based on various sophisticated parameters and can determine the most cost-effective route plan for your shipment. A TMS can make recommendations for you on different factors like least-cost mode analysis, freight consolidation options, and continuous move opportunities. It can also account for many other factors, including your due dates, mileage, vehicle weight, stops during transit, and out-of-route parameters. The optimization engine of the TMS allows for dynamic, static, and closed-loop routing. 

Visibility 

Real-time visibility of your logistics data and activity are the primary value drivers for companies implementing a TMS.  A TMS can help you view data from internal systems, vendor systems, and get data that may not have been accessible before. Along with collecting data, visibility from a TMS allows your stakeholders access to update their part of a shipment and receive their own real-time. A TMS will essentially act as a virtual control tower for all your logistics updates and communications. Visibility has gone from being an optional benefit to a necessary one in logistics. Using a TMS can change visibility from being a challenge to a strength for your business. 

Reporting 

The reporting offered by a TMS is another huge value to companies. Access to data is becoming more of a necessity for supply chains, but it can be hard to gather it all. Most of the time it’s spread out among various platforms – e-mails, portals, and laptops. A TMS makes it easier for you to compile and view your data through reporting. A TMS has multiple options and breakdowns to give you the best analysis of your data. TMS reporting can provide you with insight into your freight volumes, lane analysis, freight spend, RFP analysis, and so many more. You can dive deep into your data, breaking it down further by load route, price, and even state-by-state to see your load count and total spend as well. A TMS can also give you monthly metric reports, world reports, and various graphs and breakdowns to help you interpret your data for better performance.  

What Does Trinity Logistics Offer in Transportation Management Software?  

There are many different routes you can take in acquiring transportation management software. Simply put, you can choose to purchase transportation management software directly through a vendor or work with a logistics provider, such as Trinity, that offers it as a cloud-based service.  

A Trinity, we understand everyone’s needs are different, which is why we offer a highly configurable system. We offer you three main options to start with: software as a service (Saas), a managed TMS, or an integrated outsource TMS. If none of those options quite fit what you need, we can further customize your solution so you get exactly what you’re looking for.   

No matter your specific needs, you’ll gain access to our best-in-class technology backed by superusers with logistics expertise. Through our People-Centric service, you’ll gain valuable insight and support in your logistics management.   

Looking to learn more about what TMS solutions Trinity can offer you?  

Looking FOR TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY BUT NOT A FULL TMS? 

We understand committing to a TMS is a big change, especially if you have no experience with one. That’s why we now offer you our Customer Portal, exclusively available for shippers working with Trinity. There’s no commitment or additional charges and you’ll get to experience a sample of our transportation technology. Track your shipments, request quotes, view and pay your invoices online – all in one place.   

Wait, I Still Need More Information on Transportation Management Software..  

We have plenty more educational resources for you to learn about a TMS.   

Author: Turner Lee

No one likes spending their valuable time working on manual tasks that take forever. Streamlining operations with automation is the dream for every business, yet many companies still rely on spreadsheets and manual interactions. One way to drastically reduce your manual processes is by implementing a transportation management system (TMS). Many companies use a TMS for their logistics management, like e-commerce companies, retail businesses, manufacturers, and distributors. By adopting a TMS, you’ll be able to eliminate manual processes and focus more of your team on revenue-generating tasks. Read on to learn how a TMS can help you make the most of your time by automating your manual processes.   

MANUAL PROCESS: TOO MUCH TYPING 

Even if you already have a TMS, you might still be doing more work than necessary if your software doesn’t have integration capabilities for order entry. You might be stuck typing each order into your enterprise resource planning system (ERP), as well as your TMS. And if you don’t have a TMS, you certainly are spending way more time doing data entry than you should. 

TMS SOLUTION 

If you’re currently using an ERP, you should make sure the TMS you’re working with can interface with your system, allowing order information to transfer automatically. This prevents the need for dual entry and gives you and your team more time to focus on revenue-generating tasks. 

MANUAL PROCESS: QUOTE MANAGEMENT 

Shopping for shipping rates can be time-consuming if you have to look through each of your carrier’s rates on a lane, and that’s if they offer contracted rates. If not, emails and phone calls to every available carrier might be necessary for even just a single lane. And even after all that, are you sure you’ve selected the best carrier for the best rate? If you work with several different shipments, it can be time-consuming to be on the phone or going through emails asking for rates from carriers in your network. Trying to manually keep track of all those quotes can take you away from more important aspects of your business.  

TMS SOLUTION 

Quickly compare contracted rates or submit instant spot quote requests to multiple carriers at once with a best-in-class TMS. The carrier quotes are automatically filtered into the system by the lowest cost carrier for easy comparison instead of piling up your inbox. 

MANUAL PROCESS: DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 

Manually managing documents or paperwork is monotonous and outdated. Everything from manually completing the documents to organizing and filing takes a significant amount of time. Not to mention the process of searching for the documents you need later. According to a report by CMS Wire, 36 percent of an employee’s day is spent looking for documents, with information going unfound up to 44 percent of the time. Going by those statistics, you could be spending almost three hours of your day searching for lost documents.  

TMS SOLUTION 

Managing large volumes of loads is timely, and in business, how you spend your time is critical. Sifting through filing cabinets or folders is not an effective use of your time. By using a TMS, all of your documentation is managed, stored, and shared digitally. Not only does this keep your information more secure, but it makes organizing and accessing your documents easier. Using a TMS is the easiest way to manage all of your documents while saving you hours of time every day. 

MANUAL PROCESS: FINDING AN AVAILABLE QUALIFIED CARRIER 

Calling or emailing carriers to see if they can not only accept your load but have the expertise to haul it can get quite time-consuming, especially if you’ve got hundreds of loads to cover. And even more so if you’re working with many kinds of freight. Because not every shipment is the same, the same carrier probably shouldn’t handle them all. Finding carriers best suited for your shipment needs is tough. In the midst of your workday, it’s easy to forget which carriers you’ve talked to already or those you’ve missed. This can translate to a long list of uncovered loads at the end of the day. 

TMS SOLUTION 

Say goodbye to the dozens of phone calls and emails previously used to secure carriers on your loads. With a TMS, you can send a load tender to your preferred carrier, allowing them to accept it electronically. If they reject the tender or don’t respond promptly, the load automatically goes to the next carrier on your list based on cost, performance, or other parameters defined by your company. 

MANUAL PROCESS: SHIPMENT DELAYS/TRACKING/TRACING 

Without using technology, you often won’t know about a shipment delay until your unsatisfied customer calls you. If you’re tracking your shipments, you’re usually doing this manually through emails or phone calls to find out where your freight is, which can be time-consuming and frustrating. While it can be common for several different shipments to be in transit on different company trucks and located all over, tracking can be a challenge. Without a TMS, a lot of time is spent manually tracking shipments and trying to get ahead of delays.  

TMS SOLUTION  

Spend less time tracking your loads and more time filling your orders with a TMS. Carriers will have the ability to provide their own status updates on each of your loads either manually or automatically, allowing you to easily manage your shipments and know in real-time whether there is a delay or not. When asked what features they were looking for in the aforementioned survey, 25 percent of shippers said they needed shipment tracking.  

MANUAL PROCESS: REPORTING 

Reports can be a pain to produce manually since they require merging multiple spreadsheets or pulling information from different sources. This is often done in Excel, which has no way of validating if the reports are accurate. It’s also almost impossible to track carrier performance since it’s hard to see if loads were delivered on time and who shipped which load, all on one spreadsheet. Without proper reporting, how can you really know which carrier had the best performance, what your freight costs were on specific lanes, or which carrier was cheapest the past year? 

TMS SOLUTION 

Forget spending precious time compiling reports from multiple spreadsheets. A TMS will give you the ability to generate all your transportation reports on demand. Do note that not every TMS can generate the reporting you may need, but a best-in-class TMS can offer you advanced reporting to go into specific logistics metrics. From gauging your monthly freight spend to rating your carriers’ performance, you can easily access it if you need it. Need it on a regular basis? With Trinity’s TMS, you can schedule reports to be run daily, weekly, or monthly and even have them automatically emailed to recipients on a distribution list. 

READY TO ELIMINATE MANUAL PROCESSES FROM YOUR LOGISTICS? 

With the ability to eliminate multiple manual processes, it’s easy to see why a TMS allows you to focus your time and attention on more important things, like widening your profit margin. 

If you’re ready to make the move to automation to improve your logistics, we’re here to help. Our combination of experienced account management and best-in-class TMS technology offers you a customized solution to help you achieve your unique supply chain goals. Whether you’re looking for Saas, a Managed TMS, a fully integrated Outsource, or something in between, we’ll work with you to design a solution that’s unique to your business. Gain control, cut costs, improve performance, and most importantly, eliminate those manual processes! 

Author: Christine Morris

When was the last time you reviewed your logistics network and technology? If it’s been more than six months, then you’ve stumbled upon the right article. Now, you might be thinking, “I don’t feel like our process is necessarily broken. Is it really worth trying to fix it? Do I really need a transportation management system?” Yet, what if you could strategically reduce your overall spend while transforming your team from being reactive and task-oriented to proactive and customer-oriented. What kind of impact would that have on your company’s bottom line? 

If your business;

• has a freight spend of $1M or more,
• utilizes a mix of transportation modes,
• has multiple locations that utilize their own mix of broker and asset providers,
• procures a majority of freight via the spot market, or
• manages most of your data via Excel spreadsheets;

Then keep reading as we’re going to take a look at some common areas of improvement you could see with a Managed Transportation approach.

You’ll learn how Trinity’s unique solutions focus on finding the right mix of people, process, and technology. Through this, we can help leverage your supply chain into a competitive advantage for your organization.

Let’s dive in.

PAIN POINT 1: LACK OF EFFICIENCY

Lack of efficiency in your business is a direct result of a decentralized and very manual approach. Programs like Outlook and Excel were just never intended to handle a freight spend of $1M or more. If your freight spend is $1M or more, you’re probably working with a couple of hundred orders a month, with who knows how many stakeholders to help micromanage quotes, tenders, tracking, and tracing of shipments.

How much time is being wasted across your organization with overwhelming manual processes?

Does this process save you any money when it comes to freight spend?

Do you know if you are utilizing the right carriers?

Would contract pricing cost you less than the spot market in the long run? 

The bottom line is this is a reactive strategy focused on individuals’ tasks. To optimize your team and freight, you need a major shift towards being more proactive and customer-focused. This is where Trinity’s technology can help you. All of our Managed Transportation features a cloud-based TMS platform that creates a centralized freight command center, replacing your redundant manual processes with automation. Our TMS helps you manage the entire life cycle of an order and we can even integrate with your order management system to truly optimize your workflow. This means no more phone calls, typing out shipment details, or wondering where your freight is or when it’s going to deliver. Technology is one of the critical aspects of our solutions here at Trinity and also a major catalyst to transforming your supply chain.

PAIN POINT 2: PERFORMANCE

Efficiency isn’t just about getting faster; it’s about getting better. Finding and creating better team performance, better carrier performance, and ultimately improving your bottom-line company performance. So, is there room for improvement in these areas for you? Are your current strategies effective? Can they be measured? You may have answers to these questions that vary from location to location. You’ll usually find some of your distribution centers are better at procuring freight than others.

While a siloed strategy may have made sense for you at one point, companies grow and change. Considering change is a constant, a more wholistic approach will typically yield a better overall cost and carrier performance for you. This is what we consider to be the process part of our solutions. Data is a key driver for the strategy on this one.

On the surface level, it will appear that you simply are spreading your freight too thin across too many carriers or brokers. At Trinity, our Team of Logistics Consultants can quickly diagnose if you are leveraging your overall volumes to the best of your ability. Through strategic sourcing and customer-specific pricing, you can yield savings of six to ten percent, sometimes even more. It can also have a significant effect on improving on-time performance. Best of all, with Trinity’s Managed Transportation, you’ll always be able to track these metrics. You’ll be able to know exactly how your teams compare to the market and are able to adapt quickly when things change. 

PAINT POINT 3: VISIBILITY

It’s hard to overstate the importance of real-time visibility in today’s supply chain. When a customer or sales rep asks for a delivery ETA or if the warehouse needs to know what trucks are scheduled to come in; that can all fall back on your outdated and manual processes. Things like picking up the phone, back and forth emails, creating and sharing spreadsheets, that’s just your day-to-day visibility. What about those overall performance metrics and being able to measure your team or your carriers? Unfortunately for many shippers, there can be too many roadblocks for effective communication and a lack of overall supply chain awareness. 

However, with the right strategy and technology, visibility can shift from a challenge to a strength. Having access to a TMS takes over a lot of the heavy lifting for you, acting as a virtual control tower for all logistics updates and communication. With Trinity’s solutions, we included unlimited users who can access updates and data 24/7 via the cloud. We can even create push notifications where your team, your warehouse, and your customers can receive updates for their specific tasks automatically. For most shippers, real-time visibility has fully transitioned from an optional benefit to a business necessity – which is why Trinity brings all of this valuable information right to your fingertips. 

PAIN POINT 4: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Data has quickly become one of the world’s most valuable resources. In order to make effective decisions, proper data and analysis are needed, especially for logistics strategy or more enterprise-level decisions that reach far beyond the supply chain.

Now let’s say you do have access to good, tangible data. Even still, most likely your data is spread out among various laptops, email accounts, and carrier portals. Trying to compile complete and accurate information is difficult in itself this way, but the greater challenge is what can you do with this data?

That’s where working with Trinity comes in hand. We help compile and present a key analysis in a way that is easy for you to understand and collaborate on action steps for your company’s continuous improvement. Our customers are able to successfully leverage their data to lower costs, improve performance, and drive their company forward. There are many types of helpful reports you can expect to see such as carrier scorecards, customer profitability reports, to network analysis, and distribution projects.

From Surviving to Thriving

Whether or not your challenges have already been identified, through a Managed Transportation Discovery Call with our people-centric approach, you can learn how to take your business from surviving to thriving. Your consultation is free and the only thing you have to learn is how your business can operate more efficiently and strategically. 

What do you have to lose?

Intrigued? 

Not quite ready for a consultation but still interested in learning more about Trinity’s TMS? Register for a brief presentation specifically focused on our TMS.

Chemical manufacturers collect and use a lot of data in their supply chain. They deal with data on their products, customers, transportation, storage, operations and more. Acquiring that data is not hard but managing and utilizing that information to be able to analyze your business is the challenge. Taking advantage of a Managed Services solution can assist in better managing and using your data in your chemical supply chain.

Managed Services

Managed Services is when you outsource your freight and logistics processes to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, such as Trinity Logistics. You can find ways to manage your data in one place using a 3PL’s Transportation Management System (TMS). By better managing, using, and analyzing your data, an organization can reduce costs, improve margins, generate revenue, and make smarter business decisions. How does a TMS offer you all this?

Supply Chain Visibility

A TMS can provide visibility into your supply chain data in many ways. Best-in-class TMS’s, such as Trinity Logistics’, can provide better insight into your logistics processes.

Executives can combine this improved visibility with robust reporting to help guide their decision making. You can also provide system access to your outside supply chain members such as suppliers, carriers, and vendors. Each partner can better plan for their part, having the potential to reduce expensive production costs, limit excessive accessorial charges, and improve customer service.

Freight spend visibility has many benefits within itself. By analyzing freight spend by lane, companies can learn which of their lanes are not profitable based on transportation costs. Identifying company-wide shipment volumes and rates can provide you leverage when negotiating your carrier contracts.

Reporting & Analyzing

Not all TMS’s can generate the reporting you may need. Most generate basic reports that summarize your transportation information. Examples of basic reports include freight spend totals, shipment statuses, and shipment volume reports. But a best-in-class TMS can generate advanced reports that go into specific logistics metrics. Advanced reports can include accountability, analyzed freight spend, lane analysis, and carrier performance to name a few. The reports are dynamic, and you can filter, summarize, or graph information based on what you want to see.

The above-mentioned offers:

Accountability Reports

Accountability reports offer companies the opportunity to hold core members of their supply chain accountable for controlling costs. For example, with carriers you can view costs of carriers used, late fees accrued, any unnecessary detention charges and more.

Analyzed Freight Spend Reports

Analyzed freight spend reports allow a company to track their freight spend based on parameters. Having the ability to track it in this way ensures that potential causes of lost profits are identified and addressed right away.

Lane Analysis Reports

Analyze changes in rates by lane and predict trends in your freight costs with a lane analysis report. You can prepare for changes up front or try to prevent them altogether through carrier rate negotiations.

Carrier Performance Reports

Carrier performance reports can help you identify which carriers are best meeting your transportation needs.

Reports are an important tool to use to find areas of successes and setbacks. Once identified, companies can take advantage of this information by adjusting their practices. They can find ways to create more successes and overcome shown setbacks. Yet, most companies don’t have the technology needed to analyze their processes in such a manner. Money is often wasted on unknown and unnecessary expenses.

Quarterly Business Reviews

When choosing to work with Trinity’s Managed Services team, you gain a relationship with a specialist. Our Team analyzes, produces, and presents Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR), making it easier for you to digest your data. We help you understand what is working, what is not, and what can be done to further escalate your company’s growth.

The importance of data doesn’t revolve around how much data you have, but what you do with it. Managing and analyzing your data effectively is what will take your chemical company even farther. Take it from one of our largest chemical customers, Albaugh;

““We have had tremendous growth over the last 3-4 years. This would not have been possible without the level of service and expertise Trinity Logistics provides. They are a true strategic partner in a very dynamic environment.”

Click here to read our case study on how Managed Services helped Albaugh with their growth.

When you combine your data with our Managed Services solutions, you can,

• gain visibility into your supply chain,
• generate advanced reporting to look into specific metrics,
• analyze reports to create efficiencies, successes, and overcome setbacks,
• and see how your company can grow with our Quarterly Business Review presentations.

Do you want to see what you will find when you manage and analyze your data with Trinity Logistics?

Start your free consultation.