A survey by Gartner reports that logistics companies can leverage an efficient Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to plan freight booking, ensure freight rating and shopping across channels. TMS also helps manufacturers, retailers, distributors and wholesalers of these logistics companies to select the shortest and safest route to the destination, decide on carrier capacity and also enable digital payments.
Let’s discuss how TMS is essential for logistics companies to integrate them in their daily business processes for delivering seamless Customer Service:
Strategies on freight Movements
Transportation management is primarily an integral part of supply chain management. However, it does not remain rigidly restricted to supply chain. It needs to be frequently attended to throughout the life-cycle of the product development and deployment, since it is a continuous process.
Freight cannot be restricted to the safe confines of businesses, like warehouses. During transportation, freights are transported through several channels like roadways, waterways or by air, exposing them to the possibility of undergoing different unforeseen risks.
A planned strategy on freight movements helps logistic companies to exercise a firm control over their assets and approach the process of freight transportation through a streamlined method. What’s more, a DVPRC report emphasises that freight planning helps in attracting new businesses, even more so in the manufacturing industry.
Decide on suitable price quotes for Freight
The emergence of new logistics aggregators in the industry is showing its effects on the pricing of freight transportation services. The pricing that logistics companies decide on for their services determines their target audience. Online transportation booking and transportation management system offers logistics organizations the much-needed opportunity to showcase the varied services that they specialize in to their clients. This ensures that their clients enjoy a superior experience, aiding the logistics company to stay ahead of the curve.
Opting for the shortest and safest Routes
The highly fragmented nature of the logistics sector in India makes it overly dependent on roadways, despite available alternatives by railways and waterways. The government’s decision to enhance the allocation of funds and resources for further development of roadways in India is bound to increase the existing burden on it, rather than contain it. This over use and abuse of roadways leads to the draining of several millions. What further compounds the problem is the increased traffic at the tolls and industrial corridors.
This emphasises on the immediate need for logistics companies to equip themselves with TMSaaS (Transportation Management with Software-as-a-Solution) for the most suitable routes for freight transportation. This facility will enable to track the shortest and safest route, and calculate the time when the freight will reach its destination. By collaborating with an online truck transport company, businesses can also ensure cost controls.
Automate the selection process for trucks
Automating the selection process for carriers can also be achieved through TMS. When a business hires an online truck transport company, powered by their TMS, the latter can inform them about the volume and weight of the freight that they want to transport, and suggest the most appropriate truck accordingly.
Furthermore, automation acts as an essential space-saver, thereby, ensuring better traffic management. When a business hires a truck booking company, its freight is transported along with the freight of other businesses, saving space and costs. Besides cost reduction, TMS is also a smart way forward for optimizing the medium of freight transportation and reduces the burden of unnecessary traffic.
Enabling digital Payments
Owing to an automated carrier selection process, logistics service providers and clients alike experience a significant reduction in their costs. Due to the better efficiency that TMS drives across operations, logistics service providers can better plan the routes and predict more anomalies such as damage. With the rich analytics and insights that the transportation management system provides, online transport booking companies experience lesser compatibility constraints, and better collaboration.
Implementing a TMS also leads to the automation of freight bills and payments. They can be received electronically and freight invoices are matched to the destination or bill-of-landing place. With auto-pay processes, businesses can experience, real-time reporting and advanced analytics.
With a transportation management service, businesses are able to deliver improved customer experiences, efficiencies across processes and significant optimization of costs. By customizing the solution as per their requirements, transport management systems are a boost to the entire business and not its supply chain management.
Author’s Bio: Sharon Fernandez is a senior technical writer for Trip In. She loves traveling, singing and is a big movies buff. She has an experience of 5+ years ranging from Logistics, Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing.
