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When it comes to moving freight reliably, affordably, and efficiently across locations, Transport Management System proves to be a game-changer for businesses. In addition to intermodal moves (involving two or more modes of transport), TMS provides solutions for transporting freight across all the modalities.
In simple words, advanced Transport Management Systems are software solutions that can help companies streamline their shipping process across all freight modes, gain visibility into transportation operations, reduce their freight costs, and operate more efficiently.
The core capabilities of a TMS usually revolve around planning and optimizing (for managing customer expectations and minimizing delays), executing (to optimize workflow), mobilizing (driver app to track trips, approvals, invoices, alerts, and proof of delivery), and optimizing (tracking performance).
Importance of Having an Advanced TMS For Your Business
As the logistics industry is rapidly changing and expanding, deploying an advanced Transportation Management System is crucial. With the system, most processes have become automated, resulting in reduced paperwork, faster delivery times, fewer delays and time saving. Businesses can invest the saved time in improving customer experience and focusing more on other aspects of your business.
Using a robust and feature rich TMS allows you to track freight nationally and locally on a single integrated platform with fewer shipment delays and real-time updates. Ramco’s Transportation Management System provides multi-faceted visibility, location and navigation intelligence, mobility, ecosystem integrations and more.
Though there is a financial cost involved in installing a TMS, usually the ROI exceeds the investment significantly.
Managing Costs with a Transportation Management System
Now that we have outlined the meaning of a TMS and its importance to any logistics business, let’s explore some ways in which a Transportation Management System can help your business manage and cut costs.
Better Customer Service
Today, customers prefer to make purchases from businesses that provide the ability to make adjustments to the orders at the last-minute, deliver at lightning-fast speed and more. They expect all these things to be a part of every order they place.
As the customer expectations have risen, it has become challenging for the companies to match them up by simply modifying their current operations. This is where TMSs come in, specifically advanced TMS.
Transport Management Systems link the systems that manage warehouses with the ones responsible for managing orders. Consolidating customers' orders makes it seamless to select the most cost-effective carrier. Thereby, benefitting customers and businesses alike.
Increased Supply Chain Visibility
With avant-garde TMS solutions, you can easily maintain transparency across the supply chain. Being able to oversee and access data related to all the processes in real-time and in one place is a noteworthy advantage which allows you to make quicker decisions.
Moreover, logistics managers are able to better forecast inventory, streamline the entire process and recognize and act on possible difficulties more effectively and promptly, thus, optimizing costs and maintaining high-level client satisfaction.
Eliminates Human Error, Ensuring Smoother Execution of Shipment
A TMS eliminates prospective mistakes, especially while dealing with dispatches and shipping. Upon receiving information from the partners in the supply chain, the software system automates all the repetitive tasks in the shipment process, thus, reducing the probability of mistakes while helping businesses save efforts and costs.
Otherwise, data entry errors can easily result in overtime and surpass the total cost of installing and configuring transport management software, depending on your operation’s size.
Improved Performance
Using a reliable TMS helps businesses monitor the performance of the internal and external resources and gives a better view of the entire process, making you capable of taking action whenever necessary. Businesses can also use this information to upgrade as well as improve their service and support efforts, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing unnecessary costs.
Enhanced Routing Capabilities
Optimizing routing has never been as critical as it is today, thanks to smaller cargo quantities and shorter order cycles. Businesses can use pool distribution strategy (it allows you to ship your products with the other products in a single truck) with the support of the right TMS technology.
With this strategy, businesses can have greater control over their delivery and save money because it is cheaper and faster.
For the operators, picking and delivering cargo may be as simple as choosing the best pool location. Complicated orders can be broken down into smaller orders and routed individually to save money and time.
The Bottomline
When implemented correctly, Transportation Management Systems can help companies save costs consistently. It is a crucial tool in the arsenal of most companies as they can profit greatly from the benefits outlined above.
Transport Management systems have come a long way just from being a track and trace tool to becoming a complete business solution. With shippers focusing heavily in understanding visibility and taking smart decisions an integrated solution will be a game changer.
