How New-Age TMS Technology Help Businesses Grow

Transportation Management System, or TMS as it is widely known, is a digital technology platform to provide visibility to all transportation activities in one interface, thus streamlining the shipping and logistics operations. It automates your shipping and logistics process and provides you with insights on efficient ways of shipping that can save cost and time. Some useful data-driven information includes transportation planning and execution, business intelligence, freight payment, and disaster recovery. There are multiple levels of a TMS solution based on your current shipping capabilities.

Major Functions of a Transportation Management System

 
TMS is a cohesive platform that helps you plan, execute, and optimize your supply chain activities across multiple locations, including forward and reverse movement of products/goods. Usually, TMS systems work with the most commonly used type of freights, such as inbound, outbound, customer pickup, international, ocean, air, full truckload, less than truckload (LTL), rail, and many others.
 
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Here are some of the major functions of a TMS:

• Optimize Route and Schedule. The system can combine all your orders to determine the most optimized route and scheduling, analyzing some of the typical restraints such as site and carrier capacity.
• Manage Shipping Rates. All TMS has a default rating engine that helps you store contract carrier pricing, thus enabling cost-based optimization. It also provides you with an enhanced and efficient freight payment process.
• Tendering of Freight. This is a process to automate freight distribution to your contracted carriers. It is supported by logic rules based on the set parameters such as cost, award rank, or lane percent allocation.
• Cost Bidding. The TMS system can help you with virtual bidding on shipment by shipment, thus making it relatively simple andwell-timed.
• Schedule Dock and Manage Yard. TMS platform helps reduce congestion and extra charges by optimizing dock configuration. Additionally, it provides information on available shipping vessels like trailers and containers.
• Track and Trace Shipment. A good TMS system helps you track and trace all your shipments through their complete journey, thus enabling you to handle any probable exceptions to update your customers.
• Analytics. Most TMS systems have an analytical dashboard that provides you with any required service insights and costs at different levels, such as that of the business unit, shipment, and SKU.
• Handle Payment. The system provides visibility on carrier payment processing and the virtual payment options customized by the shippers. It can also help you automate payments and efficiently organize your invoicing and billing process.

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Benefits of TMS

 
Shipping and logistics are dynamic processes with a wide range of moving parts that need consistent monitoring and supervision for seamless and accurate order delivery. So, an efficient TMS provides the following crucial benefits to your business:

• Cost Savings. TMS provides cost savings to organizations as well as customers. It helps reduce administrative costs as the system enables you to compare carrier rates and select the most cost-effective option. Also, TMS enables you to cut costs with effective load optimization
• Real-Time Tracking. The most critical factor of an efficient logistics process is real-time tracking and visibility of your supply chain operations. It enables you to track your goods’ movement through any transportation medium. It generates optimal routing and helps you gain route efficiency.
• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction. Current business world is customer centric. With the shift in customer expectation, especially with the “Amazon Effect,” on-time delivery has become essential for all eCommerce merchants to keep their customers happy. An efficient TMS application provides visibility to track routes for faster delivery and keeps your customers updated if there is any unavoidable delay.

Conclusion:

 
To sum it up, businesses thrive on happy customers, which is why the world of trade is currently customer centric. So, to grow your business and keep your customers happy, you need to embrace digital and technological advancements to provide efficient service and thrive in this competitive eCommerce market. Implement an efficient TMS system to streamline your supply chain operations or hire a proficient 3PL service provider to take care of the logistics operations.
 
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About XPDEL:

XPDEL helps eCommerce brands accelerate their growth, empowering them with multi-channel fulfillment, whether shipping directly to consumers, delivering to businesses, or selling through retail stores.We are founded and operated by veterans with experience from Amazon, FedEx, UPS, JDA, Walmart, Target, and other leading companies in eCommerce and Retail. Guided by these experts, we provide customer experiences that help you grow your business.