A transportation management system (TMS) is a single platform that simplifies the incoming and outgoing movement of goods for short-haul bulk commodity trucking companies. It enables your entire hauling operation to function at full efficiency.
This blog explores why and how a TMS could make growing and optimizing your trucking business far easier than it might otherwise be. In fact, if you're not using one already, it will transform it.
why use a TMS?
The first consideration you might wish to make is how the adoption of a TMS actually can transform your business and operational efficiencies.
Without a unifying system that provides an end-to-end view of your operations, it becomes very difficult, and often impossible, to gain such a view. With no automated processes, nothing is connected, stages of an operation are not joined-up. The key impact is that communications are less than reliable.
Not using a TMS typically results in an unhappy team and a disorganized operation. Drivers may not receive jobs, due to missing calls or texts, meaning their routes take longer to complete than they should. For your back-office team, the lack of real-time visibility could lead to inaccurate reporting, or missing information altogether. Sometimes they may not even know the information is missing. That then becomes a problem that magnifies itself as the job rolls on from stage to stage, from collection and delivery through to invoicing. Every department will be bogged down by these inefficiencies, causing friction between team members, clients, and contract drivers.
three big benefits of using a TMS
- fewer, and eventually total removal of, tedious manual processes which saves time and alleviates stress
- enhanced data security and management, for you and your customers
- reduced operational costs and transit times
what does AMCS's TMS offer?
AMCS Bulk Hauling is an all-in-one cloud-based TMS solution. Even though it comes out-of-the-box, you can customize its flexible software modules to your specific business needs, offering powerful tools to manage your fleet/s more effectively:
- dispatch: alert and update your dispatchers on your fleet’s progress
- geotrack: track shipments using real-time GPS and optimize pick up/drop off routes
- e-ticketing: manage all of your ticket data in one place without all the paper
- electronic logging device (ELD): easily capture your drivers’ hours of service (HOS)
- Invoicing: automatically bill your customers from anywhere
- driver payroll: create fully customizable payroll contracts
- business intelligence: streamline data analysis and reporting, from any device
- 3PL: outsource your surplus workload to third-party logistics carriers (in or out of network)
- order manager: help your customers place and manage orders instantly no matter where they are
- customer portal: assist with supply chain management by allowing carriers, shippers and other partners to view inventory movements simultaneously
Our customized integration and software adoption process, conducted with the support of our onboarding team, simplifies all of your work processes and encourages scalability as your trucking business grows.
Post go-live, our dedicated customer experience team will check in as often as you need. They will be the link between your needs and our customer support, quality assurance, and our software engineering experts, who are available year-round.
To top it off, all of your data is protected within our secure SaaS platform and can be stored and managed from a single, centralized location in the cloud.
focus on B2B service
We care about our customers, and that means we also care about our customers’ customers. We value establishing deep partnerships. Whether you’re looking to scale, restructure or completely overhaul your trucking business, our US-based team is here to support you every step of the way – even during those odd hours – so you’re guaranteed to get what you pay for.
The onboarding process won’t leave you in the dark, making it easy to hire staff, provide custom training for your drivers, dispatchers and back-office personnel and sync the work they’re all putting in on a daily basis. We can walk you through the functionality of the modules relevant to your business, or give you a comprehensive demo of AMCS Bulk Hauling.
From order to invoice, pick up to drop off, regardless of the type of trucks you have, we can provide daily, weekly and monthly insights for any type of trucking business, big or small. AMCS specializes in the short haul bulk commodity trucking, so we’re cater for and support exactly what you’re doing.
Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you navigate your way through the world of fleet logistics.