how a transport management system streamlines operations

why use a TMS?

If you're still running your business with paper-based processes and record keeping, manual data entry, or even one or two diverse systems for various functions such as accounting and invoicing, you're exposed to the likelihood of errors.

There's every possibility that you're also lagging behind your competition in this regard. Technology is bringing digital transformation to every industry. You'll find that many of your customers are moving this way, if not all of them. They will eventually expect the same from you, since technology is rapidly becoming synonymous with customer service excellence.

Within a single platform, a TMS plays a key part in streamlining the movement of goods for short-haul bulk commodity trucking companies. Any reliable TMS helps you understand and evaluate every aspect of your transportation operation, to pinpoint opportunities for improvement, and ensure remaining compliance with industry regulations.

If you are thinking about making the move to a TMS, this blog outlines the improvements you can prepare to gain and answers the most frequently asked questions:

• Is the investment worth it?
• How easy is it to implement?
• Does it require specialist technical knowledge?
• What sort of improvements will it bring?

There was a time, not so long ago, when larger trucking businesses invested heavily in expensive software licenses and their own servers to drive cumbersome in-house systems. This was once a characteristic of all industries in terms of the maturity levels of technology adoption. The bigger companies became a sort of private 'club, to which entry could only be gained through the availability of sizable investment. This all put them ahead of the competitive field.

Smaller trucking businesses could not afford the high levels of investment, set-up costs, and ongoing maintenance and support costs required for type of technology. They had no option other than to accept — and put enormous effort into working around — inefficient, inaccurate reporting, and frequent miscommunication between drivers and dispatchers.

With the easy payment model of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) that has all changed. Any company has access to an affordable TMS. The playing field has levelled.

SaaS and cloud-based TMS platforms are hosted online and available for purchase on a subscription basis. This means they become operational expenditure rather than capital expenditure. It also means that scaling your dispatch, ticketing, and back-office management efforts becomes much more cost-effective.

how to implement a TMS

Before starting anything, it's important to create a solid business plan that outlines your reasons for choosing a TMS, the goals you seek to achieve, and the long-terms outcomes you hope to gain. In this process you should canvass the input of your team and any key stakeholders who will be involved in the implementation process. Talk also to those whose jobs will be affected to explore what their fears may be, if any. People are often wary of change for the simple reason that it is change. They inherently feel that it might make their work more complicated when, in fact, if will make their lives easier.

Getting the right team members involved and aware will keep everyone productive and ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible. Inviting them to participate in these planning sessions also creates a feeling of buy-in among those involved. This is a powerful emotion to nurture, since it leads to these same participants becoming 'ambassadors', for the solution when it is implemented, helping to encourage easier adoption among others when they are introduced to it.

When selecting your TMS, look for reassurance and proof in three core areas from your solutions provider

1. flexibility: That the TMS can handle multiple commodities and will scale with your business
2. stability: That the provider is well-established, can show case studies of system adoption by companies similar to your own with the same requirements
3. service: That the provider offers excellent customer service, clear communication, and transparency, and treats your business like a partnership. They should provide robust and ongoing customer support for everything from system configuration to maintenance and support.

Critical features to explore when picking your TMS:

• It should be user-friendly and highly customizable
• It should integrate with your existing systems as seamlessly as possible
• It should be cloud-based, not locally hosted on your business' property

Once the implementation is complete, the next step is optimizing the TMS to your business model, vertical and commodity type, and hardware requirements.

TMS analytics & reporting

Without a TMS, trucking companies face a number of challenges with collecting, interpreting, or applying their transportation data:

• Unable to access all data in real-time (trucks, drivers, routes, customers, etc.)
• Inefficient paper ticketing continues to waste time and labor resources
• Lost or delayed orders
• Forced to deal with unreliable and inconsistent 3PL providers
• Struggle to track revenue and load-related KPIs, as well as driver performance and truck utilization

A TMS with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities gives trucking companies the ability to track driver and vehicle performance, optimize fuel consumption, assist with driver schedules, provide dispatcher and driver alerts, forecast delivery times, collect customer feedback, and much more. AMCS Bulk Hauling's Business Intelligence Module, for instance, contains KPI reporting tools so you can track metrics such as:

• Revenue per truck, driver, or commodity
• Total monthly/quarterly/annual revenue
• Loads per truck
• Total loaded miles
• Loaded vs deadhead miles
• Wait time by location