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10 Reasons to Consider a Transportation Management System

Posted on by emptranssup-useradm

If your business is involved in transportation, retail, distribution, manufacturing, e-commerce, or third-party logistics, you are probably already aware of this. A Transport Management System (TMS) is a logistics platform that enables customers to monitor and improve their transportation fleets’ everyday operations. Its major responsibility is to organize and execute the actual transportation of products.

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Read Also: “Best Transportation Management Systems in 2022”

How can I choose a transport management system?

The following are some of the characteristics that a Transport Management System normally includes and that you should examine before making a decision:

  • Route Optimization — We will use logistics management software to determine the most cost-effective routes. It does this by using existing traffic data, maps, road speeds, fuel prices, and modal constraints, saving you time and petrol.
  • Carrier Selection – A typical TMS will automatically choose the best carrier and method of delivery for each delivery, hence streamlining your procurement process.
  • Contract Management — Additionally, the platform should enable real-time tracking of your existing terms and agreements with specific carriers. Additionally, some will indicate the entire cost, enabling you to choose the most cost-effective carrier.
  • Consolidation of Shipments – You may further reduce transportation costs by scheduling and organizing shipments in the most efficient sets possible, increasing load consolidation.
  • Freight Estimates, Settlements, and Payments — Your TMS software should also be capable of calculating delivery charges depending on the shipment method, distance traveled, and weight of the goods. Similarly, it should enable your accountants to work on all bills, produce payments and vouchers, assign expenses, minimize associated mistakes, and account for match-pay settlement tolerances.
  • Tracking and Tracing Capabilities — Your TMS platform must provide real-time data sharing between the carrier, the customer, and the distributor.
  • Product Visibility and Shipping Support – Complete product visibility is critical since it enables you to monitor the progress of your shipment from start to end. Additionally, you may be able to rate and route your deliveries in certain circumstances.
  • Warehouse and Yard Management – The package should also provide real-time warehouse facility information in cargo dispatch. Similarly, the system should allow you to monitor truck and trailer travel across your production, distribution, and storage sites.
  • Risk Management – By automating your auditing procedures and enabling the creation of cross-border reports, you can eliminate needless national and international shipping risks.
  • Business Data Analytics – This system should also have analytics capabilities to help you spot patterns and optimize operations and processes.

Read Also: “Top Features of Employee Transportation Management System”

How can I choose a transport management system?

Apart from these basic characteristics, certain Transportation Management Software may contain more sophisticated capabilities. These may take the shape of big data analytics and cloud-based SaaS applications that enable you to outsource freight data and third-party logistics.

Similarly, a TMS may increase cooperation between departments and team members, increasing ROI and lowering shipping costs. As previously said, you should choose Transportation Management Software that complements and expands on your present skills.

What is the importance of logistics management?

Proper logistics management entails optimizing procedures to increase income, decrease manual work, make educated choices, and surpass customer expectations.

Enhancement of consumer pleasure

Consumers want improved service, necessitating the need for shippers to ensure quick, accurate, and high-quality delivery. A sound management approach focuses on optimizing transportation procedures and minimizing interruptions. As a consequence, customer satisfaction suffers as a result of this. Improved customer service may help a corporation’s brand develop a good reputation and create more revenue.

Additionally, a well-organized and efficient freight transportation procedure may dramatically improve the customer experience and surpass shippers’ expectations. Finally, well-managed logistics leads to a pleasant client experience as a whole.

Enhances efficiency

Logistics planning improves your company’s productivity. Your business can appropriately store supplies with on-site logistics planning while easily finding them. As a result, you’ll be able to increase transaction speed and company activity.

Visibility

It is critical to establish visibility across a business’s supply chain. Advanced transportation management systems (TMS) evaluate past data and monitor the in-and-outflow of commodities from enterprises in real-time. Logistics managers may utilize this data to guide optimization decisions and avert interruptions. TMS data analysis helps a business run more effectively while acquiring operational knowledge.

Savings on costs

Managing logistics enables a business to maintain control over incoming freight, maintain ideal inventory levels, coordinate the reverse flow of products, and route freight to the most cost-effective means of transportation – all of which may result in considerable cost savings. Inbound freight may account for around 40% of total supply chain expenses, implying that effective logistics management enables shippers to capitalize on hidden cost reduction potential.

Which type of ERP is better to maintain a logistics company?

ERP systems help businesses manage their logistics, finance, operations, and inventories more effectively via a centralized system, eliminating mistakes and increasing efficiency.

Optimization of Inventory

Both underproduction and overproduction are bad for any business. To save expenses, it’s critical to have the correct mix and amount of goods on hand. An ERP system enables you to plan production and supply requirements efficiently.

Visibility

As a well-integrated and comprehensive solution, ERP software can make it simple and fast to extract critical information from the system to acquire real-time insight into the health of a firm. Additionally, it may share this information with other third parties, such as suppliers.

Savings on costs

Bear in mind that coordinating various inventory management procedures saves time by smoothing out production bottlenecks and helps a business save money via improved inventory planning. Additionally, an improved organization might result in increased customer satisfaction.

Accurate Financial Reporting

It’s worth mentioning that inventory is a critical component of a business’s financial reports and statements at practically every stage. Whether it is work in progress, completed commodities, or raw materials, all inventory types have a monetary value that must be properly accounted for. In this aspect, ERP systems ensure that yearly reports and corporate tax returns are current and correct. 

Read Also: “Top 5 Ways to Reduce Employee Transportation Cost Using a Management System”

How can I choose a transport management system?

How does ERP drive the transportation industry?

ERP software helps a transportation organization handle critical business operations such as resource management and customer satisfaction, transportation optimization, logistics management, and procedures for optimal efficiency, customer loyalty, and profitability. ERP is altering the transportation and logistics business in the following ways:

Vendor/Customer Portal: To keep vendors and customers connected and informed, ERP software includes a vendor/customer portal that enables fast account access and visibility into the status of all logistics. All communication is connected to ensure that consumers/partners are informed through SMS or email.

Scheduling Maintenance: As previously said, transport vehicles and infrastructure are assets that need regular maintenance. The only maintenance issue is that if it is not scheduled correctly, it may significantly impact the company. ERP software enables you to maintain complete control over all critical business activities.

Real-Time Tracking: While traveling, it must monitor cars in real-time to keep consumers informed. It provides vital business insight to a logistics company. Additionally, real-time monitoring becomes simpler and quicker with smartphone integration.

Optimize Inventory Control: Inventory management is critical for every transport operation. The introduction of an ERP system allows the transportation business to examine orders, delivery, and sales from a centralized place. It even shortens the time between order and shipping. Transport organizations may use these technologies to manage incoming and outgoing orders and detect out-of-stock goods. Additionally, mobile ERP may make it simple and enjoyable.

ERP Simplifies Distribution: ERP also simplifies distribution. It helps freight forwarders to manage their distribution flows effectively. ERP takes advantage of data gathered from social media and internal databases to expedite delivery. It enables suppliers, distributors, drivers, and merchants to communicate in real-time regarding traffic, client addresses, and so on.

Human Resource Management: ERP is a wonderful tool for human resource management. As such, freight operators may use the program to monitor work hours and break periods and gather data for evaluating employee performance. Additional security features such as data backups for personnel, payroll, and attendance are included in the mobile ERP system for the logistics business.

Employee turnover is often higher in the logistics business than in other industries. ERP systems have evolved into a critical component of freight operators’ operations, streamlining distribution flow, inventory management, and personnel management.

Read Also: “Top Employee Transportation System Companies in the World”

Why is a transport Management System necessary?

Instant gratification is ingrained in the consumer’s mindset nowadays. Whatever the customer wants, he desires it in stock and immediately.

Overhead shipping expenses have surpassed even basic expenditures such as direct and indirect salaries or utilities for most multi-channel enterprises. The bottom line is significantly impacted whether a corporation has sophisticated logistical or simple transportation requirements. According to a recent Pitney Bowes estimate, package shipments would increase at a pace of 17% to 21% per year between 2017 and 2021.

By 2022, same-day delivery will raise logistics expenses as a proportion of revenue by up to 50%. As a result, businesses are increasingly searching for every possibility to contain rising transportation costs while maintaining overall service quality.

With supply chains scrambling to keep up with the Amazon Effect, selecting an efficient Transportation Management System (TMS) is critical.

TMS systems come in various flavors, ranging from more typical on-premise TMS solutions to network TMS solutions. A well-implemented TMS may streamline your core processes and completely revolutionize how your organization operates.

Here’s how:

1. Enhancement of cash flow

A solid transportation management system may significantly assist a corporation in lowering shipping expenses. The appropriate system will do a financial analysis of each logistical route. It will provide user-specific recommendations on saving costs in certain areas, such as fuel use or driver overtime.

2. Planning and Execution Integrated

The latest generation of transport management systems interfaces seamlessly with current systems critical for efficiently managing a company’s transport demands. These include the following:

  • Systems for purchasing and order management
  • Management of warehouses
  • Relationship management with customers
  • Management of Supplier Relationships

This connection enables the organization to ship orders via the most cost-effective carrier available. It provides the organization with improved route planning and load optimization. Order planning and execution will be improved and accelerated.

3. Minimal Documentation

Administration costs are significantly reduced. Automating all accounts with a TMS saves valuable time and money wasted on cumbersome paperwork. Incorrect billing or invoice mistakes are avoided while overall efficiency increases.

4. Inventory management

Businesses may track the progress of orders and shipments in real-time with TMS. It provides users with an accurate prediction for inventories and increases the supply chain network’s responsibility. Additionally, some network-based TMS systems include additional inventory management solutions (such as VMI and MEIO) that operate in conjunction with the TMS, enhancing the efficiency and intelligence of both the inventory solution and the TMS.

5. Visibility of the supply chain

Transport Management Systems of the future, which integrate across the supply chain, give a bird’s eye perspective of the complete supply chain system. Having complete operational insight and real-time data from all systems is a significant benefit. It allows managers to take immediate action on any opportunities or concerns that may develop. It maintains you in the good graces of your clients without jeopardizing performance.

6. Enhanced Routing through Pool Distribution

Order cycles have decreased in length, while shipping quantities have decreased in size. As a consequence, routing has never been more crucial. The correct TMS enables customers to deploy pool distribution, a more cost-effective and time-efficient form of delivery that provides more visibility and control. The user determines which shipments should be picked up or delivered by selecting the optimal pool location. Complex orders are decomposed and routed independently, which saves time and money.

7. Tracking Drivers While They Are on the Road

Driver monitoring allows users to evaluate the efficiency of various routes used by drivers, which may aid in the creation of a more effective timetable. Additionally, we may evaluate individual drivers. The user may monitor their efficiency and offer input on areas for improvement. Additionally, real-time monitoring offers significant safety advantages, particularly in the event of an accident.

8. Accurate Order Fulfillment

With a dependable transport management system, shipping becomes more precise. With real-time monitoring and complete insight into the supply chain, order fulfillment accuracy improves significantly. Shipping problems and inconsistencies are eliminated using the program. And even if small snags occur, we may fix them without adversely affecting the consumer.

9. Enhancing the Customer Experience

Today’s clients expect lightning-fast delivery, order revisions at the last minute, and tailored delivery timeframes, among other things. They do not only expect it; they see these services as an integral component of each order they make. It’s a significant challenge for firms to change their processes to match customer expectations. TMS, more precisely next-generation tier-1 transport management systems, come into play. TMS will connect order management and warehouse management systems. It will assist in consolidating all client orders to identify the most cost-effective carrier. Customers and businesses alike benefit from this arrangement.

10. Recurring Clientele and Referrals

A properly configured TMS saves you time and money. It increases the overall productivity and efficiency of your business. Increased customer satisfaction with TMS also increases the possibility of recommendations. Most significantly, each factor above adds to your firm’s ultimate goal: recurring business. You want clients to pick your services continually, and the correct transport Management System will guarantee that they do.

Conclusion

A Transportation Management System is a critical piece of equipment in every business’s armory. A TMS is required to stay up with the ever-changing corporate environment. While the pace of savings may initially be moderate, the incremental gains will snowball into better company operations and fulfillment of consumer expectations.

Top 6 benefits of offering Employee Transportation

Posted on by emptranssup-useradm

Let’s admit it; Employees nowadays have other options if a company is denying them good working condition or even facilities.

Good working condition is not just confined to the office or even the salary. Transportation plays a major role in satisfying and retaining an employee.

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On the contrary, transportation also plays a major role in the success of an organization too.

Let’s see how,

1. Increased Employee Productivity

Usually, Pickup time of transportation vehicles will be pre-calculated in a way that it will reach office earlier than that of office time. By doing so, employees will get time to dive into their office activities in a relaxed manner in between and after the commute. For instance, imagine that there is a presentation or a client meeting in the office. In order to make it fruitful a relaxed mind is required. Friendly chit-chat with an employee will make a big difference to the stressful mind.

Studies have proved that long and hectic commute can adversely affect an employee and his productivity. So offering company transportation will be good for a company one way or another.

2. Go green! And earn the goodwill

Employees who use their own vehicle, mostly cars, do not utilize the seating capacity of their vehicle. As a result, more cars will be on the road resulting in congestion and pollution. Since even a mid-size company has over 1000 employees the amount of carbon footprint is huge if calculated annually.

By encouraging employees to use company transportation a huge reduction in greenhouse gas emission will be possible and apart from that companies can use these stats for their marketing purposes.

3. Save Money

As mentioned in the introduction employees, especially those who are experienced and the most productive ones in your company have a lot of options if they feel that their company is not valuing them.

Read Also: “Top 5 Employee benefits which are crucial in retention”

Imagine the pain of hiring a new employee and he/she getting used to the new habitat and work structure. Retention of employees is indeed a cost saving process for any company and for that transportation plays a crucial role.

4. Assure Safety

We are at a juncture of time where safety has become one of the biggest concerns of employees as threats and crimes are shooting up worldwide. By offering transportation and by efficiently automating and tracking it can increase the safety of employees a lot.

5. Develop Workplace Satisfaction

In order to yield maximum productivity from an employee, it is indeed a must to have a friendly as well as healthy work atmosphere.

Offering transportation will give employees an opportunity to interact with each other and they will start sharing their work-related issues and as a result, solutions will come up easily, thus productivity will increase. The flip side of such interactions is that employees will be more attached to the company owing to the friendship they have inside.

6. Create an Employee Friendly Brand Image

Hiring employees who are aligned with the vision of the company is important for the success of any company. However, attracting such can only be made possible by creating a reputed brand image among people.

In short, the company should be renowned for being employee friendly policies. Offering automated transportation is crucial in employee satisfaction of any company.

Besides that, while enticing new recruiters to a company tech-aided transportation can be projected as an added benefit.

10 Accurate Predictions From Movies About Transportation

Posted on by emptranssup-useradm

Tech portrayed in Sci-fi transportation movie has always been ahead of time when compared to the existing technology, especially futuristic ones. But where do they draw the inspiration to portray the future in such bizarre/ jaw-dropping/brilliant way?

Ideas from scientists, sci-fi novelists and visionary architects have always had their influence. Above all, the incredible mind has played its part too.

When it comes to the technology used in all these transportation movie, the sky has always been the limit.

But the question here is. Is it entirely fictional? Or is it conveying an idea about the future technology that is about to arrive soon?

Absolutely not! Some ideas are so brilliant and innovative that they actually came to be true.

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Some of them are waiting to be in the future.

Let’s have a look

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Directed by the visionary, Stanley Kubrick the movie set a benchmark when it comes to sci-fi movies. The movie featured a lot of tech-based innovations which were so well-thought that it came to be true later on.

Speaking about transportation system used in the movie, the most important and significant one was the pan-am space clipper. This space plane depicted in the movie has the ability to take passengers from our planet to a space station (Space Station V).

Years later, space shuttle came to be true when Russia launched a low-earth space shuttle on April 9, 1971. Transportation to the space station came to be true in the year 1971 when NASA launched their first orbiter in the space shuttle system OV-101 out of a modified Boeing 747.

2. Star Wars (1977)

The cult classic Star Wars began its journey in the year 1977 and is continuing. The movie has managed to continuously astonish people with its jaw-dropping visual effects. Apart from the visual effects, Star Wars has always been praised for the creativity that is being put behind the cinema in setting the mood for the audience.

Among the various technologies depicted in the movie, the most sought-after technology was the land speeders. The hovering car concept, although featured in many movies, the most noted one was the one in Star Wars.

In one of the recent events hosted by Renault, a new concept car was unveiled by Yunchen Chai. It is a hovering car which is the winner of the car of the future design. Yes, hovering cars is not very far from realization. Let us look forward to flying over the roads very soon.

3. Blade Runner (1982)

Directed by Ridley Scott, it is a neo-noir science fiction which portrays Harrison Ford as a cop who is in pursuit of fugitives that escape back to earth from off world colonies. A classic, which has no equal.

I’m sure all of us have dreamed about flying, not on airplanes, but on our very own cars. How great it would be if we could avoid the traffic and hover above other vehicles? This movie has depicted that fascination about flying a car and landing on top of tall buildings. It is purely a vision for mankind for quite long.

Well, many aerospace companies like DeLorean, Terrafugia etc gone so far in research of manufacturing commercial flying cars. It is not very far that we realize our imaginations.

4. Back To The Future 2 (1989)

Back to the future is indeed iconic in every sense. The story revolves around a mad genius who invents a car that takes you to the different time zones by travelling around to the past and future. This adventure/comedy science fiction transportation movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Read Also: “Hoax or Not? Beer As an Alternate Fuel For Your Vehicle”

Hold on! Time machine has not been invented yet. But yes, the hover board that is depicted in the movie is definitely a dream that has come true. Recently in 2016 a company named Hendo has introduced a prototype levitating hover board.

5. Total Recall (1990)

I hope most of us have come across this Schwarzenegger movie at some point in our life. Long before we send space orbiting probes, and the ones which landed on Mars, we fascinated about life on Mars. Martians we depicted even in cartoons and television commercials.

Total Recall is a cult classic movie that features a self-driving car with a creepy humanoid robot. In it, Schwarzenegger boards the Johnny cab and tries to ride in it without saying a destination and ends up tearing the humanoid robot from its pedestal.

A self-driven cab is now not a dream but a realization. General Motors have announced that their Robot Taxi service will be ready to go by 2019. Soon you will be riding Zoox taxis that are driven by robots. Woo-hoo!

6. Demolition Man (1992)

Directed by Marco Brambilla, Demolition man is a Science fiction movie that has a lot of new technological vision. The lead roles are done by Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. The movie revolves around these two men; one a cop and the other a notorious criminal.

The movie has an autonomous GM Ultralite Police Car that uses Biolinks to adjust the setting of the car in accordance with the driver. Biolinks are not very far away. We have it on our phones or at a place we work. Soon your vehicles will have these and we will have them unlocked by scanning our fingerprint or our iris.

Fujitsu has already predicted that biometrics will be used as car unlock system and will be used to create a personalized driving experience. Now you can forget the hassle of carrying around keys everywhere.

7. Minority Report (2002)

This is another neo-noir movie starring Tom cruise, where he is a cop who is after future criminals. The movie is directed by the well-known director Steven Spielberg. The core theme of the movie is a conflict between free will and determinism. If a crime can be forecasted, can it be stopped? In minority report, the cops predict a crime with the help of 3 psychics they call ‘precogs’.

There is a nail biting scene in the movie where Tom Cruise jumps about vertical car lanes to capture a criminal. Do you think we can have these kinds of roads in the near future? Oh yes we can. Architects Christopher Christophi and Lucas Mazarrasa in 2014 have suggested a feasible design that vertical transportation for megacities will soon be realised in the near future.

8. HER (2013)

Her is about a lonely writer who develops a unusual relationship with an AI-powered operating system that meets his every need. It is a romantic science fiction drama written, directed, and produced by Spike Johnze. It has a great cinematography and is well written, and it takes the viewers through an emotional roller coaster. The lead role is handled by Joaquin Phoenix.

Unlike the other movies listed here, ‘Her’ suggests that in future there won’t be many cars on the road, and people will rely mostly on public transport.

Sounds shocking? Come on, we will have to conserve fuel in the future if at least for the coming generations.

Many American cities already have a huge reduction in personal vehicles as people started using public transportation. I believe a lot of us agree to the fact that it saves energy, reduces traffic and pollution.

9. I Robot (2002)

I’m pretty sure you have seen this Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan movie. It happens to be a neo-noir science fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. A futuristic movie, it shows an era of robots that assist humans with house-hold work and goes berserk when its program is corrupted.

This transportation movie features a concept car Audi RSQ that is capable of autonomous driving. We have already discussed regarding the cars that drive autonomously and we know that soon it will be a realization and cars will be driving around on their own.

For now, vehicles like Audi A8 and various Tesla cars are capable of autonomous driving. Want to know how it works. Well, put it in automatic mode and take your hand off the steering and your legs off the pedals and the car will automatically sense the traffic ahead and drive automatically. Now you don’t need to get a sore foot trying to drive in traffic.

10. Iron Man 3 (2013)

You all know Tony Stark, the Iron man. Many of you have watched the trilogy umpteen times, especially the third part in which the villain is the infamous Mandarin. Spoiler Alert!

Have you noticed in this transportation movie that there is a flashy Audi concept electric car? It’s not just designed for the movie. The car (R8 e-tron) is real and the beast of an electric vehicle can run 62mph in 3.9s, has 456bhp and have the ability to run 280 miles on a single charge?

Anyway, electric cars are not something new. But an electric car having that much power and runs several miles is a dream come true.

Tesla has revealed their supercar ‘Roadster’ which is the fastest electric car in production. It goes from 0-60 in 1.9 sec and has the ability to go 620 miles on a single charge.