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7 min
Infios TMS for 3PLs
Infios Transportation Management System (TMS) for 3PLs op...
5 ways a TMS supports 3PL revenue growth
- Blog
Summary: A Transportation Management System (TMS) is a critical tool for third-party logistics (3PLs) providers focused on revenue growth. The blog highlights five ways a TMS supports that growth: rapid onboarding and scalability, transportation optimization and cost savings, "what-if" modeling to identify new opportunities, margin control and rate management, and the agility to adapt during disruption. By leveraging a TMS, 3PLs can streamline operations, improve efficiency and increase profitability.
The impact of a TMS is measurable. Infios TM customers improve customer retention, lower annual freight spend and reduce time spent on freight audits. These efficiencies free existing teams to focus on higher-value priorities and strategic growth. In a competitive market, a TMS helps 3PLs differentiate through better insight, control and execution.
Below, we take a closer look at how a TMS supports revenue growth for 3PLs.
The third-party logistics (3PL) industry is increasingly competitive, and companies are constantly looking for ways to differentiate themselves and drive revenue growth.
A Transportation Management System (TMS) plays a central role in how 3PLs address these challenges. When orchestrated alongside other supply chain management systems, a TMS helps providers standardize execution, improve efficiency and make more informed decisions at scale.
This blog explores 5 ways a TMS supports 3PL revenue growth:
- Rapid onboarding and scalability
- Transportation optimization and cost savings
- “What-if” modeling to identify growth opportunities
- Margin control and rate management
- Agility and adaptability in response to disruptions
How a TMS supports 3PL revenue growth
Modern Transportation Management Systems (TMS) enable third-party logistics providers to add customers quickly, optimize transportation spend, manage margins with greater precision, model “what-if” scenarios and adapt plans as conditions change. These capabilities become especially valuable as volume grows and operational complexity increases.
Advances in evolving technologies that leverage artificial intelligence are extending this value. Transportation Management platforms that embed AI into decision-making workflows help reduce manual effort across your orders, warehouses and transportation activities. This allows 3PLs to scale without adding proportional headcount, easing one of the most common constraints on growth. In this way, automation supports revenue goals indirectly by freeing teams to focus on higher-value work rather than day-to-day execution.
- Rapid onboarding and scalability
A TMS enables 3PLs to onboard new clients quickly and scale operations as requirements evolve. Reusable workflows, role hierarchies and inherited configurations reduce the effort required to add new customers.
Without these capabilities, growth often introduces friction—custom implementations, duplicated effort and increased reliance on manual processes. Over time, these constraints can limit how fast a 3PL can expand profitably. - Transportation optimization and cost savings
Transportation optimization solutions offer 3PLs the ability to analyze shipments across customers and identify opportunities to:
- Combine freight into multi-pick and multi-drop loads
- Fill backhaul moves
- Determine the best carrier for each load
- Execute consistently from tender to final settlement
- When applied at scale, optimization lowers transportation costs through better load, mode and carrier selection. It can also reduce empty miles and support sustainability initiatives, while improving service levels for both customers and their end customers.
- Transportation modeling to identify growth opportunities
What-if modeling enables 3PLs to evaluate the profitability of new customers, lanes or services before committing resources. By modeling changes against the existing network, providers gain clearer insight into how growth scenarios impact cost, capacity and margins.
As data accumulates across customers, modeling also highlights consolidation and rate optimization opportunities. Aggregated volume can strengthen carrier negotiations, reduce miles traveled and support both sustainability goals and operating margins. - Margin control and rate management
Margin management becomes increasingly complex as customer counts and carrier relationships grow. A TMS helps 3PLs automate margin control and rate management, reducing reliance on manual file uploads and one-off adjustments.
With greater consistency and control, 3PLs can protect margins at scale and reduce the risk of profit erosion caused by outdated rates or inconsistent execution. - Agility and adaptability during disruptions
Disruption is now constant in transportation networks. Carrier exits, demand volatility, weather events and geopolitical shifts require 3PLs to respond quickly and in coordination across modes and regions.
End-to-end visibility and multimodal execution allow providers to adjust routing guides, identify compliant alternatives and optimize plans at scale and in unison across the entire enterprise. The ability to adapt quickly not only mitigates risk but can also create opportunities to capture share when competitors struggle to respond.
What is the ROI of a TMS for 3PLs pursuing revenue growth?
Independent research and customer-reported outcomes suggest that a comprehensive Transportation Management System (TMS) can reduce costs, streamline processes and drive growth.
Reported results from Infios TM customers include:
- Improve customer satisfaction and retention
Consolidating loads and automating best mode, best carrier and best route selection for every shipment, 3PLs generate customer savings. The system ensures 3PL customers’ rules are always followed. This meets third-party logistics providers unique demands while fueling satisfaction gains that, according to Infios TM users, hold the potential to retain 1 additional customer per year. - Increase accuracy of payment collection
Infios freight audit and payment capabilities allow transportation management system users to reconcile, audit and settle accounts, catching wasteful errors before payment. Reduced freight overpayments and accurate billing can add an average 2-5% to the bottom line. - Reduce time spent on freight audit and payment
Freight audit and payment automation simplifies financial settlement using workflows configured to each organization’s specific objectives. Freight invoice matching and audit capabilities help customers realize a 75% reduction in time spent processing, auditing and paying freight and parcel invoices. Reallocating resources from settlement tasks toward more goal-oriented activities helps drive 3PL revenue growth.
Additional resources
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Transportation Management capability scorecard
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