Transportation management systems (TMS)

Transportation management systems play a central role in supply chains, affecting every part of the process—from planning and procurement to logistics and lifecycle management. The broad and deep visibility afforded by a powerful TMS leads to more efficient transportation planning and execution, which ultimately results in higher customer satisfaction.

• Reduced costs for the business and the end customer

• Simplification of supply chain processes across geographies, modes and carriers

• Automation of business operations for faster and more accurate billing and documentation

• Improvement in visibility and security, especially in transit

• Time savings—fewer manual steps result in fewer delays and faster delivery times

• The ability to track freight, both locally and globally, on a single platform

• Better import and export compliance, minimizing penalties and shipment delays

• New business insights as better reporting leads to faster action and process improvement

• Improvements in customer service and customer satisfaction with real-time updates and fewer shipment delays

• The ability to scale the business by meeting and exceeding customer demands for fast, on-time shipments

• Poor optimization of processes and resources

• Limited planning of activities from the first mile through the final mile

• Low visibility of inventory, logistics, annual spending and more

• Unmanageable freight claims processes

• Higher rates of returns on e-commerce and peak shipping season purchases

• Globalization of the supply chain and the risk of non-supply chain disruptors

• Self-optimizing systems reduce operational strain, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) along the way

• Increased data use enables proactive management in the warehouse and beyond

• More sensors feed data into the TMS for greater real-time visibility

• Faster, smarter systems automate freight claims management

• Predictive ordering and e-commerce platforms help ensure customers are satisfied with their orders

• Diverse networks reduce disruptions caused by unexpected events

A TMS effectively pulls data into a single resource. Even when data is generated by other systems—such as a warehouse management system—integration between the two creates additional value.

Key data management capabilities:

• Proactive management of freight from inbound logistics to last-mile delivery, including reverse logistics

• Full automation of logistics management

• Validating package details and ensuring shipments are loaded according to specifications

• Using GPS-enabled sensors to track shipment status and location in real time

• Rerouting shipments to avoid adverse weather events and traffic congestion

• Determining whether current freight spend aligns with strategy and how projections compare with past discounts

• Centralized documentation and record-keeping functions to improve global compliance and freight claims management

• Integrated payment functions to pay carriers, third-party organizations and other partners upon successful tendering, delivery or other specified actions

• Reducing total freight costs by using a carrier scorecard

• Improving rate negotiations with carriers based on carrier performance metrics

A modern TMS should offer the breadth of features needed to manage complex transportation operations without the implementation and usability challenges that historically came with enterprise freight systems. The right TMS delivers:

• Multimodal transportation management across all modes and geographies in a single platform

• Integrated claims management and reverse logistics workflows

• Final-mile capabilities including dynamic route optimization and real-time driver communication

• Scalability for shippers, freight brokers, third-party logistics providers (3PL) and carriers in a single shared environment