At large, a trucking logistics operation is a collaborative process between shippers and carriers, where both are equally crucial in ensuring the seamless movement of goods from origin to destination. That said, it is the carriers that do a lot of the heavy lifting in this transaction. In a world that highly values efficiency, carriers push themselves to optimize the trucking process and enhance operational transparency. The carrier TMS solution is integral to this pursuit and is the lynchpin facilitating this collaborative process.
With the carrier TMS, trucking firms can streamline and enhance the shipping process in myriad ways, including route optimization, load planning and consolidation, real-time visibility and tracking, documentation, and performance analysis. This benefits all stakeholders, including shippers, brokers, and customers, by increasing efficiency across the entire supply chain operation.
However, in a highly competitive ecosystem abounding with operational challenges, how can carriers leverage TMS software solutions to improve efficiency and resilience in the transport process? This article will explore the answers to that question.
Transportation management can be highly stressful, involving much more than simply dispatching a vehicle to carry the cargo. This is true of any mode of transportation. As demands and the operational environment continue to evolve, more carriers must navigate the challenges spurred by these changes to deliver a top-level transportation process.
What are some of these challenges?
Imagine a carrier anticipating customer demand, only to find that it exceeds the available capacity on the ground when the demand materializes. It can be frustrating for the carrier, forcing them to scramble for a solution or risk losing that demand, which creates a negative impression for the customer that the carrier cannot meet their needs. This can be devastating to any carrier, considering what is in line is not a one-time capacity purchase but a potential long-term association.
As the landscape continues to change, carriers increasingly need a solution that can be leveraged to help them manage customer capacity much more efficiently and proactively. Scrambling to find a temporary solution makes the carrier incredibly vulnerable, leading to mistakes and, in many cases, wrong choices that can cripple their business. All of that, just to meet up.
As much as people are vital to the supply chain process, including logistics, they are prone to errors, especially when they involve repetitive tasks and processes. However, the challenge with these errors is not that they have to be corrected, thereby wasting time and resources. Rather, this could lead to all sorts of problems for the carriers -- for example, failure to plan for a trip and have an adequate allowance for fuel. The vehicle will be stranded halfway, forcing the carrier to find alternative solutions that will take time and money and cause frustration on the part of the customer.
All of these can be devastating, especially considering the competition these carriers face in the industry. Another example could be going to the wrong destination and only finding out when the truck arrives. Operational inefficiencies are not uncommon, but they can negatively impact the growth and success of the business.
As competition continues to toughen and technology advances, there has been a massive spark of innovation, exposing customers to extensive potential in the industry. In turn, customers now know they can get more, and they demand it. For instance, when Amazon began offering same-day delivery, which no one thought possible, other vendors, e-commerce platforms, and fulfillment centers were forced to do the same or get out of business.
The same is true for carriers. As the industry continues leveraging technology to solve customer problems, customers have more expectations, which can sometimes be challenging. This can be a catch-22, especially when the carriers cannot meet those expectations immediately.
Although carriers face operational challenges, investment in technology has allowed stakeholders in the supply chain to continuously optimize the entire process since the turn of the century. This is true in most inbound and outbound operations, including procurement, warehousing, inventory management, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and transportation processes. One such solution for effective optimization is the Transport Management System.
For carriers, it is the key to efficient operations, and here are three features that make this the case:
Customers want to know the status of their cargo at every step of the journey, but carriers do as well, maybe more than the shippers. They have skin in the game and are eager to ensure everything goes well. And with the real-time visibility and tracking solution that the TMS offers, they can achieve this while sharing the same information with their customers.
With the TMS's real-time visibility and tracking feature, more carriers can control the entire logistics process from start to finish, enhancing their ability to preemptively mitigate potential risks, propose solutions to problems like vehicle breakdowns, and optimize routes to ensure the vehicles spend less time and resources in transit.
With this feature, the chances of sending cargo to the wrong location are significantly reduced, especially because all stakeholders can track the progress and bring up any wrong move as soon as it comes up, even when the carrier might have missed it.
For carriers, it is one thing to accept cargo for transport, but it is an entirely different matter of being able to actually deliver. However, the problem with capacity is not that carriers cannot deliver. Many of them can, but in some cases, poor load management from poor scheduling and space management can be challenging. The result? Unhappy customers and inefficient processes that take up more time and resources.
With the TMS, that doesn’t have to be the case. Now, carriers can effectively manage capacity through scheduling and route optimization, allowing them to do much more with the same capacity. For example, a customer with two trailer loads worth of cargo approaches an owner-operator carrier to help transport them. With route optimization, the driver can ensure the two shipments arrive at their destination on the same day.
On the other hand, when a customer brings multiple shipments that can be easily combined, the carrier can use the load management feature to ensure they can work with the given capacity, saving time and resources.
The logistics process involves various stakeholders working together internally and externally to achieve optimal results. However, without effective communication and collaboration, these stakeholders may never achieve the desired results. The TMS can remediate this. It allows for streamlined and seamless communication between all stakeholders, especially those who are external, like the brokers. This way, there are no misunderstandings, and there is improved throughput.
The EKA Omni-TMS™ is designed for a better user experience, streamlining operations, and increasing agility. With this solution, you have advanced functionality that uncovers opportunities to strengthen and grow your operations. Increase efficiency and eliminate redundancies with a TMS that brings carriers, shippers, and brokers together, using every integrated interaction for smarter operations. Connect with us today.
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