The Benefits of Modern Day TMS For Carriers

America’s trucking industry is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, so is the TMS for the trucking domain. It streamlines the processes to keep the trucks moving at optimum capacity.

If you run a small to mid-sized and large-sized trucking company, you know taut margins and increasing expenses can put your business health at risk. Margins fluctuating with capacity can control costs for the most part.

And that’s none other than “ LoadStop”; world’s first digital carrier platform with autonomous dispatching technology, a one stop priceless solution that settles all constraints related to manual tasks, freight matching, fleet planning, ELD mandate, business analytics, EDI, maintenance, compliance and accounting and much more.

Technology is always a two-edged sword that brings in many benefits. And when we talk about sufficiently advanced TMS technology, it is indistinguishable from magic _ magic that reduces 40 -50 % of your operational and labor cost.

Let’s discuss the benefits of modern-day TMS systems in detail and their impact on the trucking industry.

Magic That Modern TMS Can Create For You

Well, there are multiple alternatives in the form of cloud-based transportation management software. But you’ll have to opt for one that can reduce your workload to a maximum. A system that can maximize efficiency by giving you complete visibility into your operations.

Using technology to track loads can save you money and maximize your fleet earning potential. This way, carriers can use location-based services on their mobile phones (iOS or Android) to share the continuous updates on load location and let the drivers promptly make check calls.

In addition to this, 360° visibility for all interstate and intrastate shipments through TMS geofencing technology can help you plan in advance.

Trends Driving the Industry

E-Commerce accounts for a growing chunk of the consumer goods pie, which is expected to double by 2021. The era of connected commerce means receivers expect constant updates and alerts about their shipment statuses.

For companies like eBay, Amazon, Walmart – and just about every company that has taken their inventory online – shipping is a significant disquiet. Shipping volumes are expected to go up as brick-and-mortar locations expand into global markets to stay competent.

This trend is inevitable for all companies, meaning if you want to stay on top, offer your customers a better experience, and make your logistics issues a thing of the past, there isn’t a better time to switch to a modern TMS.

Modern TMS technology helps you deliver a personalized shipping experience for all the customers, where the information flows seamlessly across all stakeholders.

TMS automates entire transportation life cycle functions like rating, routing, mode optimization, shipment tracking, reporting, and end-to-end processes optimization.

Same Day Delivery

Same-day delivery is quite in trend to meet consumer demand. Indeed, every retail business’s economics is measured based on logistics and delivery mechanisms.

Having consumers in millennial who want their products in short time durations has reset the benchmarks for Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and other eCommerce market leaders.

Same day delivery _ a new normal_ has transformed the way customers shop by creating urgency among the customers and immediate response from online stores. It also raised the need to outsource your fulfillment to third-party logistics providers (save time, money, expand the reach, and are flexible with the workload.

Covid-19 Raised the Need for Modern TMS

The long-haul trucking sector, which carries more than 80% of the country’s goods, illustrates the massive effect of the lockdown on U.S. logistics. Lockdowns and border closures restricted the movement of goods further, where small trucking business players are severely hit. It’s because they didn’t have any backup, recovery plan, or intermittent operational plan.

Lack of technology and tools to follow health guidelines (disinfecting deliveries) further complicated their response. However, the companies having robust digital tools that allowed them to keep cargo visibility /traceability and do business online are advantageous.

Trucking companies that previously relied on technology are looking for options to increase remote work efficiency. And cloud-based TMS makes it possible to take the work beyond the walls of physical location.

It eliminated the need for remote desktop access and further entailed investments in technology, like the Internet of Things (IoT), automation, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and machine learning.

In the long term, robotics, drones, and autonomous vehicles might reduce logistics services providers’ exposure to labor shortages.

Whether you’re a carrier shipper, mediator, an efficient transportation management system (TMS) can have a beneficial impact on your organizational and operational efficiency.

A Shortfall of Truck Drivers With Increasing Demand

Several consumers and businesses feel the pinch of a massive shortage of truck drivers in the United States, as delayed deliveries are becoming commonplace for some Americans.

Various reasons caused the deficiency of truck drivers. Truck driver training schools are shut down, or they train a fraction of what they usually do. Plus, DMV’s were issued fewer driver’s licenses because they had limited hours. At the same time, prospective truckers are being treated like blue-chip athletic recruits.

It is even suspected that the truck driver shortage in the U.S. will be further exacerbated by 2026.

According to the ATA (American Trucking Association), the trucking industry was already running short of 61,000 drivers’ demand back in 2019. Making matters worse: in 2020, the pandemic hit that made it difficult to train new truck drivers.

Consider that 73% of goods across the country are transported by truck. Trucker shortages slow the supply chain, resulting in price increases for everything from food to fuel. Hence, with increased demand comes increased income.

As per the recent reports, today’s trucking industry needs more than 1.1 million new drivers in the next 10 years.

How a Modern TMS Differs from Legacy TMS

Unlike modern TMS, legacy TMS is expensive to implement and locks you into static processes with now or less ability to make changes, lacking customer facing-transparency.

Modern TMS reduces shipping costs, increases operational efficiency through automation. Likewise, it offers predictable margins, delivers data-driven intelligence, real-time shipping data, and provides value, both to you and your customer, while taking control of your post-purchase customer nurturing.

What Carriers Should Look for in a Modern TMS provider

Back in 2004, trucking companies used to work in Excel spreadsheets to manage their day-to-day operations. It was cumbersome to track the loads dispatching and accounting stuff. But in today 2021, spreadsheets are replaced by a transportation management system_ a single consolidated software that can do everything from generating invoices to paying the drivers, autonomous dispatching, and keep up with compliance.

As trucking companies expand with time, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage their operations on essential tools. Shifting to Smart TMS is the utmost transition required when the fleet reaches above 30 trucks. Nevertheless, fleets of smaller size are seen to jump into the TMS installation right away. It’s because of rapid growth that increased the demand of conducting business over the phone, load boards, and dealing with backhauls.

Indeed, data-driven organizations generally have tremendous advantages over companies that haven’t yet begun any digital transformation. Fortunately, most of the tricks are already deployed by most digital freight matching solutions (DFMs) on the market.

There are a few principle pieces of data that are always available for every shipment. These include the origin and destination of a load and when it needs to be delivered. Based on these three data points, DFMs can help shippers cut emissions by 15% or more with minimal effort or investment.

Using primary, publicly available data (or even an app like Waze), a DFM can identify when the heaviest traffic will occur that might allow drivers to focus on the second half of the delivery while deflating the amount of time they’re driving/idling.

Carriers always look for potential TMS implementations that can benefit them in reducing costs, which can be reinvested in the business. All in all, they look for Dynamic products with embedded business intelligence. It drives strategic decision-making and enhances freight transportation performance, providing high-level visibility into all transportation management tasks and helps swiftly match the carriers with the cargoes.

Are you ready to utilize a modular cloud-based TMS to reduce route (Owner of Record) and empty deadhead miles, limit dwell time and improve on-time delivery and customer service? If your answer is “YES,” stop looking further and book a demo with LoadStop.

LoadStop is the most advanced digital transportation management system in the freight industry. With over 1000 + happy customers, LoadStop has seen tremendous growth within a few months after its launch. LoadStop has been maximizing the fleet managers, dispatchers, and drivers efficiency in communication, eliminating time-consuming data entry and automating workflows. All in all, this latest cloud technology built Smart TMS connects brokers, carriers, and shippers with 100s of load boards available. Every module is inter-connected, providing you constant intelligence every minute to make fleet management easy and financially more intelligent decisions within seconds. It’s a one-stop solution for all-size businesses looking for next-level cloud-based TMS.