Digital Freight Carrier Management Directly from the TMS

They are the most important contractual partners for freight forwarders: their carriers. Sometimes they are hard to find and always an extended arm for their customers. Anyone who wants to be successful as a freight forwarder must strive for good relationships with their transport contractors. And they should always know exactly what is happening with them. Tasks that are best fulfilled digitally. It becomes even easier when electronic carrier management has a ‘direct line’ to the TMS. Joanna Brandys, Partner Relationship Manager at Trans.eu Group, sheds light on this topic.

By: Joanna Brandys, Partner Relationship Manager, Trans.eu Group

(Lauenau) Anyone who wants to plan the transport of goods quickly and safely as a freight forwarder must work with IT support today. “Maximum efficiency” is the target for dispatchers. They must overcome many challenges, such as price and margin pressure, market volatility, and the shortage of drivers. Skilled workers themselves have also become a scarce resource that freight forwarders must nurture and maintain.

To do an optimal job under these conditions, they rely on precise information. They need this not only at the right time but must also be able to share it quickly, securely, and flawlessly. This is only possible digitally, as data transfer on paper is not only slow but also leads to transmission errors repeatedly – the larger the number of orders to be processed, the more errors occur. Working with well-maintained master data allows for the transmission of correct information in real-time.

Digitally Managing Partner Data

This is particularly useful in collaboration with carriers, who receive their transport orders in seconds with clear information in this way. When a freight forwarder manages the data of these partners digitally, they can also automatically check important foundations for collaboration, such as:

Does the carrier have a transport license?

• How long is it valid?
• Is the transport company insured?
• Until what date is the insurance certificate issued?

Dispatchers must always check this information before awarding a freight order.

What Does Digital Carrier Management Bring?

In practice, high time pressure rarely allows for such careful work. Therefore, the logistics platform Trans.eu has developed several solutions that enable freight forwarders to ensure they are working with the right partners:

• The Trans.eu team verifies the information of each transport company represented on the platform and regularly checks the data along the validity cycles for the official documents.
• Additionally, the platform has a function that allows freight forwarders to manage companies that are not listed in the open carrier database.
• Through the automatic programming interface (API), freight forwarders have direct access to the platform’s data from their TMS before releasing the freight.

This protects freight forwarders against careless mistakes in daily business and allows them to rely on working with reliable partners. The TMS, in particular, is the central software solution for processes in a freight forwarding company. From order acceptance to invoicing, the system manages customer orders, including all information on the progress of transport execution. When all processes are correctly developed and adhered to in practice, the system also forms the central data basis and contains all important commercial data, such as dimensions and weights of the freight items, executed value-added services, and of course, the contract data, i.e., the rates and conditions for billing.

Enhancing the TMS with Digital Carrier Management

What the TMS lacks, however, is real resource management. While it is used for awarding contracts to subcontractors, it does not contain controlling functions. Thus, external services cannot be related to customer orders, and purchasing conditions can only be managed rudimentarily. Therefore, it is less suitable for supplier management. However, modern systems allow for the addition of such missing functions, such as freight space purchasing and supplier management, through their API. With these solutions from the Trans.eu platform, a freight forwarder can work seamlessly in the TMS when they connect the dispatching with the carrier database. Then the dispatcher can directly query current transport prices, conduct contract negotiations, and finally commission one of the carriers. An additional advantage of this connection: logistics service providers can verify with the information from the verification by Trans.eu that their partners meet important transport legal requirements. This also improves their risk management.

Digital Carrier Management Accelerates

With the integration of carrier management, freight forwarders bring security and momentum to their daily business. Routine decisions are made without neglecting important verification steps. The purchasing conditions with fixed carriers are transparently documented. And when companies need additional cargo space, they can book it directly from the TMS. Thus, the software solutions from Trans.eu accelerate the most important operational processes. Therefore, it also makes sense for TMS solution providers to integrate the platform through their programming interface (API).

About Trans.eu

Trans.eu is a digital logistics platform for land transport that connects over 40,000 users from Europe to Eurasia. As a FreightTech solution, it offers a whole ecosystem of data-driven companies that communicate seamlessly with each other and utilize digitized work processes for transport. The platform also features a unique verification system to check transport service providers before they can actively use the platform. This enables secure and trustworthy collaboration with transport service providers, even across national borders.

A business partner function allows users to manage groups of preferred transport service providers, where they can define different parameters for collaboration. Freight offers can be negotiated and contractually concluded in real-time via the platform as well as in a live messenger. To increase market transparency, indicative price algorithms provide fair price estimates for selected freights and routes. An integrated Track & Trace function also allows for real-time monitoring of freights on the road. Additionally, Trans.eu is an open system and offers extensive API integration with existing TMS systems. Logistics providers using an existing transport management system gain additional Logistics 4.0 functionalities through integration with Trans.eu.

Title photo: © Trans.eu

Joanna Brandys heads the Partnerships Department at Trans.eu, where she builds high-level partnerships with leading technology providers in the German market. Joanna has an impressive 20 years of experience in IT solutions. After studying applied computer science in the medical field at the University of Wroclaw, she worked for various small to large IT companies.

Her career path led her to well-known names in the industry such as Comarch and IBM. During her work, she was involved in ERP solutions and custom software development while leading project teams, partner channels, and various sales departments. With other professional qualifications such as the Carrier’s Professional Competence Certificate, she is authorized to run her own transport company. www.trans.eu