TMS shipping: Need for a unified platform for end-to-end visibility and control

 Learn how to attain real-time visibility and control in logistics by optimizing your whole supply chain through a single TMS shipping platform.

Managing international logistics across several transportation options is more difficult in today's fast-paced logistics scene. From document management and cost control to delivery delays, compliance, and more, the logistics sector confronts many challenges, whether by air, sea, or road. Imagine a little mistake in the documentation process for which you would have to wait for long customs clearance and the cascading effect in the customer order delay. What impact can this have on your brand reputation? 

This is when a unified logistics platform becomes quite helpful. A Transportation Management System (TMS) not only simplifies your processes but also provides you with total control and insight over your shipments for making data-driven decisions. 

This blog will walk you through the details of a transportation management system (TMS), its key benefits and features, and how it can optimize your shipping processes while reducing costs.

The complexities of managing multi-modal shipments

Coordinating multi-modal transport across air, sea, and road comes with many challenges, such as changing fuel prices, varied compliance rules, and different travel times. There are more prominent and underlying complexities such as

• Fuel price volatility: Fuel price fluctuations make delivery costs unpredictable for logistics companies. Companies may switch from air freight to marine or rail freight as fuel prices rise. This shift affects delivery timetables and customer expectations, necessitating careful planning to minimize delays and cost-efficiency.
• Varied compliance rules: Multi-modal shipments must comply with customs documentation and environmental rules in each country or region. Noncompliance can result in penalties, delays, or product confiscation; therefore, compliance requires knowledge and precision.
• Different travel times: Air, sea, and land transportation have different schedules, making shipment scheduling difficult. For instance, air freight is faster but more expensive, while sea freight is slower but cheaper, requiring careful delivery priorities. During peak seasons or bad weather, aligning travel dates and enabling buffers for unanticipated delays are essential for smooth mode changes.
• Communication: It is critical for different carriers and logistics providers to work together effectively, so it is important for them to communicate and coordinate. Delays and higher expenses might result from miscommunication.
• Changing regulatory compliances: Shipping can get more complicated when dealing with varied rules, regulations, and customs procedures across different locations. 
• Handling and transfer: The risk of damage, theft, or loss increases when commodities are transferred between different means of transit because additional handling is required. 
• Time management: Effective time management is crucial for keeping to the overall plan, which includes making sure transfers are on time and reducing delays at each stage of the travel. 
• Cost management: It is challenging to optimize for speed and efficiency while balancing the prices of various transportation options. 
• Risk management: Various factors can affect the safety of different forms of transportation, such as the effects of bad weather on air and sea travel or heavy traffic on road travel.

Analyzing these fragmented data from different sources also makes it difficult to have a whole picture of your logistics operations. 

In the absence of a unified logistics platform, you juggle through several platforms. This to-and-fro, when fueled by inefficient management, causes operational inefficiencies, delays, and expensive shipping charges. To have a unified view of your logistics operations, you need a single TMS shipping platform that permits smooth coordination across every kind of transportation.

Benefits of a unified TMS shipping platform

A unified TMS platform enables you to handle the entire freight, from procurement to payment. Let's take a look at its unique benefits for shipping companies.

End-to-end optimization

A unified TMS system helps you maximize your whole shipping procedure, from choosing carriers to rate negotiations and cargo procurement. The platform guarantees the most effective routes and the best rates of shipment.

Real-time shipments tracking

Imagine being able to find your shipment at any one moment, whether it is en route to a final destination or across seas. A Transportation Management System (TMS) gives you the benefit of real-time shipment tracking. Real-time visibility enhances decision-making and facilitates effective handling of requests for rerouting or delay avoidance.

Enhanced visibility for better decision-making

A unified logistics platform allows you consolidated visibility of all of your shipments. AI-ML-driven platforms share equal status with every stakeholder, and dashboard tracking reflects important indicators, including delivery times, expenses, and carrier performance, which lets you make wise decisions. Even bringing all the stakeholders, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and customers onto a single platform enhances the visibility and live status of material movement. You will be able to identify bottlenecks before they become critical, therefore lowering the chance of delayed delivery.

Freight management solutions

A TMS helps you handle the whole transportation lifecycle from a single platform. For instance, automated systems guarantee proper billing, help you automate document processing, and enhance vendor management. Clarity about your carrier performance also helps you to make the right freight procurement decisions. 

A unified TMS offers numerous benefits over that siloed approach. In place of using fragmented point solutions through a siloed approach, you can see the whole supply chain through a single lens. To improve supply chain efficiency, automate and optimize operations to simplify processes and boost partner collaboration.

Cost reduction

In logistics, operating cost is inversely proportional to the profit factor, and a unified logistics platform allows you to reduce that cost drastically. TMS systems can recommend the most affordable shipping choices by applying advanced analytics, therefore removing unwanted costs. Such a level of automation lowers labor expenses and manual mistakes, therefore maximizing overall efficiency.

Noteworthy features of TMS shipping:

An ideal TMS platform empowers you with real-time shipment tracking, centralized control, flawless document management, and zero-error optimization. Here are some notable features of an ideal TMS platform.

Intelligent freight procurement

• Automated workflow: One of the key features of intelligent freight procurement is automated workflow. AI and ML are used to streamline operations by automating tasks that were once done manually. This includes the ability to create proposals or requests for proposals (RFPs) in just a few clicks, simplifying a time-consuming process. Additionally, the system can automatically select carriers based on pre-defined criteria, ensuring that the right partners are chosen for each job. This automation significantly reduces human error and speeds up the freight procurement process, allowing businesses to focus on more strategic tasks. 
  One of our leading clients from the restaurant chain industry said, "Pando Automates Freight Procurement Smoothly".
• Multi-modal support: The system also provides multi-modal support, meaning it can handle various shipment types and connect seamlessly with different carriers and modes of transportation. This capability gives businesses a complete digital view of their supply chain, allowing for better coordination and integration across different logistics operations. By connecting with multiple carriers, the system ensures efficient management of multi-modal logistics, whether by land, sea, or air.
• Market trends and dynamic pricing: A crucial aspect of this system is its ability to leverage market trends and dynamic pricing. The platform provides real-time market data, helping businesses book shipments at the most competitive prices. By analyzing market trends and historical data, the system can forecast pricing changes and recommend the best booking periods. This dynamic pricing feature ensures that businesses are always paying fair rates, helping them remain competitive in the global market.

Smart rate negotiation

• Smart rate negotiation: It is another vital feature, with AI-driven tools predicting total shipping costs and automating rate negotiations with carriers. The system guarantees the best available rates by continuously monitoring price fluctuations and automatically renewing contracts when necessary. It also tracks changing accessorial charges, providing businesses with an upper hand during negotiations. With a digitized rate manager engine, the entire process becomes paperless, simplifying contract management and ensuring a smoother procurement experience.
• Automate bid management: In addition, the system supports automated bid management, streamlining negotiations by tracking responses, simplifying communications, and quickly evaluating offers from multiple carriers. This not only saves significant time but also allows businesses to make well-informed decisions with minimal effort. 
• Collaborative workplace: The platform promotes a collaborative workplace, enabling seamless communication between carriers and businesses. Sharing documents and monitoring progress on tasks and projects becomes effortless. With everything centralized in one unified system, businesses can complete agreements and manage procurement activities more efficiently.

Real-time shipment tracking and visibility

• Multi-level tracking: A standout feature of intelligent freight procurement systems is real-time shipment tracking and visibility. Businesses gain visibility at both the inventory and shipment levels, allowing for proactive problem-solving and precise control over the entire supply chain. The system manages order fulfillment across various warehouses and logistics destinations, ensuring that shipments are delivered on time.
• Accurate ETA prediction:  With the help of GPS and IoT technologies, businesses receive accurate location updates and event notifications, while AI-powered predictive analytics provide precise estimated times of arrival (ETAs). This ensures that deliveries are properly coordinated to meet promised deadlines. 
  Pando’s Fulfilment Cloud, for example, excels in providing real-time tracking and other advanced freight management solutions, ensuring that businesses have full control over their logistics.

Streamlined payment management

• Automated invoice processing: Streamlined payment management is another benefit of intelligent freight procurement. Automated invoice processing ensures that freight audits and payments are handled with near-zero manual effort. This results in timely and accurate payments to carriers, along with opportunities for better negotiation and discounts.
• Dispute resolution: The system also offers solutions for dispute resolution, with high-tech logistics platforms enabling automated audit trails. This includes four-way matching of shipment data, purchase orders, invoices, and proof of delivery, making it easy to spot discrepancies and resolve them quickly.

According to one of our leading automotive customers, Accuride Automotive, "The freight audit and pay module has been a revolutionary change for our organization."

Powerful reporting and analytics

• Actionable insights: Powerful reporting and analytics tools provide actionable insights into logistics performance. Businesses can gain a deeper understanding of key metrics, such as cost analysis, carrier performance, and on-time delivery rates. 
• Data visualization: With interactive dashboards and data visualization tools, even complex data sets become easy to understand. 
• Customized reporting:  The system also supports customized reporting, allowing businesses to create reports tailored to their specific needs and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor progress toward logistics goals.

Future-proof and scalable

Finally, intelligent freight procurement systems are future-proof and scalable. As a business grows and its logistics needs evolve, the system can easily integrate with new carriers, services, or even different business verticals. This flexibility ensures that businesses can continue to operate without disruption as they enter new markets or expand their logistics operations.

How AI-driven TMS improves automation

TMS shipping systems use AI to simplify logistics processes. AI is transforming the freight procurement process drastically. AI algorithms can analyze a large volume of shipping data and suggest the best route, automate freight matching, optimize carrier modes and contracts, and gain insight into carrier performance. 

AI-powered TMS systems help you minimize delays and save shipping costs in the long run. Ideal transport execution enhances fleet operations with AI-driven predictive maintenance and reduces downtime. IoT sensors provide real-time carrier visibility and also come with predictive analytics to let you foresee potential challenges, such as geopolitical concerns or weather disturbances, allowing you to modify your plans proactively. 

Moreover, AI frees you from mundane manual operational chores, such as rate comparison, scheduling, and shipping tracking, with automation so that you can focus on strategic decision-making. Pando's advanced freight payment and audit (FPA) improves invoice processing and anomaly detection, which in turn ensures timely carrier payments, avoids overpayment, and boosts the system's performance. 

Nikhil Rewar, from Perfetti, says, "Pando helped to manage the transporter details, accountability, tracking of the vehicle, and manage inbound outbound movements."

Pando's unified TMS logistics platform: one-stop solution for your freight challenges

A unified TMS shipping platform helps you achieve effective supply chain management through real-time shipment tracking, cost control, and automation of important logistics operations. 

However, it is imperative to look for an ideal TMS platform powered by artificial intelligence and automation. In this regard, Pando.ai's TMS assists you in keeping ahead of the competition, simplifying processes, and enhancing decision-making. 

Accuride, a leading automobile component manufacturing company, praised Pando. According to them, "The freight audit and pay module has been a revolutionary change for our organization." 

After implementing Pando's AI-powered Transportation Management System, one of our happy customers, Gaurav Patel, said, "Pando TMS helps plan efficient routes and consolidate loads, reducing fuel consumption and improving resource utilization." 

Another reputed client mentioned: "Pando Automates Freight Procurement Smoothly." 

If you think it's time to empower procurement and freight, consider trying Pando for your business. Book a demo today!