New carrier sourcing for brokerage, access to 17 new parcel integrations, a new dock door scheduler module, and much more!
The team at 3G is excited to announce the availability of our 20.3 release of 3Gtms, our Transportation Management System (TMS) with significant new features, new modules, access to expanded parcel carrier integrations, and availability of popular customer-requested enhancements. Read on to learn more about innovations to help your business deliver exceptional service, unlock new efficiencies, and reduce shipping costs. To learn more about any of the new capabilities outlined here, please reach out to our support team for access to product release notes (also published in our online Help).
Carrier Assignment Evolves to Carrier Sourcing for a Better Brokerage Experience
The 3G Transportation Management 20.3 release builds upon improvements to brokerage workflows in the 20.1 and 20.2 releases by evolving the carrier assignment process to a more robust form of carrier sourcing. The new 20.3 features start a transition from menu-based manual actions to a “control-center” user experience, where having the right tools to find a carrier to cover a load are at your fingertips. Initial features include:
- Carrier Call Log: Gives Brokers the ability to capture and have visibility to carrier conversations that have occurred on a load, eliminating unnecessary calls to carriers who have already declined the load. Additionally, this provides the data that gives managers insight into the number of calls it takes to cover a load. This feature also introduces click-to-call functionality, which will be rolled out to other 3Gtms functions in the future.
- Backhaul & Fronthaul Discovery: New customizable search links allow Brokers and Transportation Planners to search for unassigned loads within a radius around a load’s origin and/or destination. Offering carriers additional loads in a nearby area unlocks available carrier capacity, generates cost savings, and strengthens carrier relationships.
New Parcel Rating Support Leverages the 3G Pacejet API-Based Carrier Network
We are excited to announce that Transportation Management 20.3 introduces access to 17 new parcel integrations in the U.S. and Canada via connectivity with the 3G Pacejet API-based carrier network. Major carriers like UPS, FedEx, USPS can be activated for access to rating as part of standard planning processes in TMS. Carrier options like Canada Post, Purolator, and others are available for Canadian users. Special regional and other carriers such as OnTrac, DHL, and DHL eCommerce are also available to help offer even more service choices.
New Dock Door Scheduler Module to Streamline Carrier Appointments
As part of expanding support into a new core area of functionality, the Transportation Management 20.3 release introduces a new module called “Dock Door Scheduler.” Created in collaboration with 3Gtms users, the new licensable Dock Door Scheduler module enables shippers to create and manage dock door appointments as part of shipment planning and execution. Users can save time, reduce manual steps, eliminate external notes and manual systems, and streamline the entire carrier appointment process right within their complete TMS system.
New Transportation Planning for Shippers Who Run the Oracle NetSuite ERP
In concert with the 3G Transportation Management 20.3 release, a new standard integration for the Oracle NetSuite ERP called “Transportation Planning for NetSuite” will be published in the NetSuite Suiteapp.com app store. Existing and new NetSuite ERP users will be able to leverage TMS consolidation, rate shopping, and other planning features as part of their order management workflow. By using 3Gtms planning in concert with Pacejet’s shipping execution, users can reduce their overall shipping costs by 20% or more.
New Features and Improved Usability from Customer Enhancement Requests
3G users spoke, and we listened with new Transportation Management 20.3 features and improved usability taken directly from popular customer enhancement requests. New computation of order measures, stackability in load planning, order item per unit charges, conditional document rules, and other enhancements improve user experiences and expand automation in core TMS workflows. Key features in this area of upgrades include:
Computation of Order Measures: The Item Master feature now supports the ability to automatically calculate an order’s total net/gross weight, net/gross volume, total pieces, and total handling units using SKU-level information. This includes support for calculating handling unit tare weight.
Product Stackability: Planning now considers how products and handling units (e.g., pallets) associated with an order can be stacked, or not, within a Truckload trailer during load building.
Order Item Per Unit Charges: Added new support for rating logic that calculates customer billing charges based upon SKU-level information.
Conditional Document Rules: Ensures that documentation is requested and provided by the carrier on a load, based upon client and/or charge type rules. The ability to generate and approve customer invoices and freight bills will be contingent on these new rules.
Carrier Safety & Carrier Insurance Improvements: The system supports setting safety thresholds that prevent the assignment of loads to unsafe and/or underinsured carriers. This enhancement allows 3Gtms to include the FMCSA Operating Status as a factor in determining the carrier’s overall safety status. New configuration settings can require that carriers have at least one insurance record and control the computation of insurance summary information from individual insurance records.
Load Advances: The Load Advances feature handles an advance payment made to a carrier to cover out-of-pocket expenses that may incur while moving freight, such as fuel, tolls, and lumper fees paid to a third-party. Two new configuration settings will augment this existing feature:
- Mode & Carrier Configuration: Seeks to limit the loads that are eligible for advances based upon mode and/or carrier considerations.
- Daily User Limit: Seeks to prevent a user from issuing a load advance or COMCHEK once the user has reached the maximum amount of their daily load advance limit.
Credit Checking: Users now have the ability to manually trigger a refresh of Total Credit Used for a Client Trading Partner and related Bill-To Locations at any point. Additionally, a new Scheduled Job type will allow for Total Credit Used to be recomputed at regular intervals.
New Plan iAction: Batch Planning can now be initiated via the integration API iAction Plan.
Technology Upgrades for a Better User Experience with the HTML Viewer and Improved Security via Single Sign-On
In addition to functionality improvements, the 3G Transportation Management 20.3 release introduces new technology for the HTML PDF viewer and new support for user authentication via single sign-on.
HTML to PDF Render and Pre-View: Upgrade to the third-party conversion tool will make the generation of dynamic data-driven documents easier and quicker to set up and maintain. Provides a preview function to allow users to review their templates without having to set up transactional data.
Single Sign-On: New single sign-on support allows administrators to use popular user account management tools (aka “Federated Authentication”) to centrally manage user access, enabling your 3G system to access central records to authentic and authorize users.
Interested in These Solutions?
Contact us to learn how you can increase savings and improve your processes. We’re here to help if you’re interested in learning more about any of the new features mentioned here.
For more information on 3G, visit www.3gtms.com, call 203-567-4610, or email sales@3gtms.com.
About 3G
3G is a cloud-based end-to-end transportation management software (TMS) provider for omnichannel shippers, e-commerce companies, 3PLs, and freight brokers. Our solutions include 3Gtms, our multi-modal transportation planning, optimization, execution, and settlement system; and Pacejet, our advanced multi-carrier shipping software.
