The Best TMS for Freight Brokers
Freight Brokerage represents a part of the logistics and supply chain world that is fast paced, complex, competitive and somewhat inefficient. Simply, there are too many menial tasks that occupy too much time and too many resources, draining brokers from what they do best.
In fact, any broker will admit that what keeps them up at night is the inefficient bureaucracy around tedious information gathering – too many screens, too many clicks, too many phone calls, too many emails – resulting in massive communication challenges. When one does a root cause analysis on this pain point – the insights are astounding – majority of the loads require answering the same questions:
- Which trucks are available?
- Can the trucks meet the delivery deadline?
- What’s a competitive but profitable quote?
A robust Transportation Management System (TMS) addresses these challenges to help brokers make faster decisions through increased automation and a centralized platform. More on that in a bit.
What’s more timely is that broker’s needs are now evolving to match those of a 3PL. In fact, lines between top 3PLs and top brokers are blurring, making the TMS even more of a central figure in the capabilities required to manage the entire, end-to-end, order-to-cash process in real-time and inside a single system.
A true SaaS-based TMS offers brokerage or managed services companies the ability to work smarter, faster, and better because the following functionality was purposely developed with these companies in mind.
Fewer screens and clicks – use one screen to compile all required critical information. For example, the ability to have load cost history and available carrier capacity in one place yields tremendous efficiencies for the operator
Automatic price feeds – ability to automatically feed a consortium of price indices, including DAT, eliminates the need to research countless websites and data sources for price information. With all price data available in one feed, it’s infinitely quicker and easier to determine the best price.
Configurable workflows – speed and automation are not sufficient if the correct workflow doesn’t reflect in the software. TMS configurability enables the broker to transform the day to day time consuming and error prone activities into accurate workflows, allowing more time and resources to focus on the growth of the business
Better data sharing – modern, cloud-based TMS eliminates unnecessary calls, emails, faxes and spreadsheets by establishing the correct communication protocol and visibility with all stakeholders – carrier and shipper. For example, it’s easy to promptly maximize capacity when the visibility into the carrier’s available load capacity is automatically loaded in the TMS and propagated across multiple locations.
Better integration – through fast and seamless integrations with customers, data partners, and ERP systems, TMS offers unmatched control and visibility into the flow of data across your entire operations. More automation, better decisions, greater growth!
Brokerage operations don’t have to be complicated, redundant and antiquated. Consider a modern, cloud-based TMS to help answer your questions faster. What if you can grow faster and more profitably?