The transportation business is back on the roll as its spine now straightens with exponential growth in consumer demand. The United States alone spent 18% more in 2022 – most than ever. However, 2023 onwards this consumer demand may rise higher. Wondering how it may benefit your business?
Buying habits around the world have changed, and irrespective of what it means for other sectors, it has proven to be a blessing for the production and transportation industry.
Consumers ask for faster delivery of end products. Hence, these amped-up expectations require every participant in the chain to work-process-deliver at a hyper pace.
Amid the demand for becoming a transport genie from your partners and customers, the Freight Management Software is a lamp that will help you become one.
Expected to be a $17.45 million industry, Freight Management might as well be a fortune-generating stream for you, given that you choose to have one of the most prominent and ever-efficient Freight Management Systems.
What is Freight Management? Why Does Your Business Need It?
If your business deals in cargo management and transport, it is highly advisable to have a cargo management system. Upon doing so, it becomes easier for you to keep track of the cargo you possess. Evidently, the transport world now looks at the sun-rise in the digitalization of FMS. When you deal in the supply chain industry, freight management software entails the process of shipping goods to and from and collecting the payments.
With a chain of simple and complex processes, from shipment planning to audits and payment, it certainly becomes necessary to have software that will provide you with a clear view of your shipping network and management. This way, your network, and its elements are always in your sight so that you can stay updated as your shipment progresses.
Now, everyone wants a see-through for their business to stay in the loop with the business’s working. Let’s jump to what Freight Management System are and how they work.
What Is the Freight Management System?
FMS helps you glide swiftly through the management of shipment to be delivered to the respective place. While the industry asks for on-time deliveries to precise locations, you need to ensure that the cost that comes out stays ever-friendly with your purse.
An FMS is an A to Z solution to address critical freight movement tasks since it helps from deciding the best carrier for your goods to making audits and payments on the same platform. Hence, cargo management systems become a buttery smooth structure, and you get the luxury of control plus the benefit of an efficient freight management system.
This robust system compliments your brand values by helping you plan, execute and manage your freight with optimum cost and punctual delivery for the respective amounts of freight. With an account and a password, you are good to go with all of it.
These are some of the types of freight:
Types Of Freight
A freight load decides the medium through which the goods will be transported. As a transport business, there’s a necessity to understand it firsthand. Some of its types include:
- LTL – Less Than Truck Load
- FTL – Full Truck Load Freight
- Intermodal Rail Freight (various transportation modes for a single route)
- Air Freight
- Ocean Freight
- Expedited Freight (compostable items)
Elements Of Freight Management System
The freight that is supposed to be moved/shipped goes through the supply chain, which isn’t merely a destination-to-destination process. As you need to cover the aspects from warehousing to internal and external communication with clients, freight management software is at your rescue.
Here are some operations that an FMS does for Freight management logistics:
- Carrier Choice – A saved penny is also an earned penny. An optimised carrier selection for manufacturer-to-consumer transportation determines the business’s cost-effective behaviour.
- Route Selection – Plan out the best route and way of transportation. Once the transport is assigned the drivers and vehicles, you’re good to load up.
- Rate of transportation – When you have decided on a carrier and route for transportation, you can negotiate the rate with the service provider if you are a
customer or vice versa. - Claims on lost shipments – You must have experienced or heard about a lost shipment. The claim management systems help the compromised or lost goods. The
compensations are also provided to companies that lose their shipment. Best part! You can claim this digitally with the logistics tracking software to learn about lost shipments. - Stats Compilation – With many shipments boarding every day, the system compiles the data of shipped and transported goods to make cost-effective and efficient
choices for future shipping orders.
Workflow Of FMS: Keeping Aspects To Work In Operation
Deciding on Managing Vendors and Carriers
There are two particular ways to manage freight and logistics. You can use a private or a third-party carrier. If you use a private carrier, you will transport the goods at a cheaper rate. But the companies that use third-party carriers also have a wide range of options.
Some large businesses have private air-water freight systems but mostly, it is seen in the land or road freight movers.
Third-Party carrier users mostly go with FedEx, Dalsey, Hillblom, and Lynn (DHL), and United Parcel Service (UPS). These are the common carriers that the businesses that use third-party carriers go with.
In this process segment, you meet the freight brokers and freight forwarders.
The freight brokers don’t actually ship the consignment. Their mere role is to connect you to a carrier by providing the cost-effective and best deal. Freight forwarders, on the other hand, can pack, store in the warehouse and also do the paperwork for you.
Here’s what happens when you make a shipment request:
a freight broker will do the same process with a freight forwarder software using an app that is like an uber for trucks app bill of loading in minutes from the transportation dispatch software or transportation management system. You can now track or trace your consignment using the details provided to you by the shipper on your shipment management software.
Efficient Bulk Transport With FMS
While shipping a larger consignment, you don’t just have to look at the cost-effectiveness of the route but also the time it will take to reach the destination and the carrier that will suit best for the job. Cargo management software helps in laying a smooth path for your freight.
With larger shipments, the shipper’s responsibility increases, and so do your worries about the punctuality and safety of the goods being put in third-party hands. The claim management and the regulatory bills that are digitally available make it easy for both you and the shipper to take a breath of relief.
Let’s see how FMS makes your work easier using freight software by providing you with the functions that help you decide on the optimum transport channel and mechanism.
- Load and Route Optimization
When deciding the optimum route your shipment should follow, you need to consider the distance, vehicle limitations and traffic stats. This will help you decide a route for faster and more cost-friendly delivery.
Whichever shipping carrier you use, private or third-party, there’s always an ask for transporting more in less time and lower quantity of vehicles or containers. It’s more the case with third-party carriers since it is their bread and butter. The truckers also use trucking apps that let them legally go through the weighing stations, which saves them time, and you get your delivery as estimated. Load planning works parallelly with route optimization since the shipper also wants to unload quickly.
The freight costs and truckload information is already put in the built-in load planner tool in Freight Management Software. This applies to all shippers. Although, the major concerned parties are the LTL movers or shippers who ship goods for more than one customer in a single trailer.
You May Also Like: The Ultimate Guide to Route Optimization Software for Successful Logistics Business
- Paperwork and Regulations
The shippers need to worry more about having the paperwork under regulations than keeping the goods safe and intact. The hefty regulations in the transport industry are a major work in the overall freight logistics management. One thing you don’t want to happen is delayed or seized delivery due to a lack of paperwork. Freight and logistics software provides the digital signing of invoices, waybills, bills of lading, custom invoices, certificates of origin, and other important documents.
FMSs also help you claim your reimbursement quickly and digitally so that you don’t incur losses upon mishaps created by a third party. This on-hand availability and functionality of the digital world don’t just save your time but also the labour that would have been invested in it if you had to do roundtrips to the shipping company to claim your reimbursement.
- Accounting – Freight accounting is a regular and 24/7 process in a shipping and transport business. The freight invoices generated for the service provided to you get sent to your accounts and are stored there. There are various costs associated with the transport system. Listing them below for your convenience.
- Getting the Freight Invoice. This bill contains all the information that should match the bill of lading. The information is the basic shipment information. You can generate the freight invoice on the freight logistics software itself.
- Getting freight costs and quotes. The carrier-provided shipping rate via transportation dispatch software.
- Freight and shipping invoices. Once audited, the bills get paid after they are inserted into the accounting system.
- Freight payment. Payable service for the transportation invoices
- Freight in/out. Transportation expense of receiving goods in the warehouse and delivering it to the consumer/customer.
- Tracking Or Tracing Your Shipments
You can track and trace your consignment, i.e. the truck or the carrier carrying it on the FMS. What’s better than knowing where your consignment is? You can see the physical location of your goods with a single tap on the app.
You can track with GPS or Barcodes and RFID depending on the level of detail you need to extract about your shipment. If you are transporting crucial items, you can also check the temperature inside the trailer and the status of the door sensors.
Presently, it is not possible to trace a single package within the trailer but the visibility sure gives a sense of reliability and relief. This can help you schedule your shipment and rule out the chances of delayed delivery under your word of trust using cargo software without having to contact the drivers.
How Do You Select a Freight Software? – Key Features And Functionalities:
Several freight management solution companies are working to make the transport business efficient and better. The service gives satisfaction, but the features provide luxury and reliability. Hence, an FMS must-have features that exclusively work to deliver comfort with quality of service. Below listed are the must-have app features. You can also add the ones you may need to improve your customised app.
- Push Notifications
- Fare Estimation
- SOS | Emergency Contact
- In-App Payment Gateway
- Integrated Live Freight Tracking inside the app
- Instant Alerts
- Social Login
- Delivery Estimation
- Review and Rating
- In-App Invoice Generation
- Promotions and referrals
So? Feel Like Having a Custom App for Your Transport Business? – Let us Be Your Santa.
We hope this blog has helped you understand the wonders a Freight Management System can do for your transport business. We are leading freight solution providers, and going digital in this world is no more an option for you as a transport business. Moreover, it only decreases the stress and labour that goes into the working flow of a logistics management system.
Now you’re just one step away from making things easier for your already existing business or if you are thinking about starting a freight business. The obvious intelligible choice would be hiring a company with experience in delivering what the need of the hour is and developing an app that fills the gaps for you.
