Ensuring carriers comply with a practical TMS routing guide is mission-critical and majorly contributes to a logistics company’s success.
As Redwood Logistics explains, it has proven its usefulness throughout many different industries. Along with a well-established routing guide, leveraging digital rulesets and directions, using a transportation management system (TMS) can significantly optimize the process of managing carriers and combating volatility in the market.
By integrating these systems, companies reap the rewards of finding the best possible service levels and capacity with reduced effort while reducing the risk of tender rejections.
Using a TMS Empowers the Network With Pre-Onboarded Carriers
As companies use a routing guide to provide instruction and keep carriers accountable, integrating transportation management technology enhances the connectivity to the entire network. Instead of continuously reviewing each carrier manually (crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s), a modern TMS simplifies the entire process.
Assessing a new driver requires an abundant amount of information, such as a reliable track record, reasonable rates, and flexible transit times. Instead of trying to forgo the system and find a new carrier, which is really the worst-case scenario during a capacity crunch, it helps to simply have a network of carriers already able to roll.
Regardless, trying to onboard a carrier manually and using valuable time and resources to do so is even more costly. So companies can pre-onboard this eligibility process. This gives companies the best options to choose from swiftly.
More Carriers Amount to Better Stability in Volatile Markets
Powerful technology like a TMS aggregates all prospective carriers, providing real-time freight rates and premium options. While that might not seem related to that fit a company’s routing guide requirements, more options means that shippers are more likely to avoid failures by tapping a wider pool of carriers.
No market is perfect, and when it does experience volatility, having a list of quality carriers helps to better address that unpredictability. When companies have instant access to viable solutions for sourcing transportation through disruption and volatility, stability is a great possibility.
An Advanced TMS Further Enables Waterfall Tendering, Find Coverage Based on Rates, Service Levels and Available Capacity
Once a transportation company has a solid routing guide set and established, the next step is tendering to potential carriers. In the old days, team members in charge of this procedure would have to contact the carrier manually. This requires exchanging critical information over lagged response-time communication mediums like phone calls, fax, and email.
Flash forward to today, and this process is now streamlined. TMS platforms provide every potential carrier with necessary information and delivery expectations.
Sharing the data in real time and with the most cohesive view further streamlines the process and allows for a waterfall effect to pour over multiple carriers until one accepts the load. While an ideal setup would derive the best rate, chances are good that the rate is not necessarily the driving force.
Remember that during a capacity crunch, rates will be high. There is no way around it. The best strategy is to tender loads and use the data to find the right carrier for each shipment that can meet expectations and is willing to accept your tendered rate.
This no longer bottlenecks this particular process in the supply chain, and finding the most competent carrier becomes a feasible, automated solution.
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Integrated Systems Turn Tendering Processes Into Turnkey Executable Steps
TMS providers offer options that drastically enhance tendering processes into automatic execution solutions, bringing businesses closer to the goal of complete transportation optimization.
With the right system, companies build an undeviating link to carrier selection. Through this robust technology, transactions and rates are directly received, eliminating risks along the way. In return, the carrier obtains a company’s offered rates, routing guide, and transit times. Using tools such as these increases performance on both ends and turns the process of tendering into executable steps that can be measured and checked as time progresses.
Safeguard Against Market Volatility With the Right TMS Routing Guide
To provide solutions that can help address volatility in the market, most logistic companies have integrated these effective tools. A digital routing guide can reside within the rulesets of your TMS.
And with a world-class TMS, shippers can access more carriers without the hassle of new onboarding processes. Simplifying the onboarding process is incredibly enhanced, granting shippers the option of stability. With the benefits of automation and pre-onboarded carriers, organizations can thrive in today’s transportation world and survive disruption.
Learn how your team can tap that potential by choosing the MercuryGate TMS.
