TMS Improving Cash Flow

Managing your business’ logistics and transportation entails different processes that require attention and careful planning. You have to make orders, estimations, and shipments, receive documents, and maintain organised paperwork.

But can a transportation management system help boost your cash flow?

While an average transportation management system can assist you with all of these demanding, time-consuming tasks, a superior TMS should also improve the cash flow of the business.

An ideal TMS should help you accelerate the way to your logistics goals.

Nowadays, companies are struggling to find the balance between efficiency of operations, customer satisfaction, and profitability of the business. This may be due to the changing demands of consumers and the ever-developing complexity of the modern global supply chain.

Well, with a transportation management system, you can achieve both!

If you are a business that wants to level up its logistics processes and improve cash flow, investing in a transportation management system can be a great move.

The main purposes of a TMS are to:

• streamline the process of managing inventory, orders, and deliveries
• improve cash flow by optimising processes, saving transportation costs, and minimising manual operation by staff

How can a TMS improve the cash flow of your business? Read on to find out more about transportation management system benefits.

What is a transportation management system (TMS)?

A transportation management system (TMS) is a cloud-based application that helps businesses manage their shipping and transportation needs. It is a powerful tool to make your processes more efficient and streamlined.

How does a TMS do this?

Being a smart software, a TMS automates your distribution by allowing you to take full control of your incoming and outgoing shipments, optimising transport operations, and providing transparency on freight insights and cost. And so much more!

Ultimately, a reliable TMS can help you improve customer service and boost customer satisfaction.

When You Should use a Transportation Management System

The day-to-day supply chain operations, including making multiple freight decisions, are complex and can be overwhelming.

Here are some reasons why you should use a freight management system:

• Your business regularly needs to ship, transport, or receive goods, or you deal with a large number of shipments. For example, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, e-commerce businesses, freight forwarders, and courier service providers.
• Your shipping processes are costly, inefficient, and time-consuming.
• You want to ensure effective collaboration with carriers and end consumers.
• You want to manage your freight and logistics operation through automation. A modern TMS can be easily integrated into your system, giving full transparency and freight control back to you.
  
  

Transportation Management System Benefits

Below are the major transportation management system benefits.

Saves Time

‘Time is gold’—this proves true, especially for businesses. Manual supply chain operations take time and are extremely prone to human error.

A TMS is a useful tool that helps you manage your logistics and transportation processes through automation. Automating your distribution with a TMS can save you time. Less paperwork, and more time for other business issues that need immediate attention.

By optimising routes, a TMS can also reduce the number of trucks needed for deliveries or pickups and minimise the wait times at pickup points. This saves time and leads to fewer delays.

Saves Money

When shipments require more than one carrier, multiple deliveries and destinations will be involved in each trip. This does not only increase the risk for errors but also costs more money than if only one delivery is needed.

With a TMS, you can reduce your logistics costs by optimising routes and carrier selection.

Organise Shipment Data

A good TMS provides users with transparent real-time freight data and analytics. Ideally, your TMS is a cloud-based platform, which means everything is handled electronically and you do not have to manually document records on paper.

The system automatically organises shipment data and insights and optimises based on important criteria, such as price or service. This allows you to make data-driven decisions that can benefit the business.

How TMS can Improve Cash Flow

Transportation management systems and cash flow go hand in hand. But how?

Optimise Business Process

A TMS allows you to manage all aspects of your logistics—from picking up orders from warehouses to delivering them on time at their destination—in one platform.

There’s a variety of tasks you can do in a TMS:

• track each order as it moves through the supply chain
• manage freight accounts across multiple carriers
• automate billing processes

When business processes are optimised, you become more efficient and effective as a team. Efficiency always leads to better performance, cost reduction, and a boost in ROI.

Decrease Direct Variable Costs

Optimising your operation with the help of a TMS directly impacts your cash flow. With a reliable TMS, you can optimise shipment lot sizes, consolidate shipments, improve freight terms, and reduce the number of carriers or trucks needed for consignments. It also minimises wait times at pickup points and decreases delays.

Staff/Inventory Management

There is less manual operation required when a company utilises a TMS. What it took a whole team of professionals before, you can perform in a single system now.

A TMS also allows you to track warehouse inventory levels. So, managing inventory has become simpler and more cost-effective.

With a TMS like Cario, you can run with less and still do more.

How to Choose A TMS Provider

Among the many TMS providers out in the market, it can be difficult to choose the right one for your business. Every provider has its own set of advantages and disadvantages of transportation management system.

So, how to choose a TMS provider?

Here are what you need to consider when selecting a TMS provider.

• User Interface – A good user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate for quick access to information.
• Available Integrations – Does the TMS offer integration with existing systems? If not, you might want to check another provider. Seamless integration between the TMS and other business applications can help save money and time.
• Multi-carrier Support – An ideal TMS offers multi-carrier support, allowing you to add more carriers as needed without having any delays or issues. Integration of multiple carriers into a single platform streamlines your system and makes things less complicated for you.
• Customer and Technical Support – A TMS provider should be highly responsive and offer prompt support to their clients.
• Reputation – Check the provider’s credibility and proven record. Do they have a proven record of helping companies achieve their needs?

Lastly, consider your goals as a business. A TMS is a long-term investment. The right TMS provider for your business can help meet the needs of your business and enable you to scale at the same time.

Why Choose Cario’s Transportation Management Software

Doing manual operations or hiring a freight management team to handle your shipments can be expensive. Freight management doesn’t have to be a cost centre anymore, as Cario is easy to integrate into your own system.

Cario is a next-generation TMS provider that helps businesses automate their freight decisions. You and your team can now manage all of your freight in just one place—from point of origin to delivery, online.

In one single system, you can perform a variety of freight processes, including simplified quoting, booking, and tracking of shipments through multiple providers. Cario also supports your multiple-carrier needs and provides real-time visibility of all your consignments and freight cost and insights.

Contact Cario now to discover how you can accelerate the path to your shipping goals!