Key TMS Modules: A Comprehensive Guide

Staying ahead in the transportation management game means beating fuel prices and rising demand. Maintaining a competitive edge requires TMS modules to handle your multimodal shipment needs, address bottlenecks in yard management and resolve damage claims.

This article gives you a well-rounded checklist of core modules to consider in your TMS solution.

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Article Roadmap

• Essential Modules
  • Claims Management
  • Compliance and Governance
  • Dock Scheduling and Yard Management
  • Freight Rating and Multimodal Transport
  • Mobile Capabilities
  • Reporting and Dashboards
  • Transportation Order Management
  • Transportation Sourcing and Procurement
• Technical Requirements
• Next Steps

Essential Modules

Deloitte’s TMS Business Architecture Framework classifies the top TMS modules into the following:

Preparatory

• Sales and Marketing
• Rate Management and Tariffs
• Procurement and Sourcing
• Order Management

Operative

• Pick-Up
• Transshipment
• Delivery

Final

• Billing
• Internal Activity Allocation
• After-Sales, Monthly/Year-End Statements
• Claim Management
• Management Activities

Cross-Cutting

• Cash-Flow Management
• Account Management
• Reporting and Monitoring
• Administration (Personal and Fleet)
• Master Data Management

Among the modules on offer, the same study found that almost all vendors have comprehensive offerings for planning (order management and visibility), while 50% provide operative modules like warehousing and load planning.

When you’re in the market, the aim is to choose modules relevant to your needs. We’ve hand-picked the functionalities that address the planning, operation and delivery phases.

1. Claims Management

A claims management TMS module enables transportation and logistics companies to manage claims for lost or damaged items during transit. Let’s see how the module handles the claims lifecycle from creation to settlement.

Shippers can use this feature to keep track of every carrier claim. Claims tracking allows for reporting on all information and identifying specifics about carriers and current shipment processes. It contains information such as claim status, type, filed date, quantity, weight and more.

Shippers submit the information, and the system generates a claim form for all carriers. It also calculates payment due after deducting freight charges, salvage expenses and carrier fees.

A shipment and invoice only match if the Progressive Rating Order (PRO) and Bill of Lading (BOL) numbers are identical. All invoices the tool cannot match to a shipment display on the Manage Bill-To Discrepancies page.

Are you considering not prioritizing this TMS module for fear of time and resource waste? That misconception can drive up costs in the long run because you’ll miss out on full visibility into potential income losses if you’re liable for damages.

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The claims management module has the following handy functions:

• AI-Based Vehicle Allotment
• Carrier Portal
• Loss and Damage Claims
• Overcharge Claims
• Return Authorization Claims
• Tracking and Tracing Consignments and Packagin
• Tracking and Tracing Trucks

2. Compliance and Governance

The geographical spread of carriers, suppliers, teams and partners is complex and diverse, posing compliance and governance implementation issues.

Your TMS compliance module needs a fully functional software solution that automates and enforces your business processes while supporting regulatory compliance.

The compliance module tackles the following:

• Monitoring carrier data on insurance, safety rankings, equipment and more.
• Storing information such as the driver’s commercial license, proof of a medical exam, motor vehicle records (MVR) and certificate of violations.
• Allowing customers to monitor and review each driver’s logs in real time. Users also receive HOS and duty status records, GPS tracking, WiFi hotspots, sensor data, DVIRs, document capture and more.
• Establishing trade compliance, including export restrictions, customs administration, license management and tariff classification.

• Carrier Compliance
• Driver Compliance
• Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) or Hours of Service (HOS) Compliance
• National Motor Freight Classification Compliance

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3. Dock Scheduling and Yard Management

These TMS modules enhance the use of ports and yards in transportation facilities like distribution centers, warehouses or manufacturing plants. They’re responsible for improving the efficiency of loading and unloading processes, reducing congestion and boosting overall supply chain operations.

Using this module, you can:

• Keep a reliable audit trail and automatically record all trailer movements.
• Identify and validate cargo coming into and leaving the yard using yard maps or tablets while in the cab, on the property or in the guard station.
• Notify carriers, suppliers and warehouse workers via email at various points during the appointment booking process.

Say goodbye to a host of challenges when you use intelligent YMS solutions.

Complex Gate Operations: A busy yard regularly has a significant bottleneck caused by manual check-in and check-out procedures. Drivers may face fines and waste time and fuel as they sit idly in queues.

Detentions that pile up, shipment delays and dissatisfied carriers are anticipated outcomes.

Manual Dock Scheduling: Loading dock operations are the most critical processes in your yard activities and require the best performance and efficiency possible. But because interruptions tend to occur there most frequently, it’s also the weakest link. Therefore, it’s necessary to make an effort to establish and adhere to the ideal timetable.

Manual scheduling is never ideal because so many variables exist.

Overcome these woes and more with the following functionalities:

• Audit Trail to Record Trailer Movements
• Identify Dock Check-In and Check-Out
• Milestone Notifications
• Online Appointment Scheduling
• Recurring Appointments

4. Freight Rating and Multimodal Transport

This TMS module has a two-pronged approach:

1. Helping companies compare freight rates, shipping options and budget needs with carrier pricing and offerings
2. Managing shipments involving several modes of transportation

Using the module, you stand to unlock benefits like:

Realistic Rate Comparisons

Users can get carrier rates and compare based on freight prices, delivery wait times, service packages and more.

Linking Investment Value to Service Costs

Any combination of destination, product, price, quantity, weight and customer group rules can go into creating rates. Details like zones, exclude zones, shipping group, weight, price and quantity are displayed.

Predictive budgeting is made simpler for transportation and freight management teams by accurately and reliably comparing investment costs and returns.

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Increased Focus On Shipping Needs Related to Drayage and the Final Mile

Better logistics alternatives, including a variety of multimodal transport services, can enhance final-mile delivery and guarantee clients access to the finest shipping options.

Take advantage of the following tools with this module:

5. Mobile Capabilities

Mobile Capabilities in TMS software allow transportation administrators and drivers to access information and communicate in real time via mobile devices. Mobile support accomplishes many functionalities:

• Supports electronic signature capturing
• Enables electronic document capture from printed sources
• Facilitates peer communication through the application’s messaging feature
• Native mobile apps for Android and iOS devices

The mobile TMS module includes the following functions:

• Capture E-Signature
• Document Management
• In-App Messaging for Peer Communication
• Native Android App
• Native iOS App
• Offline Access

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6. Reporting and Dashboards

This module helps companies efficiently manage and optimize their transportation operations by offering insightful information, ongoing visibility and thorough data analysis. Integrating the module can result in greater operational efficiency and better decision-making.

Let’s unpack the module and look at its components:

• A variety of fully configurable dashboards
• Custom reports to suit all requirements
• The option to export reports in a variety of file types, including PDF and CSV
• A financial analysis report that breaks down freight expenses by customer, lane, mode, carrier, operational costs and savings
• Reports on performance and volume analysis, filtered based on matrices like supplier, lane, product and customer

• Customizable Dashboards
• Customizable Reports
• Export Reports
• Financial Analysis Report
• Performance Analysis Report
• Predefined Dashboards
• Volume Analysis Report

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7. Transportation Order Management

The order management TMS module offers effective order management, real-time visibility and useful insights, letting you manage and optimize your transportation operations.

The solution lets you view transport requests and their routes on the planning board. Furthermore, it offers information such as vehicle location, which vehicle is delayed, the input/output ratio of a scheduled and planned shipment, pre-calculated margin and more.

Users can select customer carrier, LTL, TL, parcel and spot agreement.

Shippers can enter agreement details such as client name, carrier name, prepay and add, and location identification.

The organization functionality allows users to construct processes and tasks for various operations, easing transportation planning requirements. Live data-sharing technology informs all parties about order details, improving communication and collaboration.

While you may get by with a basic OMS, a distributed order management system can help eliminate delays and fleet mismatches.

8. Transportation Sourcing and Procurement

Procurement modules automate the sourcing of carrier contracts, allowing for the receiving and evaluating of bids from diverse providers using benchmark criteria and data.

The module automates numerous parts of sourcing and procurement, such as carrier selection, rate negotiation, and contract management, improving efficiency and lowering the risk of errors.

Support for good scenario management leads to higher-quality contract award combinations.

Strategic freight sourcing needs managers to do an in-depth study of current data and previous procurement actions within the organization to find the best carriers for each lane. Numerous factors figure here, like:

• The lifecycle of the goods
• Company strategy or business objectives
• Customer needs
• Partnerships with suppliers and carriers

The solution allows gathering bids, capacity and other information for bid execution from service providers. You can monitor the projects too. System users can set up requirements and business rules for granting the bid.

• Automated Bid Creation
• Collect Data From Service Providers for Bid Execution
• Configure Business Rules and Constraints for Awarding
• Contract Creation
• Create Carrier Response Template
• Manual Bid Creation
• Notify Service Providers of Award
• “What If” Scenario for Bid Analysis

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Technical Requirements

Once you’ve picked out the functional TMS modules for your business, it’s time to give them structure. Seamless integration with auxiliary solutions makes purchasing, storing and customer-centric processes smoother.

Let’s see how you can control multiple arms of your operation, invoicing or freight rating, from one central position.

Integration and Extensibility

Your chosen TMS solution should integrate with the most widely used order management, warehouse management and enterprise resource planning systems.

It gives customers a thorough view of their supply chain activities and facilitates effective departmental collaboration. Data transmission between systems ensures a smooth flow of information and removes the need for manual data entry.

Here are the technical modules to look for:

• Accounting Integration
• API Access
• CRM Integration
• E-Commerce Integration
• ERP Solutions Integration
• Freight Broker Integration
• iPaaS And Middleware Integration
• Logistics Integration
• Supply Chain Integration
• WMS Integration

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Next Steps

Running a TMS operation isn’t simply about getting cargo from point A to B; it’s a multi-pronged approach to compliant deliveries and intelligent warehousing. The right TMS modules can help you extract investment returns and gain a loyal client base.

Browse our free TMS requirements template to quickly determine which modules you need and prioritize them so you can find products that are the best match.

Which TMS modules are indispensable for your operations? Comment below!