FOR CARRIERS & LSPS · OPERATIONS, CAPACITY & 4PL
Is your TMS still the foundation for further growth?
For carriers and logistics service providers, the TMS is the heart of daily operations. Orders come in, planners steer capacity with it, and delivered services form the basis for invoicing and reporting.
Yet we often see that growth, acquisitions and customer-specific solutions have led to a fragmented application landscape, manual workarounds and planning that remains heavily dependent on individual experience. The operation keeps running, but becomes increasingly hard to scale, manage and keep profitable.
The biggest improvement opportunities often lie in three areas.
IMPROVEMENT AREAS
Where the operation loses time and margin today
We combine independent TMS expertise, a proven selection methodology and a purpose-built digital environment. This brings structure to the process, reduces manual work and helps organisations reach a transparent, widely supported decision faster.
PLANNING AND OPTIMISATION
Many planning rules still live in the planner’s head. The system supports the basics but doesn’t take over enough repetitive decisions and complex trade-offs.
Impact: a lot of manual work, dependence on key people and limited economies of scale.
FRAGMENTED APPLICATION LANDSCAPE
Multiple TMS systems and local applications support the same processes. Data, ways of working and reporting are scattered across the organisation.
Impact: high maintenance costs, little standardisation and limited central insight.
ORDER MANAGEMENT AND FOLLOW-UP
Orders arrive through a variety of channels and are still largely routed to the right workflow by hand. Deviations during execution often remain stuck in mailboxes and loose notes instead of being captured and followed up.
Impact: a lot of manual work, missed follow-up actions and services that are not always fully invoiced
More info
Multiple systems support the same process
After growth or acquisitions, one organisation often keeps running different TMS systems, planning applications, portals and tracking solutions side by side. Each business unit has its own way of working, data and reporting.
This leads to:
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high management, licensing and integration costs;
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duplicate functionality and overlapping applications;
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different ways of working across sites and divisions;
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information scattered across multiple systems;
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a lot of manual work to compile management reports;
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limited central insight into cost, capacity, service and margin.
Result: a lot of manual work, dependence on key people and limited economies of scale.
More info
From order intake to the right workflow
Orders come in in many different ways: via EDI, API, customer portals, email, Excel or manual entry. The challenge is not only to register those orders, but to route them automatically to the right division, planning, transport mode and workflow.
Deviations also arise during execution — waiting time, extra stops, changed volumes, damage, failed delivery or additional work. When that information stays only in emails, notes or with staff, actions are missed and services aren’t always fully invoiced.
This leads to:
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a lot of manual sorting and routing work;
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orders ending up in the wrong workflow or with the wrong team;
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deviations that stay stuck in mailboxes and loose notes;
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missed follow-up actions and slow handling;
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work that is not fully recorded or invoiced;
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a limited link between operational event and invoicing.
Result: a lot of manual work, dependence on key people and limited economies of scale.
More info
From planning on experience to steering on exceptions
Many TMS systems have a basic planning function but don’t support planners with the real complexity of the operation. Planners keep solving the puzzle themselves — orders, drivers, vehicles, trailers, time windows, driving and rest times, customer agreements and subcontractor capacity.
Many valuable planning rules therefore live mainly in the heads of experienced staff. That makes the operation vulnerable and limits the ability to scale.
This leads to:
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a lot of manual planning and replanning work;
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strong dependence on a few experienced key planners;
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vulnerability when staff are ill, leave or during peaks;
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difficulty scaling up and down with fluctuating volumes;
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suboptimal use of own fleet and subcontractors;
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limited insight into the impact of planning choices.
Result: a lot of manual work, dependence on key people and limited economies of scale.
THE VALUE OF A TMS
From operational complexity to scalable transport control
A TMS helps carriers and logistics service providers connect customer orders, capacity, planning, execution, subcontractors, billing and performance within one operating model. It gives operations and management a shared view of what needs to happen, what is happening and what each transport movement contributes.
Whether the challenge is growth, margin pressure, changing customer requirements or a fragmented application landscape, the right TMS supports standardisation while retaining the flexibility required for different customers, services and transport networks.
Customer order and service management
Turn customer agreements into controlled transport execution.
A TMS captures orders from portals, EDI, APIs and manual channels, and applies customer-specific services, cut-off times, rates, SLAs and operating rules. Exceptions can be routed to the right team instead of being handled through emails and spreadsheets.
Result: faster customer onboarding, fewer manual interventions and more consistent service delivery.
End-to-end visibility and exception management
Control transport operations in real time and act before service is affected.
Track planned and actual events across your own fleet, subcontractors, hubs and customer locations. Delays, missing milestones and capacity issues become visible, enabling targeted intervention and proactive customer communication.
Result: less firefighting, faster exception handling and better service reliability.
A proven route from strategy to selection
Use the right mix of own and subcontracted capacity.
Bring together vehicles, drivers, equipment, depots, linehauls and subcontractors. Match forecast and actual transport demand with available capacity, and source additional capacity when required.
Result: higher utilisation, fewer empty kilometres and better control of capacity and subcontracting costs.
Billing, settlement and revenue assurance
Turn executed transport into accurate invoices and settlements.
A TMS calculates customer charges and subcontractor costs based on contracts, rates and actual execution. It supports accessorial charges, claims, accruals and checks for missing, incorrect or unbilled activities.
Result: faster invoicing, less administration, reduced revenue leakage and stronger cash flow.
Planning, consolidation and dispatch
Convert complex order flows into feasible and cost-effective transport plans.
A TMS combines orders, routes, hubs, time windows, equipment, driver restrictions and customer commitments. Planners can optimise and replan quickly when volumes, capacity or operating conditions change.
Result: more productive planning, higher load factors and reliable execution at a lower cost per shipment.
Performance, margin and sustainability management
Understand which customers, lanes and services create value.
A TMS brings together service, cost, revenue, margin and emissions data by customer, lane, trip, site, fleet and subcontractor. These insights support customer reviews, pricing decisions, operational improvements and carbon reduction.
Result: better service, stronger cost control, lower emissions and more effective collaboration with carriers and internal teams.
THE BUSINESS IMPACT
The business impact
Lower costs
Through consolidation, higher utilisation, better carrier choice and less rush freight.
Better delivery performance
Through early planning, live ETA insight and proactive follow-up on disruptions.
Less manual work
Through automation of booking, communication, tracking, invoice control and reporting.
More grip and scalability
Through one way of working and one information base across sites, countries, carriers and business units.
INDICATIVE SAVINGS POTENTIAL
10–20% *
Planning & optimisation
INDICATIVE SAVINGS POTENTIAL
5–10 min
Order and booking automation (per booking)
INDICATIVE SAVINGS POTENTIAL
50–80%
Invoicing — shorter lead time
INDICATIVE SAVINGS POTENTIAL
1–3%
Less revenue leakage
The percentages shown are indicative and expressed as a saving relative to total transport costs*. They are drawn from publicly available market publications and practical cases. The effects of the different value domains overlap and must not be added together.
Understanding the value before making the investment
Before selecting and implementing a new TMS, it is important to understand not only what the solution can do, but what it is expected to deliver for your organisation. A fact-based business quantifies the benefits of improvement opportunities and includes TMS related implementation and running costs, resulting in the calculation of the total cost of ownership
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Depending on what is already available, we can develop the business case from the ground up or validate and strengthen an existing one. Our structured, data-driven approach identifies and prioritises opportunities across transport costs, operational efficiency, service performance and carbon reduction. By testing different assumptions and scenarios, we create a transparent investment case that supports alignment, prioritisation and a well-founded go/no-go decision.
