Preparing for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas is an extreme challenge for shippers. This is compounded for those relying on freight from China due to the Chinese holidays.
You need efficiency, and you need tools to save money at a time of year when carrier rates spike. Efficiency and saving money are the primary objectives of a robust shipping software system - or what some of you may better know as a Transportation Management System (TMS).
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Connections. A great TMS will connect all of your internal programs (warehouse/inventory/CRM) with the external websites and portals you require to obtain quotes, arrange shipments, and send out packages.
We have seen shippers go from a half-hour being the typical time required to organize an order, down to five minutes per order with our TMS. During the holidays especially, this means you can cut down on how much overtime you pay and reduce the temporary help required to keep up with holiday volumes.
Communication is greatly enhanced through a solid TMS, meaning things like spot quoting becomes a much quicker process and helps ensure users secure a spot on a truck at the absolute best rate. No more missing out on a carrier’s quote due to the back and forth of email.
Efficiency is improved on inbound shipments as well when you are using our TMS. You have greater visibility in your entire supply chain when you digitize the processes through TMS tools. The right technology ensures you stay on top of your inventory, which will help you get your Thanksgiving inventory in before the Chinese holiday. (Please see our post The First Shipping Mile - How to Optimize Inbound Shipping for more information.)
FreightPOP’s Software Gives You:
For a demo on our TMS’ capabilities, please click below.