Transport Management Systems

This book is about applying robust Transportation Management System (TMS) solutions to the modern challenges of the supply chain and logistics services provider industries. The chapters address, among other topics: obtaining market rates, finding carrier capacity, managing complex movements, handling workflows and exceptions, optimizing loads, directing inbound freight and actively managing carrier records and invoicing. TMS systems have evolved into powerful tools for designing and directing workflows. They give today's users total and instantaneous visibility across networks and systems, while responding nimbly to real-time conditions. Yet a TMS also should give us control-tower visibility of overall system performance. This book uses as its model the TMS and related software tools of MercuryGate International Inc., a transportation management software company headquartered in North Carolina.