Freight Management for Businesses: A Comprehensive Guide

Transportation is one of the most vital cogs of human existence. Whether reaching from one point to another or getting something delivered to your doorstep with a few taps on your go-to app – our momentum relies on how quickly we get the transit done. But multiply it times infinity, and you’ll have the transportation of large-scale industries to manage.

This elaborate mechanism of efficiently overseeing and managing the delivery of goods within the decided time frame & costs is called the Freight management system (FMS). Here, we will shed some light on what it takes to effectively organize inbound & outbound transportation from a business point of view and corrective measures one might take to make it fallacy-proof.

What is Freight Management?

Freight Management is one of the critical pillars of a Supply Chain process. While ensuring that the right product reaches the right destination at the right time under the allotted financial budgets – it manages & coordinates various partners involved in the preparation, shipment, storage, & delivery. Nowadays, large-scale companies employ Freight Management software to effectively manage their wide-reaching network of delivery across diverse landscapes & numerous routes.

What’s the framework of Freight management services?

A robust freight management system can provide you utmost ease of handling & transparency on your transportation and aids in scaling your operations based on the demand & supply needs.

Here, we list the key factors which form a freight management solution.

• Route Optimization: A route optimization service can help you gauge the shortest distance between the source and destination based on the mode of transportation chosen. The route suggested is the most cost-effective & time-saving option, which in turn reduces human dependency and improves productivity.
• Shipment Tracking: Shipment tracking provides complete transparency by giving you the real-time location of your transit. Not only do you have live access to the route taken by the shipment, but you get real statistical insights on potential delays and reroutes, leading to improved on-time delivery performance and an orderly operation.
• Data Collection & Analytics: Data is perhaps the ‘asset’ in today’s technological world. A freight management software collects all the actionable data & sets necessary metrics to gauge the performance of the transportation network employed. The data collected subsequently works its way into freight analytics that enables logistics to understand spending of capital better, plugging shortcomings with tech-based updates while making it as disruption-proof as possible.
• Tariffs and regulation management: While practising logistic freight management, improper compliance with regulations & codes may result in defaulting the guidelines. This may lead to fines imposed by the regulatory authorities & may hinder the company’s brand image. With a quick freight management process in place, you can manage all the required documentation, such as goods information, waybills & other necessary paperwork, in one database and adhere to all the governing authority rules.
• Carrier & vendor management: Freight management for a large-scale business generally translates into handling multiple carriers, vendors, and suppliers. A freight management system makes sure that you have amiable logistical network players based on your business requirements. This results in non-fallible coordination between shippers & carriers while making sure that the goods get delivered on agreed budget and service agreements.
• Claim Management: A freight management system prepares you for all possible scenarios. Transportation is a high-value task and requires a contingency plan if & when needed. Claim Management services ensure that if a cargo gets damaged during a shipment, you have all the required insurance paperwork to handle claims amongst the involved carriers, shippers & customers.

How does Freight Management Work?

A productive freight management system (FMS) ensures the delivery of goods (big or small) under the decided timeframe & costs. To achieve these delivery goals, a company can opt for a home-grown delivery network or choose a transport service provider (shippers). But the standout feature of marquee Freight Management Software is its capability to adapt during a company’s scalable business requirement while giving critical analytical insight into areas of improvement, optimization, planning & execution. In addition, an FMS ensures essential information like delivery receipts and route info, among others, is readily available if & when required.

Why is Freight Management Important?

Delivering goods at a large-scale business can be a very complex process involving numerous operations, shipping partners & various stakeholders. Enough factors to know that the data evolving from these procedures might be a tad more out of hand for a staple spreadsheet. A freight management system reduces these complications while keeping the efficiency of the delivery network intact.

Freight management in supply chain analyses available data and churns out operational plans that substantially improve operation efficacy, meet the delivery target, and reduce cost.

Employing a freight management system will mean:

• Cost Savings: A traditional transportation system generally employs massive manual work ranging from invoices to product information. With all the data available on dedicated freight management software, analytics will help you reduce costs by suggesting ways to optimize your resources. And this all happens while keeping the quality intact.
• Customization: A freight management tool can adapt to scalable supply chain demands helping you avoid last-minute solutions scenarios. It can easily handle the onboarding of new carriers to meet delivery deadlines.
• Better Inventory and Warehouse management: With freight management in the supply chain, tracking your shipments & processing orders becomes easily manageable, which subsequently aids you with real-time data to better marshal your inventory & warehouse resources.

How can 3SC's Freight Management solutions help?

3SC’s Freight Management Solution offers comprehensive logistics management services by leveraging the latest technology, advanced analytics, tech expertise, and real-time knowledge to enhance freight operations based on ever-evolving supply chain demands. Our freight management technology comes with real-time shipment tracking, automated invoice reconciliation, route optimization, & much more to give you an accurate & time-efficient service that helps you achieve your business goals.

To know more about 3SC's Freight Management solutions, contact us today.