Ranked as the fastest-growing seaport in the United States from 2000 to 2005, the Port of Savannah experienced a 16.5 percent compound annual growth rate versus the national average of only 9.7 percent. In 2007, the port held the distinction as the fourth-busiest container terminal in the United States, and in 2014, container traffic through the port reached 3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU)- that’s a lot of transportation management!
PortCity’ capabilities have routinely kept pace with this rapid growth, as our company possesses an in-depth familiarity with NAVIS technology using a state-of-the-art TMS and an updated, fully-integrated, warehouse management system – both of which keep our clients informed of their cargo’s status, in real-time, 24 hours a day. Our company boasts nine warehouses with a total of 2 million square feet of modern storage in addition to offering a comprehensive set of services to meet our clients’ shipping and logistical needs.
Transportation Management System (TMS) that is operationally categorized as part of a larger, overall workflow and is situated between initial order processing and final cargo or product delivery.
Transportation Management Systems
Part of the successful growth of our company is due to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Also known as “supply chain management,” ERP is a Transportation Management System (TMS) that is operationally categorized as part of a larger, overall workflow and is situated between initial order processing and final cargo or product delivery.
- Planning, simulation and cost evaluation
- Selection of a best-inbound and best-outbound transportation mode – including trains, planes, trucks, and ships
- Selection of a transport carrier based on least cost, fewest number of stops, shortest lead times, or some combination of these (and other) parameters
- Simultaneous management of multiple modes of conveyance (i.e., intermodal transport)
- Vehicle load and route optimization
- Alternate route suggestions and automated emergency alerts for drivers – weather, accident, construction delays, etc.
- Real-time transport tracking
- Batch creation of multiple inbound cargo streams requiring outbound shipment to final destinations
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reporting and statistics – percent of on-time pickup and delivery, cost per unit distance/weight/volume, cost per pallet/box/parcel, operational productivity (i.e., units shipped per order, units shipped per vehicle, etc.)
- Freight audit and settlement (i.e., payment)
It’s fair to say that no other single planning software platform can offer the countless combinations and permutations of functionality that specialized TMS software offers, so freight brokers are apt to use them in addition to their core ERP. In terms of performance and efficiency between companies who implement TMS versus those who don’t, it’s light and dark.
What are some Benefits of a TMS?
Technological benefits of a TMS include a single software platform for making critical decisions affecting a company’s performance. Some of the benefits include
- Centralized carrier rate information
- Organized carrier quotation, evaluation, and selection
- Intermodal transport selection
- Pre- and post-shipment transit analysis
- Freight/cargo tracking
- Load matching based on details from previous shipments of similar cargo
- Improved warehouse efficiency through integration of a TMS with a company’s existing Warehouse Management System (WMS), reducing data entry errors because of a single, fully-compatible database
Similarly, there are intangible benefits with a TMS, which are often overlooked and unaddressed. Because of the nature of the business, shipping and handling of cargo is a time-consuming, repetitive, and intense process.
Dedicated employees, at all levels, strive to work efficiently, meet expectations and perform their best for their company. As such, stress and anxiety can accompany the performance of these duties. Implementation of TMS can greatly reduce this anxiety by improving the employees’ daily work experience through streamlined, routine, and logically-consistent processes.
PortCity and TMS
Located a mere 5 miles from the Georgia Port Authority’s terminal and providing extremely quick dispatch and turn-around, PortCity of Savannah, Georgia is a third-party logistics (3PL) company that has grown rapidly since 2001.
During the last two decades, our company’s expansion has paralleled the tremendous growth experienced by the Port of Savannah. Our services include:
- Small- and large-quantity product transportation and distribution using our own truck fleet
- Long-term and short-term warehousing
- Drayage – transport of cargo from shipping ports and terminals to storage facilities
- Picking and Packing – disassembly of boxed or palletized product groups (parcels and bulk commodities), re-packaging (i.e., re-boxing and re-palletizing) of selected individual products, and shipment of those re-packaged products to separate destinations, with shipping labels and final invoicing affixed
Please give us a call or come visit our Savannah facilities to see what a modern, 21st-century, 3PL company looks like.or aks for a Free Quote from our logistics pros!