Smart Transportation for Max Visibility + Efficiency

January 17, 2023

Logistics management and transportation visibility have been challenging over the past few years. And that’s probably an understatement.

Space availability, spot market fluctuations, complex routes, and labor shortages are just a few conditions that have affected shippers’ ability to meet delivery times and control costs. When transportation variability is high, rates increase, and critical deadlines are missed more often.

Technology is the solution, with total end-to-end transportation management systems (TMS) turning challenges into opportunities. Complete freight transportation visibility, forecasting, and collaboration among all parties allow 3PLs, shippers, and carriers to seize greater control when using a TMS to overcome market challenges.

Creating Opportunity in Any Transportation Market

An end-to-end transportation management system solution that opens visibility, collaboration, forecasting, and efficiency, empowers stakeholders, and turns potential disruptions into opportunities.

Managed Transportation Through the Final Mile

Controlling what seems uncontrollable and predicting changes throughout a transportation plan creates a competitive advantage for organizations. Shippers using managed transportation partners expect to meet crucial delivery schedules, lower freight prices, and a substantial return on investment (ROI).

MercuryGate’s cloud-enabled AI performs complete route optimization, which is essential in organizing the last mile. Increased customer satisfaction and reduced costs result from an organizational commitment to technology and process refinement.

Massive post-pandemic changes in consumer buying habits made less-than-truckload (LTL) and last-mile freight management two of the most significant management challenges and the two most immense opportunities.

With the last mile comprising an astounding 53% of total shipping costs and presenting the biggest challenges for delivery times, last-mile optimization saves shippers money while meeting increased customer demands.

Adapting To Customer Needs and Expectations

Increased customer demands make collaboration among parties essential to a smooth and efficient supply chain. These increased demands and the freight flexibility required have also impacted rates, driving LTL costs per 100 pounds to record highs.

Technology balances demand, specifically when cloud-based TMS enables collaboration through carrier and customer portals. Communication is the best tool to overcome adversity, making it seamless and enabling sharing; shippers can aggregate data and updates.

Bringing data and parties together results in robust predictive analytics that simplifies meeting increased customer demands.

An end-to-end TMS solution fosters collaboration with:

Real-time tracking.
Inventory visibility.
Access to capacity.
Route planning.
An efficient RFP process for competitive rates.
Tools specifically for enhancing communication and collaboration.

The result is the ability to quickly adapt to customer needs and then meet and exceed them while saving money.

Enabling Enhanced Connectivity Across the Transportation Network

Digital freight matching (DFM) connects shippers and carriers based on achieving the best fit. Information is available immediately to find a fit that might not otherwise materialize through hours of calling.

Carriers and shippers search for the available options through an application or platform, finding a match for capacity or loads. Cloud-based AI utilizes machine learning to automate the search for matches, making the freight-matching process manageable, faster, and far more likely to produce the best fit.

The enhanced connectivity of DFM plays a beneficial role in the spot market, which had exceedingly scarce capacity during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. When shippers and 3PLs gain visibility across the spot market to secure capacity from the best resources, opportunities for new lanes, equipment, and cost savings are accessible.

An end-to-end TMS has DFM functionality to access spot freight via various digital networks. With omnimodal and multimodal transportation management and digital freight matching, the TMS matches freight and spot market capacity easily and quickly.

The results are adaptability, efficiency, and cost savings.

Operations and Excellence at Scale

Increased expectations for speed and transparency in logistics processes have driven the need for faster and more accurate transportation visibility. Technology advanced far beyond the days of simple spreadsheets to meet these needs.

To meet increased expectations through working smarter, the MercuryGate TMS offers:

Control tower visibility with a detailed drill-down.
Control towers enable visible transportation transactions using customizable maps, filters, and summaries. Logistics teams search for the correct information, visually identify exceptions, and do it all quickly.
Easy and intuitive user experience.
Power requires an easy-to-navigate interface. The ability to easily configure to match the shipper’s needs and visualize the results produces optimal outcomes.
Exception management workflows drive simplified processes.
Reliable and efficient exception management is critical for supply chains. Shippers are ready for any disruption with the ability to deploy a solution instantly. Exception management workflows that are visual and holistic make for more manageable and proactive processes.

How MercuryGate Delivers Value To Kenco Through TMS

Kenco uses the power of MercuryGate to tame disruption, turning chaos into opportunities for shippers. The ongoing issues of driver shortages, diesel fuel costs, rate increases, and rising customer expectations are mitigated with the power of an end-to-end TMS offering visibility, collaboration, and freight matching.

MercuryGate’s control tower visibility means Kenco rapidly reacts to disruptions, making for more consistent supply chains.

Smart Transportation for All

Your organization wins the freight management game when innovative solutions come from cloud-enabled AI. Shippers, brokers, logistics services providers, and 3PLs quickly mitigate disruptions and challenges through an intuitive user interface. They control supply chain variability and find opportunities to exceed expectations and save money.

MercuryGate’s launch of our Smart Transportation Suite helps you address supply chain delivery and capacity challenges by accounting for possible risks before, during, and after the transportation process.

An end-to-end, fully integrated technology stack and data-driven insights provide a comprehensive view of the freight market. Easily configurable with powerful analytics and controls, it produces better and faster decision-making.

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Everyone has access to smart transportation for a competitive advantage

Seeing the cutting edge of logistics management is as simple as reaching out to MercuryGate. A call, email, or website form is all it takes to contact us and learn how to turn challenges into opportunities.

Watch our Velocity 2022 webinar on demand to see how you can leverage MercuryGate’s Smart Transportation suite to work smarter, not harder.