December 5, 2002 1:30 PM, EST

Opinion: Mine the Gold in Your Management Software

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B>By Ken Weinberg

I>Vice President

arrier Logistics Inc.

Many less-than-truckload carriers have installed comprehensive freight management software systems to reduce paperwork, auto-rate bills, computerize dispatch, plan routine truck maintenance and track trailers and freight. These objectives alone, however, achieve only part of the savings carriers should realize from their computer systems.

An LTL company’s mission is to pick up, consolidate and deliver — at a profit. By using the full capabilities of a freight management system even moderate-size fleets can save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

A good freight management system should perform six functions:

LI> Efficient Truck Routing: Today’s software can effectively route shipments to the best vehicle, taking into account service requirements, historical business volumes and the day of the week. The system should help you reduce operating costs by keeping drivers on route and preventing sending two drivers to the same customer and repeated stop attempts.

Reduce Backtracking: The sequence in which deliveries are loaded and pickups assigned is crucial to reducing mileage and overtime. Deliveries should be loaded in the reverse order of the stops to be made.

A freight management system can ensure that deliveries are loaded properly. Computerized route planning incorporates appointment times, customer requirements and equipment requirements into geographic routing.

The loading guides (manifests) provide the dock exact instructions to load deliveries in sequence. Drivers’ morale will improve when they realize they are being deployed more productively. Dispatching pickups in order and in a timely manner also prevents backtracking.

LI> Improve Inbound Loading Efficiency: By loading efficiently, you can eliminating double and triple handling of freight, searching for freight on the dock and back stripping, and reduce damages.

A freight management system should facilitate cross-loading of freight. It should show you each delivery that needs to be loaded, when the delivery will arrive from origin, which linehaul unit it will arrive on, and what sequence it should be loaded in. Using this information, you can plan your inbound shift to cross-load as many shipments as possible.

Computer-generated strip manifests will guide your labor force. Each cross-loaded shipment need not be handled again, saving money. Even shipments that cannot be cross-loaded because of delivery sequence or delay in nose freight can be staged in the proper area — and even on the delivery unit (progressive loading) — reducing handling later in the shift.

Cross-loading avoids trapping freight on the dock. Trapping creates clutter that impacts other freight loading. Efficiency is lost because loaders have to work around trapped freight. Later, when trapped freight is ready to be loaded, someone must find it.

Save Wages on the Outbound Platform: Each day your freight management system should collect information about shipments to be picked up. At the end of the day, all this freight arrives at your dock to be re-handled. Your system should accurately predict exactly how much freight will move across the dock before the trucks arrive.

Properly used, this information optimizes freight handling across the dock, reducing labor hours. Your system should enable you to adjust your daily dock-labor planning to meet your requirements exactly. Extra labor is employed only as needed.

Once you have the proper staffing for the outbound dock shift, they need the tools to strip the pickup units and load the outbound linehauls. Your system should produce accurate strip manifests and handling copies to guide the labor force. Since the handling copies are bar-coded, manifesting the freight becomes a matter of scanning each bar code, eliminating keystroke errors.

Adjust Linehaul Schedule: The same information that allows you to better plan labor requirements enables you to set up the linehaul schedule earlier in the day. Based on what is being picked up in the city, you may decide to add or cut linehaul units. Or you may determine that some points can load direct, eliminating an intermediate handling.

The same freight statistics that enable you to set your linehaul schedule will also allow each facility to see earlier what freight will be inbound later that night. With this information, you can plan the next day’s operation, including setting delivery appointments for freight before it even leaves origin.

Embed best company knowledge and experience into the system: How many times are mistakes made or barely avoided because the company “expert” was not consulted in time? A properly utilized freight management system reduces your reliance on the company expert, allowing everyone to know specific customer requirements for early pickups.

Every fact about each customer should be on screen to guide dispatchers and drivers. Route sheets for drivers should highlight special requirements. Quality customer service depends on every operating level being able to view accurate records for each customer.

Improper customer management results in unrealized shipments and lost accounts. Savings from retaining lost accounts are hard to gauge. However, your system should flag any customer whose shipments are down or stop altogether. If you do not immediately follow up with these customers, you may lose them forever.

These six steps will provide savings and profitability without incremental cost.

Carrier Logistics Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y, is a transportation systems and engineering consulting company and developer of systems technology for the trucking industry.

This article appears in the Dec. 2 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.