How To Scale Trucking Operations with Your TMS

Is your trucking and freight business growing? Are you ready to take your operations to a new level? A cloud-based Transportation Management System (TMS) — like TenTrucks TMS — can be a real asset for freight companies that hope to grow and can be scaled to fit the needs of your company. Freight companies that are growing need to understand how to scale trucking operations with your TMS, and we can help at TenTrucks.

6 Steps to Scale Your Trucking Operations with a TMS

Where do you start? 

When you take steps to grow your trucking and freight operations, it is important that you take the right steps to prevent getting overextended. With a smart, step-by-step approach you can use innovative TMS solutions to grow your business and drive financial success in the future.

Here is a quick look at the steps you need to take to effectively scale your trucking operations with your Transportation Management System:

1. Evaluate Your Current Operations and Set Goals 

The first — and maybe most important step — in the process is to evaluate your current operations and set goals for your business. Look at where you are and how you can grow and thrive, and then set goals for how you would like to grow your business. This will help determine what TMS solutions are the right fit for your business. 

2. Find the Right TMS

It is time to choose a Transportation Management System for your business. A cloud-based TMS, like TenTrucks TMS, is built to grow with your business, is easy to operate, and can benefit from a variety of tech integrations that expand your capabilities. 

3. Integrate Your TMS

A key aspect of scaling your trucking operations with a Transportation Management System is being able to integrate the TMS platform with your current systems. The integration process may include integrating with QuickBooks® accounting software, your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and more.

4. Optimize Your Operations

The next step is to put your TMS into action. Use your TMS to automate day-to-day tasks like billing, better optimize load management, and optimize route planning to make your fleet operations more efficient and cost effective. 

5. Train Your Team

If your team is not using your TMS platform to its full potential, you will not see the full benefits as a company. This means you need to provide ample training on TMS features and functions to make sure everyone on your team is on the same page and as new features and integrations are added, it is important to continue periodic training. 

6. Analyze and Adapt

A key advantage of a high-quality Transportation Management System is the information and analytics it can provide. Analyze the data and analytics to determine where your freight company is succeeding or failing, and use that information to make data-based decisions that will help grow your company. Freight companies must also be able to adapt to new technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has the potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness. 

5 Key TMS Features to Scale Operations 

Does your current Transportation Management System have all of the features you need to grow and scale operations? Do you have access to the features and functions that you need? When you decide to grow your freight company, it is important to have the capabilities to make the process simpler and more effective. 

Here is a short list of key features of your TMS that will help you scale operations to fit your needs:

• Centralized Data: To be able to grow and succeed, you and your team need to have easy access to key operational data and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and a quality TMS platform will provide you with a centralized database that will help simplify operations.
• Route Optimization: Fuel represents one of the highest operating costs for freight companies and a high-quality TMS with route optimization capabilities can help you save money on fuel by finding and planning the most efficient routes based on multiple factors. 
• Load Management: Less-Than-Truckload shipments represent a significant portion of cargo in the trucking industry, but can present a number of challenges for trucking companies. A TMS platform with load management capabilities can help you better plan your loads. 
• Automation: With a TMS platform that can automate many day-to-day operations, like building or load planning, freight companies will save time and money in the long-term that will help them grow and thrive. 
• Scalable Features and Integrations: If you want to continue to grow, it is important that your TMS has the ability to grow with your business. Find a platform that has features that can be scaled to fit your needs and can add innovative software integrations that enhance your capabilities. 

READ MORE: How Much Does a TMS Cost?

We hope this overview created by TenTrucks has provided the information you need on how to scale trucking operations with your TMS and will help you drive growth and success in the future. Contact TenTrucks today for more information on our TenTrucks TMS platform and dispatching services!