Transport management system for a freight transport company

The study examines the processes of the case study transport company, identifies the most significant constraints within them, investigates how a transport management system (TMS) software can eliminate those constraints, and provides a suggestion for adopting a specific TMS solution. The study reaches its results and conclusions by taking advantage of relevant literature, interviews with personnel of five, and 11-month on-site observations as an employee. The most significant single constraint for the company is the lack of an information management system, which results in information being scattered in different locations and the need to manually enter the same information multiple times. This can be seen in all of the common processes of the company as it results in significant time spent on repetitive and mundane tasks, such as in sales when creating an offer or entering a new order. Furthermore, in transport planning, this shows in the manual transfer of loading list information, timeconsuming communication with stakeholders, and short-sightedness regarding incoming trailers. Similarly, in transport management, this manifests as a lack of order monitoring and unit tracking capabilities. Finally, in invoicing, this causes the need to enter each order manually into the invoicing system due to the lack of an ability to electronically transfer the information. TMS software can be a solution to all of the constraints the company faces and provide additional benefits as well. The software could provide the company with functionalities to handle its information and data flow, monitor active orders, shipments, and units, and eliminate most common manual repetitive tasks. Additionally, TMS could provide features such as a web portal, to act as a medium for customers to order transports and track their shipments resulting in better customer service, and cost monitoring functionalities to improve the company's financial awareness and profitability. Based on the software selection criteria, four different TMS software products were compared with each other to find the most suitable solution for the company. It was found that all the software options included all the features that the company needs to eliminate its constraints. Due to this, the most significant criteria ended up being the initial budget set by the company, with only one of the options, XSPED, being within the budget. Therefore, the author recommends the company adopt XSPED as its TMS software solution