Transportation, along with manufacturing and warehousing, is one of the main supply chain processes. It comprises a whole lot of activities — from delivery planning to carrier management to shipment tracking — that must be properly handled.
Small businesses with few shipments can manage these operations with the help of spreadsheets and phone calls. However, once your turnover grows, it becomes obvious that Excel is not enough, and you need something more robust to control your transportation processes. That’s where specialized technology comes into play.
What Boltrics new TMS offers?
Advanced Fuel Clause in 3PL Dynamics
Managing fluctuating fuel prices is crucial for businesses, especially those with tight margins. To ensure that changing costs don’t adversely affect profitability, and to keep prices up to date while managing surcharges effectively, Boltrics’ Advanced Fuel Clause Surcharge functionality proves invaluable.
This feature is a powerful tool specifically designed to enhance precision in handling fluctuating fuel costs.
By leveraging this functionality, businesses can accurately account for fuel price variations, adjust pricing accordingly, and manage surcharges efficiently, thus mitigating the impact of fluctuating fuel prices on their bottom line.
New Resource Dispatcher
Effective resource management is crucial for organizations to achieve peak efficiency. This involves overseeing work schedules, monitoring available resources, and conducting periodic maintenance activities.
Planning resources onto trips demands a comprehensive understanding of their availability and utilization. While many companies use various tools for resource allocation, 3PL Dynamics provides a structured approach through Boltrics’ Transportation Management System (TMS).
The Resource Dispatcher functionality within this system serves as a centralized solution, streamlining resource management processes. By harnessing the power of resource optimization, organizations can elevate their operations to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness.
Let’s explore how this tool can revolutionize your operations.
The 4 Key Features of the New Resource Dispatcher
Resource Overview
Color-coded time slots offer a visual representation of resource availability, simplifying the process of planning trips. Customizable options ensure alignment with specific operational requirements, enhancing efficiency and organization.
Work Schedules
Utilizing diverse work schedules is crucial for meeting varied customer demands while optimizing cost-effectiveness. The resource dispatcher streamlines the management of these schedules, whether it involves different shifts or specific working days.
Setting up and assigning schedules to drivers is made straightforward, facilitating smooth coordination and maximizing operational efficiency.
Maintenance & Absence Management
When planning, users must consider the periodic maintenance of equipment as well as personnel absences. The resource dispatcher simplifies this process by allowing users to schedule maintenance, repairs, and document employee leave effortlessly.
Additionally, these entries seamlessly update resource availability, providing users with a clear view of what resources are available. This ensures that users can plan optimally, maximizing efficiency and minimizing disruptions in operations.
Efficient Resource Allocation
The core functionality of the Resource Dispatcher lies in its capability to assign resources to various tasks with ease. Split into two windows—the resource view and the task view—it enables quick and intuitive allocation.
Users can swiftly make assignments by selecting the desired trips and resources, streamlining the process and optimizing resource utilization effectively.
Recurring Orders in 3PL Dynamics
In the fast-paced world of transportation logistics, efficiency is critical. It’s not ideal for employees to spend significant time on routine tasks like creating the same order repeatedly. To address this challenge, leveraging the capabilities of a Transportation Management System (TMS) is key.
By implementing recurring transport orders, businesses can efficiently manage repetitive transportation requirements. The introduction of recurring transport orders presents a sophisticated solution for seamlessly handling repetitive transport needs.
Whether it’s periodic deliveries to consistent destinations or any other regularly occurring transportation requirement, the recurring order functionality within a TMS streamlines operations and enhances efficiency.
Introducing a new feature in 3PL Dynamics: Geo Coding, designed to enhance address accuracy within your Transportation Management System (TMS).
Address accuracy is paramount in transportation logistics to avoid costly detours, delays, and frustrated employees. Incomplete or incorrect address data can lead to wasted kilometers and time, undermining process efficiency. Capturing addresses comprehensively within your Transport Management System (TMS) is crucial, with special attention to incomplete or erroneous entries.
By leveraging PTV services integrated with 3PL Dynamics, businesses can calculate the geographic position of addresses and gain immediate insights into their quality. This allows for improved address data, facilitating faster and more precise logistic services.
With accurate address information, drivers can navigate efficiently, reducing unnecessary kilometers and ensuring timely deliveries. Additionally, enhanced data quality minimizes errors, boosts operational efficiency, and enhances overall customer satisfaction.
Indeed, the integration between PTV and 3PL Dynamics streamlines the process of calculating coordinates based on addresses.
Users simply input the address into the system, which then sends the information to PTV services. Subsequently, the calculated coordinates are returned to the TMS, where they are utilized by the software to determine the most efficient routes.
What is Dime. Scheduler?
Dime. Scheduler is a graphical planning tool designed to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It’s particularly tailored to work with Boltrics’ TMS (Transport Management System), enhancing the planning experience for transport planners. By providing a visual interface with features like drag and drop functionality, Dime.
Scheduler aims to simplify the process of organizing shipments, equipment, and personnel efficiently. With insights into available resources and the ability to plan routes and assign tasks effortlessly, it streamlines the planning process, making it easier for users to manage their logistics operations.
How Dime. Scheduler will Help?
Visual insight into your transport planning
With the help of a graphical planning tool, you can easily plan and assign shipments. Various resources, such as your trucks, trailers and drivers, can be assigned to the task. Thanks to the visual experience of Dime. Scheduler, your planners get a clear graphical view of the transport planning and the planned trips. Is there a new order coming in? Then it is planned in no time.
Speed up your planning process
The graphical planning tool makes it easier to map out the fastest route and to combine trips. Instead of using different systems to get a clear view of the rides and locations, Dime. Scheduler allows you to view the routes on the map and combine them into one ride. Dime. Scheduler is integrated with your Dynamics environment, so that the journey is immediately visible in the TMS.
Reducing the risk of errors
Thanks to the integration with your Dynamics environment, entering information in different systems is in the past. You prevent your planners from endlessly entering the same information repeatedly and you reduce the risk of incorrect entries.
This way, fewer errors are overlooked, and it will not just happen that a driver is at the wrong address. In other words, transport planning not only becomes simpler and faster, but also less sensitive to errors.
Ready to elevate your business with innovative IT solutions? Contact Mercurius IT today for tailored strategies and unmatched support. Let’s shape your digital success together!
