The ROI Potential of a High-Quality Transportation Suite

The logistics landscape is rapidly changing amid growing supply chain complexity, evolving customer demands, and global inflation. Shippers are caught in the middle of this upheaval, required to adapt quickly while maintaining profits. In this environment, embracing digital transformation is essential for shippers to remain competitive.

A transportation suite can help shippers overcome many of these challenges but comes with a higher upfront price tag than spreadsheet systems. Are they worth the investment? Here’s a look at how users have benefitted from implementation, and what advantages you can expect for your own operation.

The Pillars of a High-Quality Transportation Suite

What is a transportation suite?

A transportation suite is a comprehensive software solution designed to optimize and manage various aspects of transportation and logistics operations within a business or organization and integrates multiple modules and features to provide a holistic approach to transportation management.

In general, a transportation suite enables businesses to automate processes, streamline workflows, reduce costs, improve visibility, and enhance customer service.

What does a transportation suite do?

• Improve Planning: Helps users optimize every shipment, including finding lower rates and consolidating loads to improve efficiency and reduce costs
• Streamline Execution: Enables fast, reliable, and custom logistics plans while utilizing fewer resources
• Build Stronger Connections: Facilitates deeper and more efficient collaboration with customers, carriers, vendors, and partners at-scale, and without error
• Quote & Rate Shop: Rate shop across modes and carriers in a single place, to pick the right service level for the right price on each shipment
• Improve Shipment Accuracy: Ensure the correct number of pieces are in a shipment or make sure the address is correct before sending to avoid delays and unnecessary fees
• Shipment Compliance: Helps shippers meet the requirements of trading partners, customs authorities, and the U.S. Department of Transportation when shipping goods
• Automate Manual Workflows: Streamline operational processes and enhance shipping efficiency by automating manual tasks within the suite

Reaping the Rewards of a Transportation Suite

A transportation suite will likely require a larger upfront investment than manual systems — both in terms of capital and resources for implementation — but it can quickly and dramatically pay itself off once it is in place. What’s more, by automating transportation processes, shippers can transform operations and realize significant cost savings and operational efficiencies that continuously improve profit margins over time.

The suite with the best ROI achieves results across a number of key performance areas — just look at what these companies were able to achieve:

Route Planning

A transportation suite can utilize a wide variety of variables and data points like distance, delivery windows, and carrier rates to quickly identify the most efficient routes for each shipment, minimizing mileage and reducing fuel costs. What’s more, the software allows users to make routing adjustments on the fly if there are changing conditions that could impact delivery. Bemis Manufacturing Company leveraged 3G’s routing capabilities to consolidate and streamline their line haul planning, dramatically reducing the price points for their distribution network below both competition and the industry standard.

Easy Optimization

A transportation suite allows users to quickly and effortlessly optimize multi-stop, less-than-truckload (LTL), and other complex shipments, not only reducing fuel and labor costs but also increasing shipping volume and generating more revenue. These efficiency gains lead to significant cost savings while helping shippers quickly scale operations without utilizing additional resources. In one case, after implementing a TMS, Green Circle Growers was able to generate over $600,000 in savings by better optimizing their multi-stop full truckloads.

Cost Effectiveness

In addition to utilizing map data to optimize routes, a transportation suite integrates directly with carriers for real-time rate visibility, allowing users to make more cost-effective carrier selections. Since transportation suites can track and organize so much on-the-ground data about each shipment, it’s easy for users to assess the performance of different carriers and how each vendor compares in terms of speed and value. Koch Foods was able to reduce freight spending by a double-digit percentage thanks to deeper carrier visibility provided by their TMS.

Maximize ROI With 3G

It’s important to choose a solution with a proven track record of helping users achieve results.

3G offers a full suite of solutions including shipping management platforms, a best-in-class carrier network, and robust ERP integrations, all designed to streamline transportation operations and maximize ROI. Since its inception, 3G has become a top choice for shippers seeking to streamline and scale their operations. Read other customer success stories to learn more about what our platform can do for you.