iSupply Freight Management
3rd Party Carrier Management
iSupply FM is a multi sender, multi warehouse, multi despatch point, integrated freight management system that prepares barcoded freight labels, barcoded consignment notes and electronic manifests; analyses despatch and freight management operations, as well as consolidating freight on a warehouse basis. It has the powerful facilities to "reverse bill", analyse performance against KPIs, that provides a meaningful view of real transport costs and conduct extensive "what if" analysis of carrier rates.
With a link to the order processing system (ERP/WMS), freight management is totally automated.
Freight management features include:
Automatic consolidation of consignments to the same receiver (customer)
Controlled return, pick-ups and swap outs
Dangerous goods annotations, including DG surcharge and insurance charge calculations
Unlimited number of carriers catered for (most by electronic interfaces)
Carrier/service can be enforced by customer destination
Optionally scan freight items onto vehicle
Pallet transfer tracking and reporting
Automatic calculation of transport cost recovery and charge back to customers (freight rate charging structures can be set up by receiver (customer) and or sender (3PL client))
Carrier cost comparison facility, where iSupply FM can interactively choose the most favourable carrier/service and freight cost at despatch time
Freight rate quote effect analysis, using historical consignment note data to calculate the effect of proposed rates, or the effect of using a different carrier, or the same carrier different service
Reverse billing facility that moves the administrative burden of reconciliation to the carrier
Electronic reconciliation of carrier invoices, highlighting freight cost variations
Import track and trace information from electronically enabled carriers including final POD
Link directly to carriers track and trace website
Extensive transport cost analysis
Exception reporting/alerting i.e. short-deliveries, non-deliveries, damaged freight items etc
Carrier performance reporting
Send email Advance Ship Notice to customers on despatch - includes link to carriers track and trace website
iSupply FM is fully accredited to electronically trade with all the major Australian carriers. For a listing of supported carriers please go to: Supported Carriers.
Track and Trace for company vehicles
iSupply FM is integrated with a PDA Communications Server that electronically transfers carrier (vehicle) manifests to PDA units for delivery finalisation.
The despatch is confirmed at the despatch point by iSupply FM, resulting in the generation of a consignment details record including uniquely numbered freight labels.
Despatched consignments are built into delivery runs for delivery by company owned vehicles. Optionally, 'Returns Pick-ups' may be included in delivery run manifests.
Each delivery vehicle has a PDA that is capable of:
Receiving and storing consignment and freight label data
Scanning bar-coded freight label numbers at each tracking event
Matching the scanned freight label numbers to the stored consignment and freight label data
Alerting the vehicle driver if there is an incorrect load to delivery, a short delivery, or an incorrect delivery
Similarly, the vehicle driver is alerted for mis-matches during the pickup process
Capturing receiver's signature or manually keying confirmation data
Transmitting the delivery details, together with the receiver's signature, to iSupply for recording in its tracking database
The vehicle driver logs in to the network using the PDA, and requests a download of consignment details assigned to that vehicle and waiting for delivery vehicle loading.
As freight items are loaded onto the delivery vehicle the bar-coded freight label numbers are scanned. Each scanned label is matched to the downloaded consignment details and the driver alerted if a freight label has been scanned that is not on that vehicle's delivery manifest. Conversely, when loading is complete, the driver is alerted if freight items in the downloaded consignment details have not been loaded to the vehicle.
During delivery the freight items are scanned for each receiver and matched to the downloaded consignment details and the driver alerted if there is a short delivery or pickup or an incorrect delivery or pickup. The receiver signifies the receipt on the PDA's 'scratch pad' as proof of delivery. Alternatively PoD information can be keyboard entered into the PDA.
User managed facility is provided to manage the table of 'Events and QC Codes' required for recording details such as; damage to freight items, non-delivery reasons, etc.
All recorded data is transmitted to iSupply for updating its tracking database and automatically initiates KPI emails or reports if required.
All of the above functionality is available in 'real time' if GPRS enabled PDAs are utilised. Otherwise the tracking data will not be available until the PDA is returned to the depot and downloaded via a desk mounted cradle.