What are the best practices for selecting a transportation management system?

1 Assess your current situation

Before you start looking for a TMS, you need to have a clear understanding of your current transportation processes, challenges, and opportunities. You can conduct a transportation audit to identify your freight volumes, lanes, carriers, rates, service levels, and performance metrics. You can also survey your internal and external stakeholders to gather their feedback, expectations, and pain points. This will help you define your transportation objectives, priorities, and requirements, as well as the gaps and inefficiencies that you want to address with a TMS.

3 Evaluate your options

Once you have your selection criteria, you can start researching and evaluating your options for a TMS. You can use various sources of information, such as online reviews, industry reports, customer references, and case studies. You can also request demos and trials from the vendors to test their products and services. You can use a scorecard or a matrix to compare and rank the options based on your criteria. You can also involve your key stakeholders in the evaluation process to ensure their buy-in and input.

4 Negotiate and implement

After you have narrowed down your options to a few finalists, you can negotiate the contract and the terms with the selected vendor. You should review the contract carefully and seek legal advice if needed. You should also clarify the scope, timeline, and responsibilities for the implementation process. You should assign a project manager and a team to oversee the implementation and communicate with the vendor. You should also prepare your data, systems, processes, and staff for the transition and the training.

5 Monitor and optimize

Finally, after you have implemented the TMS, you should monitor and optimize its performance and impact. You should track and measure the key indicators and metrics that you defined earlier, such as freight costs, service levels, visibility, and analytics. You should also solicit feedback from your stakeholders and users to identify any issues, gaps, or improvements. You should also leverage the TMS's capabilities to optimize your transportation decisions, such as routing, mode selection, carrier selection, and freight optimization. You should also keep up with the TMS's updates and enhancements to take advantage of its latest features and functionalities.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?