We have improved our TMS through some feature enhancements once again

Check out the following points of where the changes have been made. To learn more about any particular feature/change please go through the details of the changes after the points mentioned below.

Partner Carrier Escrow Accounts

There is a new option where you can now set up the escrow for the partner carriers. To do this you have to go to the vehicle's profile and set up an escrow account in the vehicle profile, just like escrow accounts are set up for drivers. Since it is possible for the partner carrier to have more than one vehicle, we have to set up the escrow account in each of the required vehicle profiles.

The escrow account can be set up for the vehicle as can be seen below.

Once an escrow account is set up for a vehicle, you can go to the partner carrier settlements and create a settlement. Normally you can select multiple loads of multiple vehicles under a partner carrier and create one settlement, however, if you have an escrow account set up against vehicles and want to make escrow deductions from the partner carrier settlement, you will only be able to create escrow settlement of one vehicle at a time.

In order to create an escrow settlement for a partner carrier, enable the "Escrow Only" toggle. Once that is enabled, you will only see loads of those vehicles that have partner carriers set up in their profile. Select the unpaid loads and then click on the "create escrow settlement".

You can also create the balances for the partner carriers by going to Financial> Balances, as can be seen below. Once you click on the "New partner carrier escrow balance" button you will see an option where you can credit/debit the amount in any partner carrier escrow account.

Automatically Change Load Status from Brokered

In case of Split loads, if one split was brokered to an external carrier and is completed now, the system now has an option to automatically change the load status from "brokered" to "in-transit" if the next split of the load is dispatched to a driver. To make it possible you need to make sure that three settings are enabled from the global settings. To do so, go to Menu> Settings> Loads and turn on the toggle for these three settings in the image below.

Once these settings are enabled, the load status will automatically change to "in-transit" once the next split is dispatched to the driver.

Mark a new load On Hold

Now the system has an option to let you mark a new load "On Hold" as soon as it is created. Previously only the completed loads could be marked as on-hold. But now as soon as a new load is created, then you will see an option on the top of the screen to mark the load as on hold. You will not be able to dispatch/broker the loads that are marked as on-hold, so in order to dispatch/broker, make sure that you release the load first.

Once a load is marked as "On-Hold", you will be able to see this on the main load grid as well as can be seen in the image below.

Carrier Offer

For the brokerage tenants, we have this new feature of Carrier Offers. In this feature, if you have a load in the tendered tab, you can send the rate to the external carriers against the load. This is basically to get an offer from your external carriers to negotiate the rate with them so you can broker the load by choosing the best offer. You will be able to send out an email from the system and then the external carriers will enter the rate that they want to purpose. Once they have done this from their end, we'll receive that offer in the TMS as well. This way we can choose between multiple external carriers based on the best offer for brokering the load.

Since this is a new feature, the Carrier offer has already been released in the system, however, the email functionality will be released and deployed in the future.

As you can see in the image below that the "Carrier Offer" has been released in the system. In case any external carrier contacts you and gives their rate/offer, you have an option to log these offers from multiple external carriers in the load. This way you will be able to see the offer amount of all the carriers and the profit margin against that offer so you can make the best decision. You also have an option to add any comments against an offer as well.

To create an offer, head over to the "Bid History" tab from the top and then click on the "carrier offer" button on the right side of the page and choose an external carrier and add their offer and any comments.

Once all the offers have been logged into the system you will be able to see them all together as can be seen in the image below.

After negotiation, if you receive a new offer from the carrier, you can add that in the system as well and can check a record of the bid history by clicking on the offer amount which is a hyperlink and will open a new window with a history of all the offers of a carrier with the date and time stamp on them.

You will also be able to see the total number of carrier offers received against a load on the main load grid as well as can be seen below.

Once all the offers are received, and you have made the decision to broker the load, just click on the green button on the right side of the page to broker the load. The system will automatically pick up the most recent offer of the carrier and add that amount as the carrier pay while brokering the load as can be seen below.

Target Rate

You will also have an option at the time of creating a load to add a "Target Rate". This will be the rate you expect to receive from the external carriers.

Once the target rate is added, then at the time of adding the carrier offer, you will also see what your target rate was and what offers you have received from the external carriers as can be seen in the image below.

Split Settlement Deductions

You now have an option to split all the deductions created against a driver/carrier in the settlement module. You can do so for whatever reason, and when you decide to deduct a particular amount from the driver's settlement, and instead of deducting all the amount at once, you want to split it, then you can do that now.

To do so, head over to the Settlements management module and go to a driver's deductions. Choose the deduction that you want to split and click on the "actions" button and then hit "edit". Now you will see the "split" button just under the original amount and if you click on it, it will open a new box for you where you can add the amount you want to choose to split and the remaining amount will show under the box. Then click on the save button to create the split in deduction amount.

EFS Discount

In the Fuel Purchases module, we now have an option for the EFS fuel card type where if you are receiving some discount from EFS, then that discount is also shown in the "Rebate Amt." Column.

Invoice Document Management

In the CRM> Customers module, you now have an option to choose which documents should be mandatory/non-mandatory to create an invoice. You will also be able to choose which documents should show up on the invoice and which should not.

When you go to CRM> Customers> Billing, you will see the invoice document management option below where you will see a drop-down menu in front of the document types.

Choosing the "Mandatory" option will make this document mandatory and you will not be able to create an invoice unless this document is uploaded on the invoice. This mandatory document will also be attached to the invoice and will show up when you download the invoice.

The "deliverable" and "withhold" options will NOT make a document mandatory and you will be able to create the invoice with or without these documents.

Choosing the "Deliverable" option will enable this document to show up when the invoice is created. Even if the invoice was created and this document was initially not uploaded to the load but is uploaded after the invoice is created. Now when you go to download the invoice pdf, it will still show this type (deliverable) of documents in the invoice.

Choosing the "Withhold" option will make this document be excluded from the invoice and will never show up when you create an invoice.

Minimum Gross Profit

A new feature for the minimum gross profit has been introduced for the agency/agent commission. If a load is brokered at a certain amount, and you need to set up a minimum gross profit for your company to make on that load, the system will adjust the amount in the agent/agency's settlement.

For example, if you have a load for $4,600 and you broker it to an external carrier for $4,200. Now if the minimum gross profit is set as $500 in the agent's rate card, then at the time of the creation of the agent's settlement the system will give you a prompt to make an adjustment from the agent's settlement.

If you hit yes, then there will be an adjustment in the agent's settlement to make the amount set as the minimum gross profit as can be seen in the image below. This amount will be calculated based on the minimum gross amount set in the agent/agency's profile and also on the load amount and the carrier pay.