BestTransport
Architecting Freight Management of Tomorrow

For many, the supply chain industry may still be about big boxes and delivery trucks but look out. Soon we will all be hearing the knocks on our doors from airborne drones—the shippers of tomorrow. This is one example of the advances the supply chain industry is beginning to implement. For companies adopting newer technologies—equipped with analytics and mobile capabilities—the days of mediocre business results will soon be over. For vertical markets as complex as logistics, these technologies are successfully bringing efficiency and visibility across freight management functions, long-needed by shippers. “Technology, if used prudentially with right thought processes and strategies, can create a disruptive force in freight transport,” says Michael Dolan, President and CEO, BestTransport. Worthington, OH headquartered BestTransport was founded in 1999 with a mission to leverage technology to develop solutions that could make freight management a plain sailing task. Today, nearly two decades later, shippers and carriers that use BestTransport’s Transportation Management Software (TMS) witness significant improvement in their freight management efforts with stronger control over the full transportation lifecycle, and the cost of its component activities. With BestTransport, many shippers, for the first time, are successfully linking their planning, tendering, and billing processes directly to their carrier network through a single connection.

With carriers leveraging all modes of transportation—land, air, and ocean—the logistics freight management landscape today has become more mature and complex. On the positive side, the reach is now global and the speed of delivery faster. Still, shippers are grappling more than ever to keep costs in check and visibility consistent. Best Transport's TMS allows shippers to avoid unnecessary freight and transportation expenses, distributors and suppliers to leverage a broader network of freight carriers—all while gaining complete visibility into their freight expenses and logistics. “Our TMS allows efficient control of the full transportation lifecycle as well as the cost of its component activities,” highlights Dolan. “As it is cloud-based, implementations are quick, with no requirement of capital expenditure for servers, software licenses, or infrastructure.”

Size Doesn’t Matter

Businesses with different needs and goals are customers of today’s transportation industry. The needs of shippers often vary by size; a larger company may require a more robust tool that seamlessly tracks international shipping orders. A smaller shipper, on the other hand, may prefer access to more economical carrier choices and faster delivery as they strive for an increased level in customer service. This is the reason that shippers—large and small—need strategic partners that bring success to a wide range of needs. For BestTransport, size doesn’t matter! “Our core TMS software, BestShippers, can scale up and down per the requirement of our customers,” says Alan Gold, Chief Marketing Officer, BestTransport.

“BestShippers is an on-demand, cloud-based solution that automates transportation execution of all sizes including consolidating, tendering, and scheduling loads.” The software is notable because of its scalability and ability to manage the complex needs of the customers as the business grows. “It is acclaimed for its simple integration into systems, showcasing significant ROIs to shippers and maximizing transportation network efficiency,” adds Gold.

BestOptimize, another tool in the BestTransport TMS suite, is designed for the optimization of loads and shipments. With BestOptimize, bulk orders, complex requirements, or puzzling route options are no longer an uphill battle. The tool leverages a range of optimization and tendering algorithms to combine orders, select the most cost-effective rates, define load building and locations, and create an optimized shipment plan. The TMS suite also has BestOcean module, a product used in conjunction with BestShipper to allow electronic communication between the freight forwarder, the shipper, and the end customer for freight with an ocean shipment component. It acts as a link between the shipping management and the ocean shipments. “BestOcean enables clients to create ocean freight shipments in the company’s web portal and allows shippers to manage their freight in a single process,” says Dolan. “It also provides shipment status information via the load information screen to update clients about their ocean freights.”

"Our TMS allows efficient control of the full transportation lifecycle as well as the cost of its component activities"

Various shippers have chosen BestTransport’s solutions as tools to remove roadblocks and improve their business results. For example, one customer of BestTransport, a North American trailer manufacturing company, was challenged with handling a sharp increase in order volume. The customer was looking for a freight management platform that could automate their processes and to maintain or increase customer satisfaction with on-time delivery. After assessing the business’s requirements and challenges, BestTransport proposed and implemented its cloud-based transportation management system (TMS) solution to meet their needs. Within a month of implementation, the client was able to automate their manual operations, eliminate a patchwork of spreadsheets, and gain complete visibility over their operations—all in a cost-effective way.

Increasing the Product Suite

As it has grown, BestTransport has joined forces with several players in the industry to add specialized functionality. Once recent relationship is with ConnectShip, a UPS subsidiary.

BestShippers is an on-demand, cloud-based solution that automates transportation execution of all sizes including consolidating, tendering, and scheduling loads

Through this partnership, BestTransport now offers parcel shipping to its suite of offerings. The company integrates ConnectShip’s comprehensive cloud-based parcel shipping solutions with its preeminent TMS software to make parcel deliveries more streamlined and automated. “We are recognized for our all-inclusive TMS solutions managing truckload and LTL freight shipments. By partnering with ConnectShip, we can seamlessly support all our customers’ shipping needs regardless of type or carrier requirements,” says Dolan.

With the global economies trading in an open market landscape, the parcel delivery services are an essential hyperlink between shippers and end users. “Multicarrier parcel is a key element that can offer a multitude of services such as guaranteed delivery dates and standard delivery times,” states Gold. “It is an important add-on to save time and cost, and address customers’ broad range of supply chain and logistics requirements,” adds Dolan.

BestTransport will continue to offer innovative transportation management solutions, making their name a well-known and trusted brand in the industry. This will include deploying smart product strategies, with customers’ needs as the focal point. The company will continue to analyze the complexities of the transportation market, as well as keep a close eye on emerging technologies. “We always strive to instill quality in our services and in the capabilities of our products to support our customers and measure ourselves on performance that we deliver,” says Dolan. Internally, the company emphasizes a customer-first philosophy. “We like to keep corporate bureaucracy out of the picture and professional respect for everyone at the center of our culture,” adds Dolan. With all this in mind, one can say without much doubt that BestTransport is on the right path for continued success and advancing the BestTransport brand to the forefront of the Transportation Management Software industry.