Standing still is not an option in the fast-paced bulk liquid and petroleum transportation world. As the saying goes, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
Maintaining the status quo will place you behind those who, even during a downturn, are expanding their service areas and growing their equipment, drivers, and customers.
As an example of standing still, many tanker fleets still rely on outdated transportation management systems (TMS) that prevent them from reaching their full potential. These legacy systems often lead to inefficiencies, errors, and frustrations for drivers and customers.
Fortunately, a next-generation TMS explicitly designed for liquid transport addresses critical issues to propel businesses to new heights of efficiency and profitability.
Let’s explore five top challenges fuel haulers and bulk liquid transporters face. In a few minutes, you’ll understand how a modern TMS solves these by simplifying and streamlining critical processes for load planning and dispatch-driver communications, establishing automated workflows, and creating guardrails that keep drivers and products safe.
Cross-drops: The Nightmare Scenario
Cross-drops occur when the wrong product is loaded into the wrong location. Correcting the problem may cost six figures and pose significant safety risks. Traditional TMS platforms often lack the functionality to prevent these errors, as they don’t consider trailer compartment configurations and other critical details during load planning.
The modern, SaaS-based TrueTMS with its TrueLiquid extension tackles this challenge head-on by implementing a detailed load planning process. The system allows users to assign specific commodities to trailer compartments and ground tanks at consignee locations. This level of detail optimizes trailer space utilization and dramatically reduces the risk of cross-drops.
By coupling a detailed load planning process with a native driver app, accurate information and any updates along the way are passed directly to drivers, ensuring they load the correct products and volumes into the proper compartments and tanks.
Customer Orders: Forecasting for Precision
Accurate forecasting is essential for efficient order and delivery management in the fuel and liquid hauling industry. TrueLiquid’s integrated forecasting model, TrueCast, significantly advances this area.
By leveraging static or real-time inventory data, TrueCast helps fleets maximize delivery volumes and efficiencies while meeting customer needs at each location. The system can automatically forecast customer orders and plan deliveries when tank levels reach predetermined re-order points. This precision prevents overfilling, reduces the risk of spills, and eliminates instances where excess product remains in delivery vehicles.
Moreover, TrueCast provides a comprehensive view of orders, allowing companies to identify trends and optimize their ordering process by location and customer. The result? Fewer deadhead miles, fewer delivery stops, and improved asset utilization.
Training: Simplifying the Learning Curve
Complexity is one of the biggest hurdles with traditional TMS platforms. Tenured employees may know a system in and out. However, over time, the user experience gets more clunky and time-consuming as vendors add piecemeal features.
Instead of simplifying work, legacy systems require workaround solutions — like using homegrown spreadsheets — that add more steps and extend the learning curve.
Training becomes more time-consuming and frustrating as fleets hire new employees and assign people to different roles.
TrueLiquid addresses the training issue with a modern, intuitive design that fleets can customize to match certain user preferences. The flexible interface allows fleets to focus on growth by knowing that training will be virtually non-existent.
System Integrations: Seamless Connectivity
Integrating with other systems is crucial in today’s interconnected business environment. Fleets that use legacy TMS platforms often wait for vendors to develop the necessary integrations or invest in development resources.
TrueLiquid excels in this area with a plug-and-play approach. For example, the system has a native driver app that delivers automated workflows that include scanning delivery documents to create digital invoices. Whereas traditional TMS platforms require additional fees for integrations, most third-party integrations with TrueLiquid only require installing a partner extension and entering login credentials.
Among the many useful third-party system integrations are with automatic tank gauges (ATGs) from customer tanks that can supply TrueLiquid with real-time inventory visibility, enabling accurate demand forecasting and order creation.
Tracking and Planning: Real-Time Visibility and Optimization
Effective fleet management requires real-time tracking and intelligent planning capabilities. Unlike legacy systems that often require additional licensing for fleet location tracking, TrueLiquid integrates robust real-time tracking features as part of its core functionality.
The system ensures that drivers receive up-to-date load changes promptly and provides an easy, reliable way to communicate with dispatch through a native mobile app. Likewise, dispatchers benefit from accurate, real-time driver locations to ensure on-time arrivals and departures.
Furthermore, TrueLiquid’s advanced route planning algorithms and live tracking updates enable more accurate and efficient scheduling. The optimization helps fleets schedule deliveries that maximize volumes while minimizing deadhead and total route miles.
Surging Ahead of the Competition
Adopting a next-generation TMS can solve some of the top challenges liquid transporters face. TrueLiquid was built from the ground up to meet the unique needs of the fuel and liquid logistics industry.
From preventing cross-drops and optimizing customer orders to simplifying training, seamlessly integrating systems, and enhancing tracking and planning capabilities, TrueLiquid has you covered. Staying ahead with a modern TMS will become more crucial to sustain profitable growth, improve safety, and enhance customer satisfaction in a competitive, fast-evolving, and, dare we say, fluid landscape.
Don’t let outdated technology hold you back. Discover how TrueLiquid can fast-track your transportation operations for profitable, scalable growth.
Schedule a Demo today to see TrueLiquid in action and learn how it can address your specific challenges.
