Shipper Solutions

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• MercuryGate Shipper Functions
• MercuryGate Mojo
• MercuryGate TMS with Mojo for Milk Runs
• Freight Bill Pay and Audit

A TMS that works the way you do

As the complexities of transportation increase, you’re being challenged to keep costs low but also to meet increasing demands from your customers to improve the velocity of their supply chains. MercuryGate’s Transportation Management System (TMS) will work with you to optimize your transportation dollars and give you and your partners the information you need to respond to daily challenges and opportunities.

Figure 1: Easy-to-use rating tool to select the optimal carrier based on rates and/or route guide. This screen from the system shows rates returned for all modes. The system may be configured to automatically select the top carrier based on rates and/or route guide.

The MercuryGate TMS solution uses pertinent order information to determine the optimal carrier and automatically tender the load to the designated carrier. This takes the guesswork out of the shipping process for both inbound and outbound movements. As the freight moves, tracking messages are received which allows the shipper to realize revenue based on actual events in the supply chain. To simplify the freight bill pre-audit process, invoices from the carrier match to the load and indicate both what should be paid versus what was invoiced. And of course, the entire transportation process is controlled by exception. Management reports provide the transportation management team with up-to-the-minute information about the performance of the transportation link in the supply chain.

Figure 2: Configurable vendor dashboard may be used to help enforce compliance for non-sophisticated users that are unable to send electronic messages or utilize a compliance web service.

By establishing a state-of-the-art transportation technology infrastructure, users can do away with the highly-manual and inaccurate processes typically found in transportation and logistics businesses. The MercuryGate TMS is an information system dedicated to capturing and monitoring all the activities and events in these businesses. From this logistics "nervous system", real-time information can flow to customers, carriers, brokers, and suppliers. Now users have the ability to monitor and manage their own business and continually improve performance and profitability.

The MercuryGate TMS provides value by:

• Reducing transportation costs
  • Optimizing shipments across all locations creating continuous move (tours) vs. pooling vs. multi-stop truckloads for inbound and outbound shipments
  • Optimizing carrier selection by rate/route guide priority for all modes including your private fleet
• Enforcing inbound compliance for all vendors
  • Enabling communication of the right carrier for the move via electronic messages, portals, or email
• Simplifying pre-audit functions for carrier invoices
• Providing a tool to measure the performance of carriers, vendors, customers, and the user’s company

Figure 3: Robust KPI measurement reports help the user understand how vendors, carriers, customers, and the user are performing in all aspects of transportation. These reports help in a continual improvement process to streamline, reduce costs, and enhance data quality throughout the shipping process.

A TMS to do the stuff you need to do….

The MercuryGate TMS's transportation planning and execution capabilities manage the full cycle of activities for the latest practices in transportation management. The TMS ensures optimal freight moves by utilizing the right mode with the right carrier and at the right service level. Whether using parcel, less than truckload (LTL), truckload, rail, intermodal, air freight, or ocean. The MercuryGate TMS provides a single system and consistent customizable processes for carrier determination and execution. The TMS receives orders and/or shipping requests electronically or manually. It selects the optimal carriers and modes for the shipments, tracks and monitors the shipments, and pays the carriers. The user can get master billing invoices along with carrier and customer performance reports and other shipment function analyses. Shipments can also be consolidated across suppliers or customers if products are compatible. The TMS also provides web-based visibility and proactive notification of issues that arise during planning and transit.

The MercuryGate TMS transportation planning and execution capabilities offer the following primary features:

• Procure and manage carriers
  • Manage carrier rates and contracts for all modes
  • Manage fuel determination for all modes
  • Support all mileage engines and versions
  • Manage accessorials for all modes
  • Manage service areas for all modes
  • Manage contacts for all carriers
  • Procure capacity and rates for all carriers
  • Uplift of rates for customers if desired
  • Pay carriers in multiple currencies
• Ship freight
  • Inbound or outbound freight; domestic or international movements
    • Execute shipments across all modes
    • Manage purchase orders or customer orders
      • Allow multiple shipments with potentially different origins and destinations to fulfill each order
  • Determine the optimal carrier
    • Select the optimal carrier based on service, rate, and/or route guide
    • Create a spot quote to designated carriers
      • Send spot quote via email
      • Manage quote via private bid board
      • Post quote to public bid boards
    • Optimize loads with MercuryGate’s MojoTM optimizer
      • Compare multi-stop truckload to pool locations (cross dock for consolidation or distribution), to continuous moves (multiple pickup and drop)
      • Build loads centrally and distribute seamlessly to operational personnel
  • Tender loads to a selected carrier
    • Tender via email, EDI, XML, or web service
    • Automated tendering allows users to click and forget
      • Exception management alerts users to issues
  • Set appointments
    • Schedule appointments
    • Manage appointments via dock door scheduling
    • Collect data about on-time performance for each carrier

Figure 4: The MercuryGate TMS provides robust dock scheduling allowing restrictions by mode, service, and direction (inbound/outbound).

• Track loads
  • Access data by any known reference
    • There is no need to send around tracking numbers, etc.
    • Users track all modes from a single screen
    • Internal users, customers, and carriers can access the shipment data they have permission to see
  • Alert users to issues
    • Alert users to shipments scheduled to arrive late or are already late
    • Alert users to stale shipments – shipments for which no tracking messages have been received
  • Allow responsible party to provide updates by various tools
    • Support standard electronic messages (EDI, XML, etc.)
    • Enable collaboration via email
    • Allow collaboration via online portals
    • Allow collaboration via cell phones
• Settle Load
  • Allow your company to realize revenue when appropriate, based on SOX compliance
    • Enable revenue realization when customer takes ownership of goods
    • Provide an auditable process for revenue determination
  • Receive the carrier invoice and matche it to a load
    • Provide visibility to rated and invoiced amounts
    • Assign general ledger codes to charge details if desired
    • Alert users to user-defined exceptions
    • Allow the shipper to manage their own audit process, including receipt of proof-of-deliveries
    • Load unmatched invoices and rates to allow simplified auditing
  • Enable freight accrual based on your company’s preferred process
    • Allow users to manage the accrual process to the charge detail level if needed
  • Allow allocation to appropriate parties involved in the load
    • Allocate costs based on items, weight, mileage, etc.
• Provide transportation intelligence
  • Operational reporting
    • Day-to-day shipment management
    • Exception reports
    • Audit reports
  • Tactical reports
    • Accrual reports
    • Missed opportunities
    • Dispatcher KPI’s
    • Carrier KPI’s
  • Strategic reports
    • Transportation spend by location, division, or any measurable entity
    • Lane analysis
    • Capacity analysis
    • What-if scenarios

Mojo™ – a route optimizer so simple anybody can do it (we can’t say 'caveman')

MercuryGate’s transportation optimizer tool, Mojo, is a simple-to-use tool to help users reduce transportation cost. Whether planning for a single location or managing all transportation movements from a centralized control center, Mojo will plan all freight movements. Mojo can take shipments from multiple locations (including vendors) and determine the optimal way to move the goods. In just a matter of seconds, Mojo considers thousands of shipments moved by multi-stop truckload scenarios, pooling scenarios, multi-pick and multi-drop continuous move options, LTL consolidations, etc. Mojo will not only show a cost savings option but will also tell you why a shipment did not optimize. No more guessing why this shipment was not added to a load. The Mojo optimizer tells you why.

Mojo leverages existing rates from the TMS and allows the user to setup new rates to consider when evaluating potential carriers. It is a very practical optimizer that can use rates and shipments already set up in the TMS. This gives the ability to any transportation professional to run the optimizer – no PHD required. Mojo even has a built in wizard that will tell the users which parameters best fit their freight mix and constraints. Combined with MercuryGate’s strong analytics tool MercuryEdge, the transportation professional is armed with a powerful toolset to support even the most robust modeling/operational demands.

Figure 5: Mojo showing interactive map with continuous move highlighted.

Meet a few of our customers……