Moving Beyond the Load: Redefining TMS with Network-Centric Intelligence

So let's dive into that because you all wrote a white paper called The Next Generation TMS: From Load-Centric to Network-Centric Intelligence.

Uh, tell me about kind of the backstory, uh, behind what went into making this.

Sure.

Uh, one of the things Midwest has always been good about is understanding, uh, round-trip costing.

And so what we struggle with specifically is everything is done, like, one lane at a time.

So but not all miles in trucking pay the same.

So if I'm going from Wisconsin to New Jersey, I'm gonna get a different rate than I am going from New Jersey back to Wisconsin.

So there's no standard mile in the industry.

So we were looking at different ways to understand the challenges that we face every day.

So one of the biggest things was, for us specifically, was trying to figure out with, uh, trailer allocations, uh, so pools essentially, uh, how to manage those, how to manage commitments to know what we committed to, how many we got.

So we needed to know if we needed to ask for more loads after the last four years, or if we were going above our commitment and we needed to renegotiate price or look at different things for capacity that way.

Yeah.

So it just became obvious that our current system, uh, did a fantastic job of, of getting us to where we're at.

We're currently on TruckMate.

Uh, but we were looking at, like, how enterprises function and just the level of detail that we were missing on a lot of these commitments.

And so we actually made the decision to switch over to TMWSuite.

Yeah.

So that's kind of the direction we're moving.

In my opinion, if we do it, we should be able to model it in the TMS.

If I can model it in the TMS, I should be able to plan it.

So as we started looking at the differences between, uh, TruckMate and TMWSuite specifically, what we realized with our business and how it's changed is we're doing far more drop and hook than we used to.

So when we used to be one-to-one on our trucks and trailers, Tru- uh, TruckMate was a fantastic product.

It kept everything aligned.

But what's happened is, increasingly, probably half of our business is actually equipment moves that aren't tied to loads at all, and we have no way in that system to be able to pre-plan that.

So as our business has evolved, really the need for a, a more complex product has, has kind of emerged.

So let's dive into that because you all wrote a white paper called The Next Generation TMS: From Load-Centric to Network-Centric Intelligence.

Uh, tell me about kind of the backstory, uh, behind what went into making this.

Sure.

Uh, one of the things Midwest has always been good about is understanding, uh, round-trip costing.

And so what we struggle with specifically is everything is done, like, one lane at a time.

So but not all miles in trucking pay the same.

So if I'm going from Wisconsin to New Jersey, I'm gonna get a different rate than I am going from New Jersey back to Wisconsin.

So there's no standard mile in the industry.

So we were looking at different ways to understand the challenges that we face every day.

So one of the biggest things was, for us specifically, was trying to figure out with, uh, trailer allocations, uh, so pools essentially, uh, how to manage those, how to manage commitments to know what we committed to, how many we got.

So we needed to know if we needed to ask for more loads after the last four years, or if we were going above our commitment and we needed to renegotiate price or look at different things for capacity that way.

Yeah.

So it just became obvious that our current system, uh, did a fantastic job of, of getting us to where we're at.

We're currently on TruckMate.

Uh, but we were looking at, like, how enterprises function and just the level of detail that we were missing on a lot of these commitments.

And so we actually made the decision to switch over to TMWSuite.

Yeah.

So that's kind of the direction we're moving.

In my opinion, if we do it, we should be able to model it in the TMS.

If I can model it in the TMS, I should be able to plan it.

So as we started looking at the differences between, uh, TruckMate and TMWSuite specifically, what we realized with our business and how it's changed is we're doing far more drop and hook than we used to.

So when we used to be one-to-one on our trucks and trailers, Tru- uh, TruckMate was a fantastic product.

It kept everything aligned.

But what's happened is, increasingly, probably half of our business is actually equipment moves that aren't tied to loads at all, and we have no way in that system to be able to pre-plan that.

So as our business has evolved, really the need for a, a more complex product has, has kind of emerged.