Transportation Spend Management: The Global Difference with Trax

A successful supply chain is the foundation upon which global leaders build their success. Companies worldwide constantly look to master the art of supply chain management, which has evolved to become an intricate science driven by sophisticated analytics—at the pinnacle of that science lies Transportation Spend Management.

Transportation Spend Management (TSM) is a data-driven approach to analyzing and optimizing financial and operational performance of your logistics network, as well as factors that impact spend and the delivery of value to customers. Refining it eliminates waste, enhances profit, increases efficiency, and sets you on a path of global domination. To master Transportation Spend Management, however, it requires a seasoned expert like Trax. Throughout this article, we’ll highlight some must-haves in any potential Transportation Spend Management partner and how crucial each is for the optimization process.

What to Look for in a Transportation Spend Management Partner

Trax’s position as the leading global authority on Transportation Spend Management gives us unparalleled insight into what criteria a suitable Transportation Spend Management partner should have.

Match freight invoices and contract rates

Ensuring that shipping invoices match contractual rates and procedure-to-pay policies is a vital step in streamlining and optimizing your processes. Variations between them can lead to unnecessary problems: stuck shipments, financial losses, angry customers, and resource reallocation to fix the issues. By optimizing freight audit and payment (FAP), you can mitigate the risk of that happening and keep your invoices and rates in check.

Trax's freight audit and payment service surpasses the basic matching process—it involves proactively anticipating possible future issues. Our truly global presence means we have staff on the ground in 10 global offices that support over 500 team members covering all global regions (Asia Pacific; Europe, the Middle East, Africa; Latin America; and North America). This allows us to conduct freight audit and payment sleekly wherever you are based and no matter your destination. Because of our global footprint, we’re experts in freight audit and payment requirements and nuances worldwide, giving you an easy and smooth experience.

Some FAP partners work from a playbook; we write playbooks for different industries and geographies. Our expertise, inside knowledge, and unmatched service allows us to provide leading freight audit and payment services on behalf of global corporations.

Use any carrier, currency, location, or technology

Globalization, although great for business, makes transportation quite complex—from hundreds of carriers to numerous currencies to intricate location-specific requirements. You need an expert to handle and easily navigate the nuances.

Trax creates a clear roadmap to success, swatting away redundant or irrelevant information and providing sharp visibility into what you need to see. Having multiple office locations and feet on the ground throughout the world means we’re comfortable working with any carrier, any currency, and any language.

Our carrier management services are unparalleled due to our decades of working with more than 4,000 carriers worldwide. We understand their strengths—and weaknesses—and how to evaluate their performance based on your needs. Trax’s tools, like Performance Manager or RFx Manager, allow you to automate and optimize RFP and carrier management processes, so you always get the right carrier and the right carrier performance for the right price.

Furthermore, our cloud-based technology means simple integration to optimize your supply chain and gather global data in one easy-to-use platform. Even if your global operations are centralized, our tools deliver insights as if you were physically there, making it easier for you to make informed decisions to grow your business while managing teams remotely.

Weild multi-modal, multi-carriers

Multi-modal and multi-carrier shipments are complex matters in supply chain management. Their complicated nature makes them ripe for mishaps and errors. Dealing with multiple carriers for one shipment can be a challenge, especially if something goes wrong. Having one focal point can lead to slow responses, but having many can lead to hectic communication lines. Multi-modal shipping isn't much smoother, as issues with handling, tracking, and conducting payments can be stressful.

We understand this better than anyone, and the answer is simplification. Trax streamlines communication, provides relevant information like performance and rates, and delivers reports that make sense of the compounding data influx from various channels.

Trax works with all modes of transportation and across any number of carriers. We supplement that expertise with technology like our Rate Manager that helps you identify the right carriers and get the best rates. Our expertise with global leaders in different industries (6 of the Top 10 life science companies, 5 of the Top 10 high tech companies, 4 of the Top 10 retail/CPG companies, and 3 of the Top 10 manufacturing companies) allows us to optimize your multi-carrier and multi-modal supply chains based on your specific needs. Be it sensitive shipping environments, heightened regulation requirements, or overall cost-effectiveness, we provide a roadmap so you can make data-informed decisions to grow your profit margins.

Partner with decentralized and centralized companies 

A company’s structure drastically impacts its supply chain management. Decentralized companies, for instance, find it more challenging to maintain efficiency—scattered decision hubs make processes slower and strained communication lines jumble information that leads to subpar decision outcomes. Centralized companies, on the other hand, find globalization more difficult, due to the lack of physical presence in foreign markets and the absence of local expertise.

Trax addresses both concerns. For decentralized companies, we optimize operations to become more efficient and proactive, eliminating waste and redundancies in the process. We also enhance communication and decision-making by providing a steady stream of real-time data, something 50% of enterprises are making a priority by 2023. We ensure everyone is on the same page. For centralized companies, our global presence and expertise make it easy to cover the gap of not physically being there. We have people worldwide, making the transition from a local or regional scale to a global one smooth and straightforward.

Automate and optimize to boost visibility and resilience

A Transportation Spend Management partner should have the expertise and capability to automate and optimize processes to bolster your supply chain resiliency, enabling you to adapt to market changes, something 80% of supply chain leaders aim to do.

Trax's Transportation Spend Management strategy is the foundation for digital transformation in transportation, as it enhances data management processes, increases operations efficacy, and reduces manual labor and costs. Our technology is our own, and we’ve perfected it to elevate supply chain management. It’s customizable to meet the needs of any specific business, building upon your company’s existing strengths and helping to remedy any weaknesses.

Our unmatched expertise that intertwines Transportation Spend Management with technological solutions has made us a leader in global Transportation Spend Management solutions. We understand what you need, and we know how to get it for you.

Increase savings opportunities

Maintaining a positive cash flow in the 21st century has become an enormous challenge, but by cutting unnecessary costs, increasing savings, and choosing the best carrier for the job each time, you can enhance your cash flow.

Trax has a reputation of helping leading companies increase their potential savings, as our undisputed status as the global leader in Transportation Spend Management enables us to shed light on its intricacies. This includes highlighting areas of opportunity and unwarranted costs.

We’ve helped increase cash flow through various upheavals and optimizations. For example, ensuring compliance of invoices to meet contractual rates, eliminating late fees through better planning and enhanced visibility, and decreasing the number of claims by always choosing the right carrier for the job.

Our Rate Manager is the leading tool for companies that desire enhanced insights into global carrier rates and obtain the best prices every time. And tools like our Claims Manager increase cash flow, so even if the overall number of claims drops, if one does rise, our Claims Manager handles it smoothly and accurately, saving both time and money in the process.

Utilize freight audit as the stepping stone

Trax's freight audit and payment isn’t a one-time service, but a stepping stone to becoming a leader in the market. We help you use freight audit and payment to mature through Transportation Spend Management and obtain a fully optimized global supply chain.

Once you optimize your Transportation Spend Management through Trax's original Transportation Spend Management Maturity Model, you can become an industry leader, weathering any storm and widening the gap between you and the competition. The enhanced visibility and unwavering control you'll have over your transportation spend and supply chain will allow you to make market-altering, data-driven decisions that take your business to the next level.

Trax's Transportation Spend Management Maturity Model

Trax's Transportation Spend Management Maturity Model is a framework that provides a roadmap for large, global enterprises to shift from a lack of visibility and control to a fully optimized and accurate data-based transportation supply chain for all modes and geographies.

Trax's maturity model is the pinnacle of Transportation Spend Management, a refined strategy that has constantly proven its ability to transform companies. As the global leader of Transportation Spend Management, we can guide any company ambitious enough through the maturity model and onto the path of becoming a market leader.

The Perfect Transportation Spend Management Partner

Finding a distinguished Transportation Spend Management partner is a challenge. The right partner should be able to work in any part of the world, with any currency and regulation, combined with expertise in supply chain digital transformation, automation, financial processes, and operations.

Our stature at Trax as the leading specialist in Transportation Spend Management, as well as our truly global presence, makes us the perfect partner to help you take your supply chain to the next level. Trax’s Transportation Spend Management Maturity Model is the leading framework for companies to fully optimize their supply chains and become dominant global leaders within their industries. To partner with Trax to optimize your Transportation Spend Management, contact us today.