A little more about our system
Evaluating the profitability of truckload shipments seems simple enough: rates are expressed in cents per mile. The major cost, labor, is paid the same way. When one looks deeper, however, truckload service is much more than a linehaul move from one point to another. Loading and unloading, stop-offs in transit, headhaul/backhaul implications, varying pay scales, use of owner-operators and empty mile allocations all complicate the task. And even the simplest of calculations can be burdensome if it has to be repeated over and over.
To address these problems, SMC3 developed the Truckload Cost Information System.
TL/CIS is activity-based carrier profitability software for motor carriers operating in a LTL Loaded-To-Ride environment. It develops the cost of moving individual loads, of making specific trips, and of handling entire customers. The system does this easily on a historical or prospective basis, using a specially designed model containing personal carrier financial and traffic records.
TL/CIS interfaces with mileage calculation programs to make the costing process as automated as possible.
TL/CIS enables carriers to develop and store an unlimited number of unit cost levels for various categories of drivers by domicile and type. The program accounts for the cost of loading and unloading, whether drivers are paid by the stop, by the hour, by the hundredweight, or in any combination of these and other parameters.
Perhaps most important, this system develops round trip costs. Without round trip cost analysis, any cost system will simply show all headhauls as profitable and all backhauls as unprofitable. TL/CIS does more than that. It offers traffic profitability analysis including balance adjustments, showing the true profitability of existing freight and customers, and yes-or-no decision points for load acceptance, given likely backhaul situations or ongoing backhaul experience.