IntelliTrans Helps Freight Rail Service Providers Improve Rail Operations 

 Managed Rail Services Eases Labor Shortages  

Atlanta, GA — IntelliTrans, the leader in global multi-modal solutions that optimize supply chain operations for bulk and break-bulk product manufacturers, discusses the recent service disruptions of Class 1 railroads that led to revenue losses and additional freight expenses for shippers. The National Grain and Feed Association estimates that the losses to the grain industry will exceed $100 million in the first quarter of 2022. Recently the Surface Transportation Board (STB) suggested short-term measures to address these issues, but many shippers believe these measures aren’t enough. 

“Today, because of precision scheduled railroading (PSR) and the focus on improving Operating Ratio, railroads are struggling to handle increased volume as well as network disruptions,” says Ken Sherman, president of IntelliTrans. “Many in the rail business blame the pandemic and staff reductions, but in the five years before the pandemic, rail providers reduced their operational staffing by 25 to 43 percent. The results have been very impactful. The railroads have cut so much from their operating budgets via labor reductions and idling locomotives that the industry has reached critical service challenges.”

Last week the STB considered several short-term measures for rail service improvements. Per an article in FreightWaves, “The board, the railroads and rail’s stakeholders are under pressure to tackle tough questions that could more comprehensively affect how the railroads run their operations. These questions also touch on freight rail’s long-term health, and viability in a transportation sector bent on an automated future.”

The US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the STB, “There is no single step available to deliver ideal freight rail service overnight. The federal infrastructure law enacted last year is a historic opportunity to transform both freight and passenger rail for the better.’”

However, the answers to the problems are just as complex as the problems. The STB wants to require Class 1 railroads to submit rail service improvement plans that include the headcount needed and anticipated recovery timelines.

“Shippers can’t offload significant portions of their rail transport shipments to the trucking industry because the volumes are just staggering,” said Brian Cupp, Director of Operations, IntelliTrans. “Plus, roads would become too clogged, trucks are less environmentally friendly, and securing truck capacity in the current tight market can be more expensive.”

Technology can help solve issues in the rail industry by automating transportation operations,including visibility into transportation management and managed transportation services to augment the workforce. IntelliTrans has over 25 years of experience in the rail industry, providing managed rail transportation services to monitor, manage, and automate freight rail services. For one customer, IntelliTrans was able to reduce the rail fleet size by 5%, despite increased sales; key customer inventory was reduced by 50%; and an issue where an average of 90 misrouted or lost railcars/month was resolved.

IntelliTrans offers freight management, strategic planning, tactical execution, in-transit tracking, freight invoice auditing and payment, advanced analytics, transportation management, yard management, reporting, and supply chain visibility backed by a team of experts who work with customers to help their businesses work smarter, faster, and better. Interactive dashboards make large amounts of data easy to understand. The advanced analytics uncover more detailed answers with machine learning to help businesses make more informed decisions and drive continuous improvement.

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Media Contact:

Becky Boyd
MediaFirst PR (M1PR.com)
404.421.8497
becky@mediafirst.net

IntelliTrans’ DockMaster Lowers Detention Fees and Eliminates Wasted Time in the Yard 

One Shipper Went from 64% of Loads Subject to Demurrage to 15% in the First Month 

Atlanta, GA — IntelliTrans, the leader in global multi-modal solutions that optimize supply chain operations for bulk and break-bulk product manufacturers, improves detention with its DockMasterSM solution. IntelliTrans’ dock door scheduling tool, DockMaster, is a SaaS-based application that provides real-time visibility to make scheduling dock appointments easier and more accurate. 

“Many companies pay insufficient attention to what is going on in the yard despite increased congestion, adversely affecting a driver’s Hours of Service requirements and, therefore, driver satisfaction,” said Ken Sherman, president, IntelliTrans. “Being a shipper of choice is crucial in today’s supply chain, and having dissatisfied drivers at your carriers does not result in that outcome. It is estimated that the trucking industry loses $1.3 billion annually waiting at customer facilities to pick up and deliver cargo.” 

DockMaster helps shippers and carriers improve communications and reduce errors. Planning labor to ensure workers are available to load and unload cargo helps keep drivers on the road, reducing congestion in the yard. Shippers use DockMaster to schedule pickups and deliveries by their selected carriers, routing them to a pre-assigned loading or unloading door.  

“Carriers charge accessorial fees to shippers to drive better behavior. Detention time is a big issue for fleets and can lead to demurrage fees that eat into profits,” adds Sherman. “IntelliTrans DockMaster improves efficiencies and reduces wait times. It also reduces excess greenhouse gas emissions caused by trucks idling at your facilities.” 

With DockMaster, shippers get real-time visibility into what is happening in the yard. They can configure an appointment book for any location in minutes based on its business rules. Carriers schedule dock appointments online, and they know which products to load, the hours ofoperation of the shipper, shipping instructions, and more. With DockMaster, bottlenecks at the dock or in the yard are eliminated. One shipper went from 64% of loads subject to demurrage to 15% in the first month DockMaster was deployed for them. 

Outbound and subsequent inbound scheduling can provide advance shipping notifications and proofs of delivery throughout the supply chain. DockMaster is also a module within theIntelliTrans TMS, allowing users to manage their rail, truck, intermodal, ocean, and barge shipments in a single platform. 

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 Media Contact:
Becky Boyd
MediaFirst PR (M1PR.com)
404.421.8497
becky@mediafirst.net

IntelliTrans Wins Inbound Logistics Magazine Top 100 Logistics IT Award

Chosen for Providing End-to-End Visibility, Enhancing Data, and Automating Business Processes 

Atlanta, GA — April 5, 2022 — IntelliTrans, the leader in global multi-modal solutions for optimizing supply chain operations for bulk & break-bulk industries, announces the company has won the Inbound Logistics Top 100 Logistics IT Provider award. Inbound Logistics‘ editors value choosing providers whose solutions are central to solving transportation, logistics, and supply chain challenges and whose customer successes are well-documented. IntelliTrans was selected for providing end-to-end visibility across the supply chains of global businesses, aggregating and enhancing data with proprietary machine learning technology, and automating business processes to improve profitability.

“The importance of supply chain and logistics technology solutions have been brought to the forefront for many companies due to the business disruptions of the past few years,” said Felecia Stratton, Editor of Inbound Logistics. “Our readers rely on technology solutions to recover from disruptions, drive efficiencies, provide visibility, and hone execution.”

“IntelliTrans is honored to be recognized by Inbound Logistics for innovative solutions empowering logistics and supply chain excellence in 2022,” said Ken Sherman, president of IntelliTrans. “In this time where businesses are still reeling from supply chain disruptions, our clients benefit from managed transportation services where we help them reduce overall supply chain costs, improve carrier and asset utilization, and streamline processes and workflow.”

IntelliTrans offers the only SaaS-based TMS that provides shipment execution and visibility across rail, truck, intermodal, barge, and ocean shipments. The IntelliTrans Global Visibility Platform℠ includes multi-modal command and control features that give unprecedented visibility into fleet and non-fleet equipment to proactively manage shipments from origin to destination, focusing on exceptions and enhancing customer experience. Global Vendor Managed Inventory℠ (GVMI) is a web-based service offered by IntelliTrans that utilizes sensor technology and six sigma data analysis to optimize supply chain and operations management. Customers save money by reducing inventory and shipment costs.

Each year, Inbound Logistics develops a list of the Top 100 Logistics IT Providers. IL editors research capabilities based on submitted questionnaires and other sources, then select 100 technology providers offering solutions designed to meet business logistics managers’ supply chain challenges. The editorial selection team had their work cut out for them, ultimately selecting only 100 technology solutions leaders from the 400+ candidate pool. 

Inbound Logistics‘ editors value choosing providers whose solutions are central to solving transportation, logistics, and supply chain challenges and whose customer successes are well-documented. This year’s Top 100 Logistics IT Providers include those serving Fortune 1000 companies and small and medium-sized businesses.

The Top 100 Logistics IT Providers list appears in all the April 2022 magazine editions and will be posted online by the end of April.

About IntelliTrans

IntelliTrans, a Roper Technologies company, provides unified and proactive solutions to manage complex supply chain needs. Customers are nimble and efficient with the global supply chain transparency powered by the IntelliTrans cloud-based Control Tower (Global Visibility Platform℠) and IntelliTrans TMS (transportation management system), the only SaaS-based TMS that provides shipment execution and visibility across rail, truck, intermodal, barge, and ocean. IntelliTrans enables complete, timely, and accurate data, allowing customers to automate business processes, improve customer service, and reduce operational costs. From real-time alerts to interactive data visualizations, IntelliTrans gives organizations the tools to ask deeper questions and deliver more impactful results. Website: www.intellitrans.com.

Media Contact:
Becky Boyd
MediaFirst PR (M1PR.com)
404.421.8497
becky@mediafirst.net

IntelliTrans Helps Address Supply Chain Talent Shortage with Automation and Freight Management Services

 Dispatch Oversight Services, Intervene with Carriers, Automated Spot Bidding, and More

 Atlanta, GA — March, 2022 — IntelliTrans, the leader in global multi-modal solutions for optimizing supply chain operations for bulk & break-bulk industries, announces freight management services that help address the supply chain talent shortage. IntelliTrans manages freight for customers by intervening with carriers, overseeing the dispatch process, auditing and paying freight bills, monitoring in-transit shipments, analyzing performance, and automating spot market processes.

 “One of the top trends in supply chain today is the smaller supply chain talent pool,” said Ken Sherman, President, IntelliTrans. “Organizations have to get creative with attracting and retaining talent, and also utilizing the skills of available talent in conjunction with technology to help these companies do more with less. IntelliTrans takes over the burden of attraction, retention, and development of talent with agile, resilient, and customer-centric processes.”

IntelliTrans helps companies address the talent shortage by:

• Overcoming the burden of talent management: IntelliTrans services are typically priced on a per-shipment basis.  By enabling shippers to procure freight management services on this basis, we enable companies to take what is practically a fixed cost in their organization and convert that to a variable cost.  Traditionally, if their shipment volume climbs, companies would have to hire people to handle this increase. If the shipment volume drops, companies must find work for their people. With IntelliTrans Managed Services, companies can quickly scale up and down as needed without facing these talent management challenges.

• Intervening freight management processes: IntelliTrans takes over freight management processes for your team, allowing them to focus on other key initiatives, such as driving continuous improvement. IntelliTrans oversees the dispatch process to make sure shipments get covered at the lower costs, audits and pays freight bills, and checks the status of carriers. This also allows the shippers’ employees to not have to deal with the tyranny of the urgent and focus on the goals they wanted to achieve when they joined their company.

• Automating spot bidding: The flexibility of the IntelliTrans tendering algorithm allows easy reconfiguration as market conditions change, giving customers the ability to choose from least cost carrier selection, to service-based selection, to dedicated fleet utilization, to spot bidding to a fixed rate offer. These can be used in concert with each other, and easily adjusted without software development required.  It allows customers to conduct spot bidding in an automated fashion where you put the load out to carriers to bid and set two thresholds on that process. The first threshold is to accept the load immediately if a bid comes in below the threshold, which helps to increase the ability to cover loads at the lowest possible price and avoids missing out on a capturing that truck and rate due to a manual review process. The second threshold is accepted at the end of the time period; if any bids came in below this threshold the lowest one of those is automatically accepted when the time period expires. The thresholds can be set to move with current market pricing, so you don’t have to constantly reset thresholds.

 A similar process can be used with our Fixed Rate Offer, where a load is put out with a price on it for carriers to accept or decline.  That offer can be associated with current market rates, and can even leverage what people often know as “surge” pricing to slowly increase the price until a carrier accepts, avoiding last minute rate hikes to cover a load.

• Implementing technology that automates the decision-making process. IntelliTrans reduces the manual labor needed to manage the spot bidding process while getting loads covered at a price the shipper is willing to pay. Companies can make decisions faster by automating these processes, doing more with less.

“IntelliTrans is an expert in freight management using the IntelliTrans TMS,” added Sherman. “Leveraging our technology and best practices from working with over 200 customers, IntelliTrans can be extremely efficient and effective.  Our customers benefit from these advanced freight management technologies and services that help mitigate the talent shortage and deliver value.”

About IntelliTrans

IntelliTrans, a Roper Technologies company, provides unified and proactive solutions to manage complex supply chain needs. Customers are nimble and efficient with the global supply chain transparency powered by the IntelliTrans cloud-based Control Tower (Global Visibility Platform℠) and IntelliTrans TMS (transportation management system), the only SaaS-based TMS that provides shipment execution and visibility across rail, truck, intermodal, barge, and ocean. IntelliTrans enables complete, timely, and accurate data, allowing customers to automate business processes, improve customer service, and reduce operational costs. From real-time alerts to interactive data visualizations, IntelliTrans gives organizations the tools to ask deeper questions and deliver more impactful results. Website: www.intellitrans.com.

Media Contact:
Becky Boyd
MediaFirst PR (M1PR.com)
404.421.8497
becky@mediafirst.net

IntelliTrans Gives Rail Freight Shippers Guidance on Carta Porte 

Non-Compliance Results in Fines, Seizure of Goods, Suspensions 

Atlanta, GA — March 10, 2022 — IntelliTrans, the leader in global multi-modal solutions that optimize supply chain operations for bulk & break-bulk companies, counsels its rail freight clients on the Carta Porte restriction, which went into effect January 1, 2022. After the grace period ends on March 31st, 2022, if carriers do not comply with these restrictions, they are subject to fines, seizure of goods, and suspension of the haulage company driving permissions. If a carrier is impacted, then the shipper using that carrier is also impacted.  IntelliTrans has added features to help clients meet these requirements. 

“Carta Porte is aimed at increasing the traceability of products moving inside of the Mexican territory, which in turn, will reduce the ability to evade relevant taxes,” said Brian Cupp, Director of Operations, IntelliTrans. Studies estimate Mexican authorities are losing as much as $7 billion a year in tax evasion as a result of goods smuggling. 

Non-compliance to the mandate can result in:

1. Seizure of Hauled Goods: If the vehicles transporting goods do not have the proper documentation, the authority may proceed to seize them until they comply with these requirements.
2. Fines: Reported to be between $800 and $5,000 depending on the severity of the issue. Most infractions are detailed in Articles 84 and 85 of the Federal Fiscal Code and Annex 5 of the Miscellaneous Fiscal Resolution.
3. Suspension of haulage company driving permissions: The transportation authority may suspend or cancel the transportation permissions of the carrier if they feel it is warranted (3-15 day closures are allowed according to the documentation reviewed).
4. Non-Deductible VAT: The VAT charged by the carrier will not be deductible for the owner of the goods being transported if all documentation is not in compliance. 

Carta Porte information must be transmitted and received through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) along with a Shipping Instruction application. IntelliTrans has developed TMS functionality and updated EDI mapping to allow shippers to transmit this data to the carriers properly. Additionally, IntelliTrans has been working with its customers to review relevant carrier updates on the Carta Porte requirements. 

“Meeting the Carta Porte requirement is critical to avoid further supply chain disruptions in an already constrained network,” adds Cupp. “IntelliTrans wants our customers to avoid costly raw material disruptions and make sure they can get their finished goods to market to meet their customer’s needs.” 

About IntelliTrans 

IntelliTrans, a Roper Technologies company, provides unified and proactive solutions to manage complex supply chain needs. Customers are nimble and efficient with the global supply chain transparency powered by the IntelliTrans cloud-based Control Tower (Global Visibility Platform℠) and IntelliTrans TMS (transportation management system), the only SaaS-based TMS that provides shipment execution and visibility across rail, truck, intermodal, barge, and ocean. IntelliTrans enables complete, timely, and accurate data, allowing customers to automate business processes, improve customer service, and reduce operational costs. From real-time alerts to interactive data visualizations, IntelliTrans gives organizations the tools to ask deeper questions and deliver more impactful results. Website: www.intellitrans.com.

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Media Contact:
Becky Boyd
MediaFirst PR (M1PR.com)
404.421.8497
becky@mediafirst.net