TMS: TIME TO DITCH THE SPREADSHEETS
CTSI-Global: Integration Is the Buzzword While the baseline function of a transportation management system is to find the right carrier to create the right load, Honeybee TMS from CTSI-Global delivers a wide range of additional benefits. Honeybee TMS offers a few enhancements over a plain vanilla TMS. It’s integrated with CTSI-Global’s freight audit and payment service, leveraging
“We show clients options to save money—such as choosing a $200 second- day delivery over a pricier one-day option. They can decide based on cost and timing, knowing exactly what the premium is.”
ALLAN J. MINER CEO, CT Logistics
historical data to drive Honeybee TMS rate engines and predictive
have access to a suite of analytical services and historical data. Having a full suite of services is the value-added proposition,” Miner says. “The TMS alone is a per-load service that includes pricing information but not the analytics and historical data of year-to-date and year-over-year comparisons.” Carriers can sign up to participate in TranSaver to secure business that’s a good fit for their network. They can also access data, review volumes and weights in their lanes, and obtain information about the customers and loads. “A carrier can see, for example, that one million pounds moves from Cleveland to Chicago every week,” Miner says. “They also can see the number of shipments, and the weight and class, so they can micromanage the bid and get specific with their pricing. It’s premium freight because it’s under the CT TranSaver umbrella, and carriers see all the historical activity in their niche area.” niche area.”
analytics. The TMS consolidates orders, shops for rates, and tracks shipments, offering dynamic routing and multi-leg shipment capabilities. “Our TMS connects anyone who needs to move goods with the appropriate carriers,” says Kevin Beall, chief technology officer with CTSI- Global. “Whether they want to ship via ocean, LTL, or truckload, they input the shipment characteristics, and the system navigates through to the available carriers, along with the best price.” The combination of freight audit and payment management and Honeybee TMS provides shippers with insights based on historical rate data. “We leverage some aspects of our freight audit and pay to support the rate engine, which allows our TMS to be a single place for vendors or outbound shippers to tender shipments from an order into a load and then track it until delivery,” Beall says.
TranSaver allows users to make informed decisions based on their needs. Clients have the flexibility to choose between expedited or cost-effective delivery options. The system shows not only cost but also delivery days and the associated rate options for a two-day vs. a four-day delivery window, for example. “We show clients options to save money—such as choosing a $200 second-day delivery over a pricier one- day option,” says Allan J. Miner, CEO of CT Logistics. “They can decide based on cost and timing, knowing exactly what the premium is.” Once the shipper selects the carrier and transit time, the platform creates the bill of lading and tenders the load to optimize efficiency. Data Behind the Scenes Shippers can select the best rates and delivery schedules with the click of a few buttons. But behind the scenes are terabytes of data that date back many years. Each shipment record can contain up to 1,000 data elements that create insights for data-driven decision-making. “We crunch the numbers and project rates and schedules so our clients can understand what the marketplace had been, what it is now, and where it may be in the future. They can make informed decisions based upon the analytics we do for them,” Miner says. Most TranSaver users are clients of CT Logistics’ freight audit and payment services, although the TMS is also available on a transactional basis. “Freight audit and payment customers
“The Honeybee TMS provides daily countdown reports
showing when ocean shipping is still viable before costs jump 10 to 20 times with air freight. With the right planning, companies can build a much more efficient supply chain.” KEVIN BEALL CTO, CTSI-GLOBAL
42 Inbound Logistics • May 2025
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