Logistics Business Network – Freight Collaboration Option

Transporting goods from once place to another may not be the core-competency of many manufacturers/shippers. Hence, most of the manufacturers/shippers subcontracts the physical transportation process to external carriers rather than maintaining an internal fleet. In such scenarios, communication with the carriers is very critical. Carrier should know the details of the transportation requirements of the shipper/manufacturer and accordingly communicate their availability to execute the movement. Subsequently, during execution, carrier should report various shipment statuses to the shipper/LSP (Logistic Service Providers). They should be able to receive this information and capture it in the documents for tracking. Once the shipment is executed, the carrier should be able to communicate the invoice details and the shipper/LSP must evaluate these details to process the payment. Based on the mode of transport and other business requirements, additional communication may be required. For example, communication of shipping instructions & customs manifest, freight rates, ocean schedule, appointment information etc… Depending on the complexity and volume of communication, these communications are usually through phone calls, emails, external portals, third parties, electronic data interchange (EDI) or other means.

SAP TM Solutions:

Currently on-premise SAP Transportation Management (TM) solution has many solutions to communicate with carriers. Some of the most commonly used functionalities are:

1. 1. EMAIL / SMS:

For outbound communication to carriers, using Post Processing Framework emails can be triggered from TM documents such as Freight Order. For tendering process, there are out-of-the-box solutions available for emails and SMS (inbound and outbound). The content in the email and SMS can be configured. This is a common method to communicate with carriers if the volume is less and the shippers/carriers are comfortable handling the shipments via emails and SMS.