McLeod TMS Review

Today, I am going to be reviewing a product that is used by freight brokerages to keep track of many parts of the business in one place. This program that I am reviewing is called a Transportation Management System, or TMS for short. There are a lot of companies that provide TMS services, but the one that I will be focusing on is from McLeod Software. If you are not familiar with the TMS systems and what they do, then I suggest you visit this link for a short post I made that describes the basics of what a TMS is.

McLeod software created a TMS that is used by many freight brokerages in the United States. It has a lot of features that help brokerages have more success. The TMS provides integrated capabilities for all departments of a brokerage so they can access more information and be able to communicate more efficiently and effectively.

I have had experience with the McLeod system at a freight brokerage I interned with. Personally, I was completely lost with the program when I first started. We did not have any formal training on how to use the program, but by observing others who were more familiar with the system, I learned how to do the most basic functions of the program. Watching others work the program did not help me learn how to use it. I played around with the TMS when I was between training sessions and learned even more about it. The navigation to the numerous different screens confused me the most, but by doing the basic functions and becoming more familiar with it, I eventually learned about the more advanced functions of the program.

One of the more advanced functions I mentioned was the Rate Index Calculator. This program allows the user to view the rates for different lanes. All you have to do is put in the city names for the pickups and the deliveries, and then you decide if it is a dry van or a refrigerated unit. Once you have put in what you want to know, the program will take information from your company and all of McLeod users to get an average of how much a lane is selling for. These numbers help gauge how much the brokerage wants to bid on the lanes. This is a very helpful tool so you do not undersell a lane.

TMS is also very valuable to tracking teams. This program has customizable boards that can be used to see all of the loads that are going through the company. The boards show the load number, the carrier name, the pickup and delivery times and dates, and much more. The loads are “built” by the customer teams who win the bids and information about the loads grows at every stage of the system. As the loads get passed along the process, the more communication between all of the teams is increased. One of my favorite features for the tracking team is how the load gets locked when someone else is in the dispatch screen. This prevents multiple calls being made to the same driver or dispatcher and makes the brokerage more efficient. If someone else is in the load, you can move on to another one that needs attention.

The call-in screen has to be one of my favorite parts about the program. This is where notes about the load are made by everyone who interacts with it. When you speak to a driver or dispatcher, you ask them questions based on the progress of the load. You would then use the call in screen to make a note of what was talked about and usually includes a current location and an estimated time to the next stop. This is crucial to stay ing on top of loads because there is a lot of transparency when everybody is looking and writing notes.

The biggest drawback to the TMS for McLeod has to be the sheer complexity of it. Learning to navigate the TMS is one thing, knowing how to use it effectively is a whole other problem. When I was first taught how the use the TMS, I was told to continuously cycle through the loads and look at the pickup or delivery time and decide if I needed to make a call. I struggled with this because I did not have much experience with tracking or the system, so I would miss some calls or call when it was not needed. I was part of a great example of what I mean when knowing how to effectively use it was a big problem. With the struggles I mentioned before about not knowing when to make a call, we implemented a part of the system that I had never noticed before. We needed to ensure that when we were done making a call in, we needed to change the next scheduled call to a time that would be appropriate. By implementing one column into the program, my job became immensely easier because I now knew when I would need to make a call and when I can wait.

I would like to see McLeod have some sort of training courses or seminars on how to use their system effectively as well as share some tips that might make learning the system easier. Once you gain experience with McLeod’s TMS, it is much easier to navigate and find what you need.

One last problem I noticed with the TMS was the remote access. The remote access feature was very helpful, especially when I would go to another office to work, but it was extremely slow. I was part of the tracking team at the time, and McLeod required me to open multiple windows per load in order to get all of the information that I needed. Each window took about five seconds to open, which made my efficiency plummet.

All in all, McLeod has a very useful TMS that when used correctly and efficiently, can allow the brokerage to increase its ability to communicate, book, and track loads. There are some drawbacks such as the difficulty to learn and the slow remote access. Given these, I would still rate McLeod’s TMS system with 9/10 stars. It is an extremely useful program that has helped companies achieve more success.

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