Transportation Costing Group, a provider of activity-based costing and profitability management solutions for truckload and less-than-truckload motor carriers, announced the latest version of its Cost Information System for truckload carriers. TCG says the newly enhanced TL/CIS solution provides all of the same applications and functionality of the previous software along with several new capabilities. All enhancements are included in the new version of TL/CIS at no additional charge for existing customers.
“The latest version of our software is the most advanced costing and profitability management solution we’ve developed for truckload carriers,” says Ken Manning, president of TCG. One new feature, Freight Impact Modeling, reports on the impact of removing specific freight for a customer or lane, drilling deeper to show the opportunity for an increase or decrease in profitability.
The new Driver Productivity Monthly Report includes indicators that can affect freight profitability, such as loaded and empty miles, hours and loads dropped. “This information can lead to effective decisions about driver hiring and training needs, an important part of carrier operations in today’s operating environment,” Manning says.
Other new features of TL/CIS include interfaces with ALK PC Miler to add toll cost information when costing freight. A new EZPass option accepts two separate source files to obtain actual toll payments and link them to the specific freight, making it easier for carriers making automatic payments to obtain toll costs.
The latest version of TL/CIS also features:
• Lane Defaults that include the ratio of driven miles to direct miles when multiple drivers are involved so prospective analyses reflect routing patterns;
• The Mileage Source displayed in individual load or shipment cost results;
• Purchased Transportation Overhead percentages added to the unit cost comparison report and generated automatically each time unit costs are calculated;
• Monthly Temperature Control Costs to avoid making ongoing seasonal changes by applying hourly reefer fuel expenses to freight requiring temperature control; and
• Expanded Mileage Parameter Checks to better guard against using incorrect mileages while not dropping valid miles.
“We continue to realize growing use of our latest activity-based solution for truckload carriers because the need for accurate cost analysis has never been greater,” Manning says. “Motor carriers operating in today’s highly competitive economic environment need the knowledge TL/CIS provides to improve productivity and profitability.”
