Introduction to TLP

The diverse nature of the activities of logistics companies poses many challenges. Resources need to be balanced to ensure good outcomes. Extensive investment in equipment items of various types must be managed to ensure a positive return is being realised on those assets. The various types of jobs, which can range from a simple cartage job to a multi-faceted contract involving the use of many items of equipment and other resources such as company staff, suppliers and inventory, must be managed to ensure deadlines are met and profit realised. And of course the logistics company may be responsible for client’s inventory and have a need to manage this, and also to ensure related storage and activity functions realise a positive return for the company.

The TLP Software suite has been designed with recognition of this diversity and a goal of presenting Logistics Companies with the ability to manage all aspects of their operations in one integrated system, while allowing the company to utilise specialised accounting applications for the things they are suitable for.

This document details how the system can be used to give an automated and comprehensive analysis of revenue and profits of the company operations.

Introduction to Operations Profit Analysis

Transport Operations can be quite complex involving many elements. These elements will generally include freight movements but not be restricted to this. For this document we will work through an example of such a transaction, show the inputs, the process and the outputs.

The example we will use to illustrate TLP capabilities is of two orders for marsh mallows to be picked up in Auckland and delivered to different locations in the South Island. To compound the issue we will actually sell the product to the end users. Management wish to review the financial performance of the entire trip as well as the movements and jobs within it.

The various elements of this example are;

• A full truck and trailer load from Auckland to Wellington
• The truck and trailer crosses on the ferry to Picton and drives through to Blenheim
• The trailer is then towed by another tractor unit to Nelson.
• The truck is then driven by another driver to Christchurch
• The product in the truck is sold to the client (we also charge them for freight etc)
• The truck was chemically cleaned which needed to be charged to the client.

That is probably enough to show a point. This document will show you the processes followed and the outputs obtained.

Job Entry

The two jobs have been entered in an identical manner to all other jobs. An example of one is shown below.

This job is for 25 pallets to go from Auckland to Christchurch. The second job was for 15 pallets of the same product to go from Auckland to Nelson.

The entry of the job is straight forward for the operator but the system has carried out a number of functions behind the scenes. These include;

• Rating the jobs based upon the rate cards stored within TLP.
• Determining the “best practice” method of executing this job and applying the various required actions to the jobs.
• Applied contractual rules relating to pickup and delivery times and stored these against the job. These can later be compared with actual times and will form the basis for DIFOT reporting.
• Allocated revenue to the items within the job in accordance with company rules set. When items are allocated to trucks revenue will then be allocated on from the item to the trucks.

Manifest Preparation

A manifest is created this being the document that will be used to manage the trip.

This manifest is reasonably intricate, reflecting the nature of the trip. It has a number of movements all of which are set up within the manifest. By breaking the manifest down to individual movements (segments) we can monitor loading productivity and profitability over every aspect of our operations.

This manifest has the following movements;

1. Daniel driving the full load from Auckland to Wellington.
2. The truck and trailers cross Cook Strait on the Sea Link ferry.
3. Daniel then drives on to a swop point in Blenheim. At this point he will unhook trailer 4.
4. Daniel continues on to Christchurch with Trailer 3
5. Todd takes Trailer 4 through to Nelson

Manifests can be created manually or alternatively a template can be created for manifests that are commonly used. These templates can be tied to a schedule which means the system can automatically create manifests for you, easing the work load of operations staff and ensuring accuracy.

Job Allocation

Jobs are allocated to manifests, and trucks are linked to the manifest. A job can be simply allocated to a manifest, meaning it will be automatically allocated to all movements on that manifest. Alternatively you can allocate a job to individual movements within the manifest.

In our example we need to choose the second option due to the complexity of this trip. A two part screen is used to carry out the allocations process. On the left side we can select the job to be allocated.

The screen above shows us selecting the delivery to Nelson. On the right hand side we select the manifest movements this job is to be allocated to.

All movements with the exception of the one to Christchurch are selected. Once selected the Allocate button is clicked which completes the process.

Having completed the allocation process the truck is able to leave and the first movement is now noted to be In Progress. This is then reflected on the job which provides us, and the client, with visibility of the job status.

The relationship between the manifest and jobs, with automatic updating of data, trip status etc forms the foundation of the freight tracking facilities. With the Mobility application this becomes a largely automatic function, providing maximum benefit with minimal work.

Freight Tracking      

As the trip progresses and status changes are made, automatically if Mobility in use, Operations are able to constantly review the job.

The screen above shows that the first two movements are Completed and the third is In Progress. This means the load has crossed Cook Strait and is now on the way to the swop point at Blenheim. Operations staff also have visibility of loading levels and the revenue that has been allocated to the various movements and can use this to make decisions aimed at maximising loading efficiency.

In our example Operations have found another Blenheim job (see below) which had 4 pallets and could fit on Todd’s truck.

It was therefore allocated to the appropriate Movement, increasing the efficiency and profitability of the load and the entire trip.

By drilling down on the Movement we now see that the loading of the truck is much better, it now having an additional 4 pallets, and more revenue is being earned by.

Completion of Trip

Manifest

Upon completion of the trip the manifest can be costed. Costing rules are applied against every Movement individually and summed up to calculate the overall Manifest or trip cost. The costs are based upon rate cards set up for this purpose. These could be kilometre costs, trip rates, tonne rates and so on.

The costs in conjunction with the revenue allocated from jobs gives you a detailed financial analysis of the overall trip.

Job

Costs are allocated back against the items carried and are then summed up to give a total freight cost for the job.

This shows job 550 with a healthy profit on the freight of the 25 pallets. The revenue of $3,570 is not the entire revenue of the job however. The pricing tab shows the full details of charges made.

This job also has charge lines for the purchase of the product and a cleaning charge. Neither of these two charges are related to freight however so they were not part of the allocation to the Manifest / Movements.

Reporting

All the data that has been gathered through the operations is available not only in enquiry format but in the form of management information presented by the reporting suite.

To summarise, the information presented has been made available through normal operations functions these being;

1. Job Entry
2. Manifest Creation
3. Job Allocation
4. Manifest Completion

The reporting available includes the following;

Truck Performance

Reporting on truck profitability, detailing the various runs any particular truck has done can be obtained as shown below.

Driver Performance

Reporting on Driver profitability, detailing the various runs any particular driver has done can be obtained as shown below. Sub-contractors are treated as drivers hence sub-contractor profitability reporting can be obtained.

Customer Profitability

Reporting on Customer profitability enables you to check that agreed rates are working profitably and that you are profiting from the customer relationship.

The user can drill down to review performance from the summary line, viewing freight from pickup points through to the various regions deliveries are made.

Regional Revenue Analysis

You can obtain information on freight carried between the various regions and break that down to individual zones if you wish. This analysis includes freight volumes as well as profitability.

Manifest Summary

The manifest summary allows you to easily summarise the performance from your operations depots and then drill down to obtain a more in depth level of information.

A single line is printed for each zone a depot has picked up freight from. The user can drill down to analyse that zone by the destination zones. In the example above we have drilled down on Albany and see that all freight from Albany has gone to Christchurch.

Manifest Analysis

The manifest analysis provides you with an in depth view of trip profitability. At the summary level you can see one line per manifest showing profit data for the entire trip.

From the summary you can drill down to see each movement within the trip, note how productive this was in terms of loading and view profitability at a movement level.