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transloads.co is a platform looking to revolutionize transloading management by offering a comprehensive Yard Management System (YMS) tailored for various cargo types, including lumber, steel, and containerized goods.
Designed to streamline operations for yards, warehouses, and container depots, it integrates advanced inventory management, cost-effective cloud-based solutions, and customizable features.
Join us as we explore how this technology is transforming the transloading industry with its VP of Sales Adam Korzeniowski:
What are the key features and services provided by transloads.co, and how do they simplify and streamline transload management for yards, warehouses, and container depots?
transloads.co is a tailor-built Yard Management System (YMS) for transloading, designed with a keen focus on ease of use and affordability, specifically aiding small to medium-sized reload yards. Key features and services include:
Together, these elements contribute to enhancing operational efficiency and competitiveness, particularly for businesses looking to overcome the challenges posed by larger, consolidated competitors.
How does the cloud-based architecture of transloads.co help reduce IT costs for businesses in the transloading industry, and what are the advantages of the pay-as-you-go pricing model offered by the platform?
We’ve made several careful technology choices in our design process to ensure that transloads.co’s platform would contribute to reducing both IT and Operational costs for businesses in the transloading industry. These were our considerations:
- Serverless Architecture: It reflects a strategic technological choice aimed at passing our cost savings directly to our customers. This approach scales linearly with usage, enabling our pay-as-you-go pricing model. This would not have been possible otherwise.
- Reduced Deployment and Maintenance Costs: Hosting in the cloud eliminates the need for expensive IT staff. Our customers are relieved of server management, backups, and software upgrades, reducing overhead significantly.
- Hardware Agnostic Platform: This ensures lower costs and minimal risk as there’s no need for investments in specialized hardware.
- Business Continuity: Unlike traditional systems like Excel, our cloud-based model safeguards against data loss due to hardware failure. Accessibility from any computer offers uninterrupted business operations.
- Pay-Per-Payload Pricing Model: This is particularly beneficial for new businesses, offering a professional management system with minimal financial risk. It allows for immediate efficiency gains without waiting for more substantial financial resources, thus supporting business growth from the outset. For more established reload yards, this pricing model can offer substantial cost reduction if they are subject to large seasonal variations in volumes of loads processed. This can be the case for transloads that specialize in a single commodity such as lumber.
How does transloads.co cater to the unique needs of handling different types of cargo, such as lumber, steel, dimensional cargo, serialized goods, and ISO containers, and what customization options are available for cargo requirements?
Different types of cargo come with particular handling and storage requirements and transloads.co is expertly designed to cater to this diversity with its flexible and customizable system:
- Versatile Storage and Location Management: The platform is designed for efficient space utilization, accommodating a variety of storage methods. This includes everything from long, unstructured aisles for lumber or steel storage in outdoor lots, to palletized, floor-loaded, or rack-stored items in warehouses, to floor-loaded shipping containers in open-air depots, and even bulk commodities in railcars, tanks, hoppers, or silos.
- Custom Data Tagging: Acknowledging the unique identification needs of different commodities, like steel requiring Heat and Batch Numbers, our system offers custom fields for each inventory type and customer account. This feature ensures that the platform is adaptable to the specific needs of each reload yard.
- Customizable Platform: Managers have the flexibility to define multiple location and storage management schemas, add custom fields to inventory types, and incorporate additional quality control steps in the shipment handling process. This adaptability ensures the system can efficiently manage a broad spectrum of commodities, from lumber and steel to serialized goods, ISO containers, and bulk commodities, tailoring to the unique operational demands imposed by their customers.
Can you explain the remote management capabilities provided by transloads.co and how they support yard management during times when physical management on-site is not possible?
transloads.co’s remote management capabilities are a cornerstone of its utility, especially when managing from the office isn’t feasible or convenient.
Being cloud-based means that the system can be accessed from anywhere, be it an office, the field, or from home.
This flexibility is crucial for daily planning and field operations, as it allows managers and team members to stay connected to their data via any mobile device, tablet, or phone.
Additionally, the platform’s capability for task assignment fosters full team engagement and optimizes skill utilization.
This is crucial to ensuring that operations continue smoothly, irrespective of physical location constraints, and helps in maximizing the efficiency of the entire team.
What inventory management features does transloads.co offer, and how does it handle dimensional cargo, serialized goods, bulk commodities, and inventory tracking in railcars, yards, warehouses, and shipping containers?
Our inventory management capabilities are tailored to handle a wide array of cargo types and storage situations. The system includes comprehensive inventory management features like real-time inventory tracking, barcode scanning, and detailed reporting.
Additionally, it offers automatic space utilization tracking, which is updated as inventory is unloaded, placed, and picked, thereby allowing us monitor storage utilization and optimize picking order.
This is especially effective in managing diverse commodity types across various location and storage schemas.
Furthermore, transloads.co specifically addresses the unique challenges of managing inventory in railcars, a dynamic environment as compared to fixed warehouse locations, handling the variable and transient nature of storage within railcars that frequently change position and location.
We worked closely with our early customers to make sure the system facilitates efficient inbound and outbound shipments with several advanced features:
- Performance Metrics: The system captures key timestamps in each shipment’s lifecycle, providing detailed reporting capabilities. This data is crucial for tracking performance metrics, allowing for a comparison with both the business’s averages and broader industry standards, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
- Demurrage Management: For reload terminals handling railcars, the platform tracks the time each railcar spends on track in the yard, assisting in managing demurrage charges and disputing unwarranted fees from serving railroad.
- Document Centralization and Automation: transloads.co centralizes all related documents and photos in the cloud. It automates sending Proof of Delivery (POD) and Proof of Shipment (POS) emails, including attached photos and documents, thus optimizing operations and customer experience.
- Electronic Documentation and e-Signatures: The platform automatically generates electronic Pick Lists and printable Bill of Lading (BOL) documents. It also collects BOL e-signatures from drivers, streamlining the documentation process and enhancing efficiency.
Can you explain the role of transloads.co in track management, including mobile and desktop interfaces, spot position-on-track management, and tracking inbound and outbound railcars?
transloads.co plays a crucial role in track management for transload terminals handling railcars, designed to support a wide array of rail-based shipment scenarios.
This includes managing both inbound inventory arriving by rail for outbound truck shipments and vice versa.
The system handles inventory stored in and unloaded directly from railcars or stored temporarily in the yard. A key feature is mapping car positions on each track, accommodating the frequent railcar movements.
The mobile app empowers field crew to update railcar positions in real time, ensuring accurate routing for truck drivers. Concurrently, the desktop portal provides managers with a comprehensive view of yard tracks, enhancing overall operational efficiency and coordination.
What account management capabilities does transloads.co provide, including managing customers, contacts, contracts, custom workflows, billing options, and uploading a product catalog?
transloads.co’s account management capabilities are integral to providing top-notch customer service, tailored to meet the unique needs of each client. The system’s design focuses on flexibility and customization at the account level:
- Account Management: Managers can capture key contact and billing information, services offered, and rates for each service. They also have the option to centralize all client contracts and agreements in the cloud.
- Inbound and Outbound Process Customization: Managers can customize these processes and add custom fields for inventories to adapt to specific client requirements. Furthermore, they have the ability to submit custom document templates for generating documents like Bills of Lading.
- Product Catalog Feature: Supports managing recurring inventories, where default data can be set at the product catalog level to minimize manual data entry where needed.
How does transloads.co simplify the invoicing process for inbound and outbound handling, storage, and additional services, including export to QuickBooks functionality?
We started by providing a flexible and user-friendly design which supports customizing services and billing rates for each account.
The platform’s built-in invoicing capability facilitates the creation of invoices based on account activity and services rendered, accommodating various billing arrangements for inbound and/or outbound shipments.
Additionally, it supports exporting invoices to both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, streamlining the financial management process.
The platform has received positive feedback from customers, and future enhancements are planned to further automate billing and invoicing, demonstrating our commitment to evolving and meeting user needs.
What are the implementation and setup processes for transloads.co, and how long does it typically take for businesses to get started using the platform?
The implementation and setup process for transloads.co is designed to be quick and user-friendly. Provisioning a new account only takes minutes, ensuring a swift onboarding experience.
Each customer is provided with a personal representative to assist in configuring and maximizing the use of the platform.
The duration of onboarding varies depending on the complexity of the operation, such as the number of lots, warehouses, tracks, and individual locations, as well as the volume of existing accounts to configure.
Typically, it ranges from a few hours to a couple of days. Manager training is comprehensive, taking about a full day, while crew members can learn the mobile app usage in just 15 to 30 minutes.
This streamlined process is a result of deliberate design choices aimed at making the platform easy to use, minimizing hurdles for new users.
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