What is Shipping Software?

Introduction

Shipping software enables companies to streamline and coordinate their outgoing shipments to consumers. Key functions include comparative pricing on shipments, custom tracking and confirmation alerts, and bulk printing and editing of shipment info. After a shipment, the platform allows you to utilize templates and photographic evidence to manage documentation and order returns. These functionalities can help to improve and automate workflows for future orders.

Shipping software solutions are different from transportation management tools that are designed to optimize transportation routes and loads, or supply chain programs, whose scope includes the whole supply chain procedure. Due to its nature, shipping software often integrates with fleet management applications and e-commerce systems.

In short, shipping software provides shipping labels for companies to ship items, includes order management features so firms can track shipments in real time, and facilitates integrations with online retail sites and e-commerce platforms.

Features of Shipping Software

Analytics and Reporting

Identify trends in shipping processes, such as average cost per trip or cheapest carrier rates. This enables you to make smart strategic decisions based on historical information.

Rate Management

Find and compare favorable carrier rates in real time. Most solutions work with leading carriers such as FedEx, DHL, UPS, USPS etc.

Route Optimization

Companies that use a private fleet for shipping can decrease expenses by finding the cheapest and fastest routes to deliveries.

Drop Shipping

Enables selling for stores that don't stock all their items. Instead, after they sell a unit, the store purchases it from a third-party and gets it shipped directly to the consumer. Shipping software can assist to manage this specialized workflow.

Order Tracking

Track orders and enable consumers to monitor the shipping journey utilizing emailed tracking numbers.

Label Printing

For shipping labels or bills of lading, many solutions provide features to streamline label production for big batches.

Order Management

Sort and prioritize every order based on predefined filters, or you can manage manually. Most tools present a dashboard where you can view all orders and their status to avert lost packages.

Benefits of Shipping Software

Claims Management

A good shipping software’s detailed claims procedure makes it simple to report, file, and monitor your freight claims. Further, you can enable your co-workers to easily report damage or loss directly, and flag it for follow-ups.

Freight Bill Management

Finance managers will appreciate an integrated shipping platform as it makes handling freight invoices more accurate and faster. The system can automatically match freight bills to the relevant TO, SO, or PO. You can swiftly audit invoices for mistakes, added charges, etc. Also, your billing can be expedited on Prepaid & Add Sales by utilizing accurate estimates produced, or you can get the actual fees for most shipments the next morning.

Shipment Routing and Tendering

Accelerate your shipment routing and tendering workflow. Minimize freight expenses by making smarter routing decisions and using more options. A quality shipping platform allows you to perform advance planning or you can prefer to manage as you go. The application enables you to input an order, compare all choices and select the best carrier, produce labels and a bill of lading, and alert the carrier to pick up the product. Further, you can use multi-stop route building and order consolidation to save money.

Tracking, Visibility, and Reports

An effective shipping tool allows you to monitor any shipment with any carrier. Simply input your sales order or another control number to obtain your shipment details. Full visibility allows you to track your orders and identify problem shipments. Also, you can drill down deeper into an order, create notes, and delegate shipments for others to review or handle. A simple-to-use report generator assists you to produce custom reports and export them swiftly to Excel.

Rate Quoting and Effortless Comparisons

A good shipping software enables you to rapidly compare the freight expenses and transit times of all your expedited, truckload, and LTL carriers. You can see details, forward them to your team members, or save them for updating or future reference. In addition, you can set up flexible business rules to manage which carriers are available under different criteria like shipment size, product type, or lane.