Bramvia — Business Central Experts
What a haulier or third-party logistics provider needs from its ERP: transport orders, a warehouse with bins and lots, route planning, costs per trip, proof of delivery and billing for freight, storage and handling. With the whole cycle in 3D.
Short answer: a trucking company or third-party logistics provider (3PL) needs an ERP that ties together three things. The first is dispatch: orders, routes, drivers and trucks. The second is the warehouse, with bins, lots and stock per customer. The third is service billing: freight, storage per pallet per day and handling per move. On top of that, it should show what each trip and each customer really earns after fuel, tolls and driver costs. Walk through the whole cycle below and see what happens with an empty return trip.
The whole cycle of a logistics provider
- Customer order by EDI, portal or email: pickup, delivery and goods.
- Inbound to the warehouse: receipt by SSCC, put-away and lot control.
- Picking and cross-docking: wave picking or straight to the outbound dock.
- Route planning: loads per truck, time windows and stops.
- Dispatch and documents: bill of lading or CMR, driver hours, tolls and fuel charged to the trip.
- Delivery and proof of delivery: signature and photo on the driver's phone.
- Service billing: freight, storage and handling on one invoice.
- Profit per trip and customer.
What the ERP has to do
- Fleet and transport management: trucks, trailers, drivers, maintenance and the cost of each.
- Dispatch and route control: which truck runs which trip, with what load and in what order.
- Warehouse management for 3PLs: bins, lots, SSCC and stock owned by each customer.
- Automatic storage billing: pallet-days calculated for you, so nothing is left unbilled.
- Profit by trip, route and customer, using dimensions.
For the warehouse side, see barcode scanning and directed picking. For orders from retail chains, see EDI with retail chains.
What Business Central has and what is added
Warehouse management with bins, lots, shipments, purchasing, invoicing and dimensions are standard. Dispatch boards, freight rating, storage billing per pallet-day and the driver app come from a transport add-on or custom development. In the US, fuel tax and hours-of-service data usually come from the telematics provider, and Business Central receives the cost per trip.
How we implement it
We start with the customer that is hardest to bill. We load their freight, storage and handling rates and compare the invoice Business Central would produce with last month's. Pallet-days or handling moves that were never billed usually show up. Then we connect orders (EDI, portal or email), the warehouse with bins and the driver app for proof of delivery. You pay for each phase only after it is delivered and you accept that it works.
Signs you need it now: storage is worked out by hand at month end; truck costs cannot be tied to a trip; or dispatch runs on a whiteboard and the ERP only sends invoices.
FAQ
Can Business Central bill storage per pallet per day? With an add-on, yes. It calculates each customer's pallet-days and adds them to the monthly invoice with freight and handling.
Does it work for carriers with no warehouse? Yes. Then the core is dispatch, costs per trip and freight billing.
Can I see what each trip earns? Yes. With the trip as a dimension, every revenue and cost line (fuel, tolls, driver pay) is posted to it.
Related: warehouse barcode scanning and wholesale distribution in the US.
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