TMS | Varsity Logistics

Mastering Market Volatility: 5 Ways Shipping Software Helps You Weather the Storm

You can’t always predict the unexpected, but you sure can prepare for it

In 2020, a global pandemic forced our world into a lockdown, causing productions to shut down, surges in unavailable product demand, and delays at ports. In 2022, 1,743 entities were impacted by supply chain cyber-attacks in the U.S., a 235% increase year-over-year since 2017. In 2023, anticipation of a potential strike by UPS Teamsters triggered a defensive response in many businesses, increasing costs for alternative shipping options, stress and anxiety, and many other harmful effects. Uncertainty regarding capacity exceeding demand adds another layer of complexity, as businesses grapple with questions about how many carriers will survive or merge in the face of changing market dynamics. Not to mention, other threats of disruption, like natural disasters and labor concerns, continue to loom over the supply chain and logistics industries.

You might be wondering: What’s the point of calling out these examples of market volatility? The point is, the supply chain and logistics landscape changes rapidly, constantly evolving. At the same time, they’re consistently faced with irregularities and the unknown. The possibility of supply chain disruption can occur at any time, especially when we least expect it. So, how can businesses be prepared for the unexpected?

Not only understanding, but also preparing for these market dynamics is crucial for businesses looking to excel in today’s volatile shipping environment. An advanced supply chain technology solution, such as a Transportation Management System (TMS) or multi-carrier shipping software built for both parcel and LTL shipping, emerges as the strategic key, offering a variety of tools and capabilities designed to help you navigate uncertainty. Let’s explore how these solutions can set your shipping operations up for success against unforeseen circumstances and market volatility.

How Top-Tier Multi-Carrier Shipping Software (MCSS) Keeps Your Shipping Operations Resilient

From visibility to automation and provider expertise, here are five ways a robust shipping software solution can help you adapt to evolving market conditions and provide the control you need to weather any storm:

1. Enhanced Visibility: Industry leading multi-carrier shipping software offers real-time visibility into the entire supply chain ecosystem. Advanced tracking and monitoring gives businesses visibility to several factors including shipment status, carrier performance, inventory levels, and market conditions. This provides companies with the ability to quickly detect disruptions and proactively respond to any unexpected obstacles.

2. Optimized Routing: In times of supply chain disruption, a shipping software’s optimized routing capabilities can really make a difference. The software can analyze various factors like traffic conditions, carrier capacity, and delivery windows, to select the most efficient route avoiding any disruptions. This way, businesses can still minimize transit times and adapt to volatile market conditions.

3. Improved Communication: Superior shipping software platforms integrate seamlessly with other parts of the Enterprise Software Stack (ESS), ensuring smooth data exchanges and streamlining operations. This also allows for uninterrupted communication between shippers, carriers, and customers. By maintaining real-time communication between the different parts of the supply chain, it helps businesses keep stakeholders informed to swiftly mitigate the impact of unforeseen circumstances and vice versa.

4. Automation: The ability of a comprehensive multi-carrier shipping solution to automate manual tasks and streamline workflows improves overall operational efficiency and agility. Not only do automated processes reduce the risk of costly errors, but they enable businesses to quickly adapt to sudden market changes, ensuring high service levels even in unpredictable events.

5. Expertise: A top-tier shipping software provider’s expertise is invaluable when it comes to preparing shippers for market volatility. Experienced providers offer strategic guidance, innovative solutions, and proactive support. Leveraging their strong industry knowledge, these providers can assist businesses in anticipating potential risks and developing contingency plans to mitigate them. By partnering with an experienced shipping software provider, shippers can lean on a trusted resource to help them navigate turbulent times and ensure resilience in supply chain uncertainty.

Varsity Logistics: The Leading Provider of Multi-Carrier TMS Systems

While it’s clear that unforeseen circumstances and instances of supply chain volatility are inevitable, Varsity Logistics’ comprehensive shipping software solution is the obvious choice for safeguarding your shipping operations against them. Varsity Logistics is the industry-leading multi-carrier shipping software provider exclusively designed for shippers on the IBM i (AS/400) Power systems. Included in our parcel shipping suite are various robust functionalities and supply chain execution modules, built for even the most complex shipping challenges. As a premium shipping solution, we help you protect your shipping operations with our:

Supply Chain Visibility

Electronically linked via Varsity’s ShipTalk module, your shipping software is seamlessly connected to your carriers to provide your business with real-time, end-to-end visibility into various parts of the supply chain. This functionality gives insight to variables such as current time order updates, delivery status, and advanced tracking and tracing. The visibility ShipTalk provides gives companies the ability to swiftly identify disruptions and take proactive action.

Carrier Selection

Another functionality Varsity provides as an important tool in mitigating supply chain disruptions is our carrier selection process. Based on a list of criteria including transit time, cost, mode, performance, optimal carriers, and more, Varsity’s ShipSelect module chooses the best carrier for every single shipment. This kind of functionality offers your business an automated way to still select the optimal carrier option for your shipments even during volatile supply chain conditions.

Streamlined Communication

Varsity’s shipping software solution offers the most robust and powerful integration possible with IBM i ERPs, making it the clear choice for IBM i (AS/400) Power systems users. This seamless integration allows for smooth communication and real-time shipping data access, empowering IT and e-commerce teams to stay informed of any potential threats or disruptions, allowing for immediate collaboration and proactive responses. [Learn why Varsity is the preferred shipping software partner of VAI!]

Automated Workflows

Automation plays a big role in helping shippers mitigate volatility. Varsity’s ShipSoft-Parcel solution automates the entire shipping process from start to end, eliminating the risk of expensive manual errors. From optimizing shipment pricing to ensuring label compliance, our automated solution ensures quick adjustments to your shipping strategies in response to shifting market conditions, like disruptions in transit routes. Additionally, our ability to conform to business requirements and industry compliance standards guarantees shippers a reliable solution regardless of supply chain challenges.

Supply Chain Expertise

We absolutely agree that the experience of your shipping software provider is invaluable, especially with unforeseen circumstances consistently looming. Founded in 1989, Varsity Logistics is proud to share that we hold over nearly 40 years in the supply chain and logistics space under our belt. Additionally, the tenure of our services and support teams surpasses 120 years. With that much experience, we know best when it comes to preparing shippers for resilience against market volatility.

Additional Features

There are many more capabilities of Varsity’s shipping modules that go beyond this list, but it’s important to mention:

Auditing: Varsity’s ShipAudit module reconciles carrier invoices against the anticipated costs, eliminating over-charges, duplicate bills, or invalid charges. Overall, by protecting profitability, ShipAudit helps companies fortify their supply chains against disruption and encourages operational continuity.
Analytics: TransData is Varsity’s transportation analytics tool that provides shipping companies with access to organized historical shipping and carrier data, enabling them to analyze performance, monitor trends, and make informed decisions. Leveraging this data helps businesses negotiate better agreements with carriers and reduce costs, thus helping to mitigate the impacts of a volatile shipping market.
Containerization: The ShipOptimizer module revolutionizes shipping operations by providing companies with the ability to predict shipping costs accurately before product shipment, offsetting rising transportation expenses and enhancing warehouse efficiency. By optimizing the container packing process, this module enables companies to seamlessly manage complex fulfillment requirements, reduce operating costs, and minimize potential product damage, ultimately helping companies navigate the challenges of supply chain disruptions.

To learn more about the modules mentioned above and Varsity’s comprehensive selection of parcel, freight, analytics and auditing shipping solutions, visit our resource center.

Varsity Logistics’ industry-leading multi-carrier shipping software is more than a shipping tool; it’s an essential piece of your supply chain software solution helping to safeguard your IBM i (AS/400) shipping strategy against the unexpected. Offering a valuable set of capabilities, including enhanced visibility, optimal carrier selection, streamlined communication, automated processes, and provider expertise, Varsity provides the solution to equip your shipping strategy for whatever’s around the corner.

Ready to weather the storm and take on supply chain disruptions with confidence? Contact our team of shipping experts or schedule a demo to learn more about how Varsity can help you navigate the ever-changing parcel shipping landscape.

July 25, 2022 / By Varsity Shipping Specialists / TMS • Shipping Software • Supply Chain/Logistics • Technology • Varsity Logistics/ Blog/ 0 Comments

5 Ways a TMS Will Help You Weather Storms in the Supply Chain

Learn how the right Transportation Management System (TMS) prepares you for unexpected supply chain events and challenges.

A perfect storm of weather events, regulatory restrictions, the pandemic’s “great resignation,” and inflation are wreaking havoc on the supply chain and delaying getting goods to market.

Adding fuel to the fire is a new law, AB5, set to go into effect in the state of California that challenges the role of truck drivers as owner-operators. The result? Drivers staged actions along the state’s major ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland last week.

What can your business do?

Be prepared!

The most important preparedness tool is one that enables you to adjust quickly to changing market conditions. In most cases, that means having transportation management system (TMS) software that is plugged into the major carriers.

Read on to learn 5 ways that using a TMS can help your business adjust early to sudden market conditions.

Capacity

The main advantage of a TMS is that it gives you unlimited access to truckload capacity. This will not only help get your goods out the door, but it’ll also help you find the optimal balance of price and service to fit your needs.

Flexibility

The most valued TMS providers are flexible, giving you the ability to react quickly to changes in the network. The process of setting up new lanes, shifting volume, or finding capacity in markets can be intense, but TMS software is designed to make these changes as seamless as possible. The same is true if you want to scale space, labor, and transportation according to inventory changes at your warehouse.

Technology

A TMS gives you all-in-one capability for your shipment needs by providing both real-time visibility of shipments in transit and analytics to deliver long-term efficiencies. You’ll suddenly have full control of every aspect of your shipping operation.

Network

The best TMS providers give you access to a vast resource network that can help your supply chain expand quickly and efficiently. Now, due to their relationships, you’ll have new opportunities for volume discounts, lower overhead costs, and timelier service.

Expertise

A good TMS provider knows the marketplace of shippers, from small to large. Which means they can find a solution to any challenge. They have a greater knowledge of compliance programs and access to the online scheduling tools of every major retailer. This means you’ll avoid the costly fines that come with non-compliance. And don’t forget that your software vendor is also on top of market conditions and trends, so you’ll get up-to-date business intelligence on things like general rate increases (GRIs) to help you make the right decisions to mitigate risk.

Has your TMS helped you grow your business, cut costs, or avoid costly mistakes? If not, request a demo with Varsity Logistics and learn more about what we can do for your business.

February 15, 2022 / By Varsity Shipping Specialists / Varsity Logistics • E-Commerce • IBMi • Shipping Software • TMS/ Blog/ 0 Comments

Shipping in a Post-Covid World: What You Need to Know

When it comes to shipping, the pandemic changed everything. Here is how to remain successful in a post-pandemic world.

COVID-19 caused an incredible shift in consumer and business purchasing that nobody could have foreseen coming. From traditional in-store buying behavior, to on-line purchasing, nothing will ever be the same.

This includes the world of shipping, and thus, the world of shipping software. What are the major issues the shipping industry in particular is facing moving forward? Let’s look at some of the highlights.

3 Major Shifts in the Shipping Industry

Although the pandemic impacted every aspect of shipping, we’ve identified 3 majors shifts in shipping.

Customer Expectations

Throughout the pandemic, both B2C and B2B customer expectations dramatically changed. Consumers not only prefer, they now demand:

Easy on-line ordering

Shorter order processing time

Up-to-date, accurate communication about order status

More (and cheaper or free!) shipping options – in fact, according to BigCommerce, 90 percent of consumers now say free freight is the #1 influencer to get them to buy*

The simple fact is, most consumers are becoming accustomed to an “Amazon style” experience.

Carrier Demand

Parcel carriers don’t have enough capacity to keep up during peak periods.

Shipping Costs

Across the board, shipping costs and carrier surcharges are at an all-time high, with no signs of slowing down.

E-Commerce Sales

In 2019, e-commerce sales made up about 11 percent of total retail sales. By Q2 2020, that number jumped to a record-breaking 16 percent.

Carrier Capacity

The pandemic brought on a demand not seen since the 1997 UPS strike. The 2020 holiday season saw a peak that, for the first time in decades, resulted in supply exceeding demand. Volume restrictions left many high-volume shippers scrambling to find reliable alternatives to their normal UPS or FedEx shipping carriers. The result of this fallout was widespread. Costs to ship went up exponentially, and some shippers began exploring regional parcel carriers to offset costs.

Major pain points related to carrier capacity:

Carriers added COVID-related surcharges and peak shipping fees
Shippers started seeking last-mile delivery alternatives (USPS, DHL, or courier services)
Guaranteed deliveries cancelled
Lengthier estimated delivery times

How to Manage Your Shipping Costs

Auditing carrier bills is now more important than ever. Two increasingly important components of estimating shipping costs include validating shipment addresses and managing oversized shipments. Other peak surcharges by major parcel carriers might include:

Jan 17, 2021 to July 3, 2021
- $3.00 additional handling per package surcharges
- $31.45 per item Large Package Surcharge

July 4, 2021 to October 2, 2021
- $3.50 additional handling per package surcharges
- $40.00 per item Large Package Surcharge

October 3, 2021 to January 15, 2022
- $6.00 additional handling per package surcharges
- $60.00 per item Large Package Surcharge
- Over maximum limits will incur a $250.00 surcharge

How Consumer and Shipper Expectations Have Changed

The pandemic resulted in a dramatic shift in consumer behavior. They now have new expectations, such as wanting shipping rates and options that are clear, upfront and easy-to-find (both online and at point of order). They also expect as a standard:

Shipment confirmation emails
Detailed tracking info
Real-time tracking capabilities
Short delivery times
Free or discounted shipping

How Varsity Modules Can Help Your Shipping Costs

Varsity’s modular system can optimize your entire package logistics process, including address standardization, rate shopping, shipping and tracking.

Varsity sets you up for success in this new shipping landscape. We can help you:

Calculate or shop freight charges at order entry or on your website
IMPACT: Reduce freight costs; increase eCommerce sale opportunities

Compare or shop various LTL and Parcel carrier rates/services from within your ERP
IMPACT: Reduce freight costs

Unlimited number of parcel & LTL carriers can be added
IMPACT: Reduce risk of carrier capacity issues risk

Audit parcel bills in house to check for a multitude of carrier add-on surcharges
IMPACT: Reduce freight costs

Increase packing/shipping throughput with optional advanced work-flows like printing shipping labels at the point of packing or picking
IMPACT: Reduce labor costs by increasing efficiency

Automatically send shipping confirmation emails with tracking numbers
IMPACT: Help meet customer expectations; reduce customer service calls

Optimize shipments (containerization) – Let Varsity calculate the best way to pack the order based on minimizing oversize charges and overall freight cost
IMPACT: Reduce freight costs

Take advantage of deep integration within your ERP/WMS – Varsity runs inside of your present system
IMPACT: Increase efficiency

Allow for reporting against shipping data company wide
IMPACT: Make informed decisions on freight policies

Visibility to shipping information to anyone in the organization that has an iSeries/AS400 sign-on
IMPACT: Reduce customer issue resolution time

Shipping Software ROI

The power of Varsity speaks for itself. The benefits Varsity customers see in terms of a return on their investment are clear:

Increase shipping through-put
Audit parcel and freight bills in-house
Allocate accurate freight cost by order, customer, freight program, etc
Automate international paperwork
Rate shop & rate quote from within your ERP/WMS
Optimize shipments
Enable e-commerce

Ready to realize your shipping software ROI with Varsity? Request a demo with a Varsity Shipping Specialist to learn how our software can optimize your shipping program today.

April 13, 2020 / By Varsity Shipping Specialists / Varsity Logistics • Parcel • Supply Chain/Logistics • TMS/ 0 Comments

More Moving Parcels Equals More Costly Errors – Here’s How to Save Money

Learn how auditing these 3 areas in your shipping process can result in significant cost savings.

Shipping has become the new normal. Everything from soap to socks, from pedometers to pet food are being delivered to COVID-19-imposed, quarantined consumers around the world. Companies are breaking open cases to deliver smaller quantities or enlisting 3PLs to do the piece-picking for them. The result is a huge increase in the number of parcels moving through the supply chain to residential addresses.

Yet, the increase in parcel shipping to residences means there are more errors on more invoices. More errors on invoices means you may be paying more than you should for shipping. What you can you? In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the three most common reasons your bill might be too high, and what you can do to reduce the impact of invoicing errors and overcharges to your bottom line.

Wrong Address Charges

If any part of an address is wrong, your package could be delayed, held up or mis-delivered. This can be due to updated Zip+4s or incorrectly formatted or wrong addresses.

When a parcel is sent to an incorrect address, or delivery is attempted at an address that doesn’t exist, carriers charge a fee to provide the correct, deliverable address information back to you.

2020 Charges for Address Correction by Major Carrier:

UPS $17.00 per package
FedEx $17.00 per correction
DHL $17.00 per shipment

It’s worth updating your database with corrected information for the future, or to consider shipping software that is already integrated with the US Postal Service’s database. Make sure the data you use is CASS-certified, meaning it uses the Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) to check for accuracy against the USPS database.

Address correction charges only appear after the package is delivered, without any advance warning. That’s why it’s important to review your invoices and record any address changes for future shipments. If your customer provided the wrong address information and already paid for shipping, good luck trying to collect the extra charge! Shipping software that examines and corrects addresses up front can save you money and headaches.

Wrong Method Used

The second most common reason for invoice errors is not selecting the right shipping options from the start. Employees need to be aware of the most current methods, rates and billing programs to be able to find the lowest rates every time. Carriers have long lists of “Accessorial Fees” or what they like to call “Value Added Services” that are a significant portion of most invoices.

These charges are assessed for additional handling requirements, rural delivery areas and more. Some of the more common surcharges include:

Dimensional (Length or Width) Overage
Dimensional Weight Charges
Collect on Delivery (COD)
Delivery Confirmation (Signature Required;Adult 21+ Signature Required)
Address Correction
Delivery Reattempt
Inside Delivery or Pickup Charge
Fuel Surcharge
Third-Party Billing
Package Rerouting (Phone request; Web Request)
Delivery Area Surcharges (Remote Area; Metro Service Area; Residential Area; Alaska or Hawaii; International)
Return Pickup
Saturday Delivery or Pickup

While it’s easy to know if you should be looking at a Saturday rate based on the expected pickup or delivery date, it’s not always easy to know if you’re selecting the right service from the right carrier for the lowest price.

For example, UPS has 10 different service levels with 12 delivery timeframe options for sending a domestic package, while FedEx has 11 options for U.S. package shipping. Do you know all the differences between SmartPost, SurePost, and SimpleRate shipping and when to use each?

It’s also important to be aware of new offerings for residential deliveries and how those prices compare with standard/saver delivery options with a residential surcharge. It’s not unusual for a warehouse worker to send a parcel using a specific service to save money, only to have two or three additional charges added at the back end. Unless you are actively reviewing carrier invoices, it will keep happening. The key is to use what you learn about those additional charges to improve internal training.

If you don’t have the resources to do that, it’s time to consider shipping software that does the rate shopping for you. To use rate shopping, you would first enter your contract rates for each carrier. Then, when an item is ready to ship, the software identifies the best way to ship it to meet your goals—such as fastest, least expensive, or to meet a specific delivery date.

Carrier Overcharges

What if you are keeping your database clean, and you’re always choosing the best rates and minimizing your accessorial fees, but your invoices are still higher than you expect? The truth is, with so many line items, it wouldn’t be surprising if some of the charges on your invoice are just wrong.

Sometimes there are accessorial fees on your invoice that you shouldn’t have been charged. Most of the carrier errors, however, are for packages that were not billed at your contract rates. So what are your options?

You could hire a third-party service to do a line-item audit of your invoices for you. The downside is that they keep a good portion of the money you were overcharged. For some companies, the attitude is that whatever they get back, it’s “found money,” since they don’t have the bandwidth to do their own audits.

A better option is to use invoice auditing software, like Varsity’s ShipAudit. The ShipAudit module is integrated with the company’s ShipSoft® shipping and rate shopping software. With ShipAudit software, all overcharges are credited back to your company, not just half. Plus, having the shipping software gives you the tools you need to validate addresses in advance, keep your database up-to-date, and to find the best rates to satisfy your customers.

One Final Tip: Avoid Overpaying

Shipping costs are inevitable. To get the lowest possible rates based on your shipping volume, it helps to have audited documentation about what (and how much) you are spending by carrier and by service. While this information won’t save you anything on this month’s invoice, it will help immensely when it comes time to renegotiate your annual contract.

Varsity Logistics is the preferred multi-carrier shipping software solution for the IBM i (AS/400) platform. Request a demo with a Varsity Shipping Specialist to learn how Varsity can help you eliminate costly errors and save money.

August 27, 2018 / By Stephanie Muraro-Gust / TMS • 3PL/Distribution • Varsity Logistics/ Blog/ 0 Comments

5 Ways a TMS Will Help You Weather Market Irregularities

The right transportation management software will help you pivot quickly to keep your logistics program working smoothly

A perfect storm of weather events, regulatory restrictions, and economic unrest can wreak havoc on the transportation market in getting goods to market.

To adjust, here are five ways using a TMS can help in making you adjust early to sudden market conditions.