ShipperGuide or a TMS: Which Is the Better Choice for Your Business?

When it comes to freight procurement and execution solutions, there are various options available in the market.

Loadsmart has developed a freight procurement and execution solution for shippers that have the need to streamline their shipping operations, called ShipperGuide. 

But ShipperGuide is not a TMS. 

While a TMS is a complex system built to support large enterprises with intricate freight execution needs, ShipperGuide is a focused freight planning and execution platform tailored for mid-size shippers. It provides a straightforward solution with a user-friendly interface to procure and execute freight.

Here are the main differences between a TMS and ShipperGuide:

Target Audience

A TMS is often packed with features that address the needs of Fortune 500 companies. In contrast, ShipperGuide is designed for mid-size shippers with a freight spend of $1M to $100M, who need an efficient tool without all the extra - and unused - bells and whistles.

Price

TMSs have high price tags. For instance, a TMS implementation may cost up to $300,000, due to the complexity of supporting different planning, optimization, execution frameworks, and integrations.

ShipperGuide, on the other hand, offers affordable pricing, often 50-75% less than the cost of a TMS, enabling mid-size shippers to save significantly on their shipping management expenses.

If your annual freight spend is under $10M, you should expect to pay no more than $10,000 of annual software subscription fees.

Onboarding & User Experience

Implementing a TMS can take several months, sometimes up to a year. A TMS is required to cover dozens of use cases, so there is an inherent complexity to the training and operating of the system, inevitably resulting in hours of setup and training before you’re able to execute your freight. 

ShipperGuide excels at high-volume, low-complexity freight procurement and execution, which can be surprisingly time-consuming for mid-market shippers. The software was designed with an easy-to-use interface to help shippers reduce the time spent onboarding.

Implementation

ShipperGuide, a cloud-native solution, can be up and running in just one day, allowing businesses to start benefiting almost instantly. Our dedicated customer support team can also be used as a resource at any point and is backed with knowledge to get you up and running in a few hours. 

Procurement

Shippers often don’t get access to a dedicated RFP module in a TMS. But with ShipperGuide, you can access a top-level RFP solution that can simplify the procurement process, with only a few clicks. Some ShipperGuide users have seen a 70% reduction in time spent on RFPs and mini-bids, allowing them to have the time to focus on their core business.

Data Insights 

Inside ShipperGuide, you can access a data insights dashboard, allowing you to quickly analyze your operations data and understand public benchmarks. You can also download all your data to be used in your personal Business Intelligence software like Power BI or Tableau.

A Different Type of Integration: Dock Appointments

ShipperGuide can offer an integration with Opendock, which is currently serving over 3,000 warehouses and facilities nationwide. This would enable you to streamline your dock appointment process as well as gather data & insights into your dock efficiency, detention rates, and carrier performance levels.

So should you pick a TMS or ShipperGuide?

There is no right or wrong answer. Each Shipper has their own set of unique needs and must understand whether an Enterprise TMS or ShipperGuide is the best option to meet those needs. 

TMS provides more robust and fully loaded complex features for enterprise accounts that require sophisticated optimization solutions. But ShipperGuide can cover all those needs with a more cost-conscious solution & easy to adopt user interface.

To understand how ShipperGuide can meet your unique needs, learn more.