Choosing TMS Software: Key Features To Look For

If you're in the logistics or supply chain game, you're no stranger to the chaos that can ensue in managing transportation. It's a high-stakes balancing act, from juggling multiple shipments and carriers to ensuring everything arrives on time and within budget. But here's the good news: transportation management software (TMS) is here to bring order to this chaos, serving as a platform for visibility and control across your operation. 

TMS is not just another tool in your arsenal; it's the indispensable foundation that streamlines processes, optimizes efficiency, boosts service and ensures your transportation operations run seamlessly. Even so, it's crucial to note that not all TMS solutions are created equal.  

In that case, what’s the secret to finding the best TMS software? Knowing which features truly matter. After all, if your system doesn’t have the functionality to solve your specific challenges, you’ll end up frustrating your staff, spending more money on customizations and harming your return on investment.  

For your convenience, we’ve compiled a TMS features checklist here to walk you through the must-have functionality to look for when researching TMS software. 

By the end of this blog, you'll have a clear picture of what makes a TMS solution stand out—and how it can inspire a transformation in your transportation operations, turning chaos into efficiency. Let's dive in. 

1. Shipment Tracking and Notifications 

To deliver on time, you need to be proactive about your shipments—so tracking them every step of the way is crucial. With real-time tracking and visibility features, TMS software gives you the power to know exactly where your shipments are, whether that’s inbound materials from suppliers into your facilities or goods leaving your warehouses headed for their destination. Using GPS and barcode technology and by integrating with other solutions to power accurate updates, this feature of TMS software should furnish you with live data allowing your logistics managers to monitor shipments and vehicles in real time, track progress and proactively manage any delays or issues. Something that’s pivotal to both maintaining productivity in your facilities and ensuring customer satisfaction. 

But it doesn’t stop there—TMS visibility extends across the entire supply chain, ensuring that all parties, from dispatch teams to customer support, are operating from the same live data. For example, the best TMS systems have fully integrated route execution and proof of delivery capabilities that can automate delivery updates to keep everyone in the loop. Whether it’s notifying your team about deviations from the plan, providing automated estimated time of arrival (ETA) alerts to your customers or communicating with carriers about unexpected delays, these updates ensure all parties stay informed. 

What makes real-time shipment and delivery tracking indispensable is its adaptability. It gives you a detailed view of your entire operation. Moreover, when you integrate insights from other systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP) or a warehouse management system (WMS), you can ensure all of your data is accurate and up to date even across teams and locations.  

2. Carrier Management  

Carrier management is the backbone of effective TMS software. Simply put, it enables businesses like yours to build, maintain and optimize relationships with carriers. Even if you manage a fleet of trucks in addition to working with third-party logistics providers, this feature plays a crucial role—centralizing carrier data, streamlining decision-making and driving cost-effective operations. By digitizing and automating workflows, TMS software ensures your partnerships remain agile, efficient and aligned with your business goals. 

The carrier selection and management features within TMS software compare carriers based on critical metrics such as pricing, reliability, speed and capacity. This data-driven approach helps you minimize costs, ensure on-time delivery and improve customer satisfaction. Plus, this feature allows you to continuously assess carrier performance, using real-time metrics to identify areas for improvement or renegotiation. With clear insights into factors like on-time delivery rates and service quality, you can strengthen partnerships with high-performing carriers and address gaps with underperformers. 

What’s more, this functionality simplifies your contract management process. You’re able to track and negotiate terms, set payment schedules and ensure carriers adhere to agreed conditions. Notifications for upcoming contract renewals or performance reviews ensure nothing slips through the cracks, fostering transparency and accountability. By reducing manual effort and mitigating risks of non-compliance, carrier management fortifies your logistics strategy and drives operational excellence. 

3. Route Optimization and Planning 

Efficient route planning isn’t just about getting from Point A to Point B—it’s about managing transportation logistics in a way that saves you time and money. That’s why you need route optimization tools within your TMS. Using advanced algorithms, this tool calculates the fastest, most cost-effective paths for your truck routes—significantly reducing costs while ensuring you can reliably deliver on customer promises. 

When unexpected challenges arise—like severe weather, traffic accidents or road closures—the most advanced route optimization modules can flag deviations allowing you to recalculate routes in real time. This feature of TMS software also adjusts routes according to your delivery priorities, available capacity and cost considerations, ensuring disruptions are minimized and schedules stay on track. Such flexibility is especially valuable for last-mile logistics and operations running their own fleet in conjunction with using carriers—so you can always be sure you’re fully utilizing internal resources before incurring third party costs for last-mile logistics.  

This TMS feature can also consolidate freight, grouping smaller shipments headed to the same or nearby destinations and reducing the number of trips required. Plus, if you have multiple locations or need to plan in collections as well as deliveries, the system can incorporate those efficiently, reducing empty running and improving vehicle utilization. 

4. Load Planning and Fleet Management 

Load planning and fleet management features of TMS software focus on ensuring your shipments are efficiently organized and transported using the best resources available, streamlining your logistics operations.  

By storing detailed information about vehicle dimensions, capacities and restrictions, the system evaluates factors such as delivery windows, fuel efficiency and compliance requirements, like axle weight limits. Some modern TMS solutions even incorporate 3D visualization tools, helping you see and adjust how shipments are loaded for maximum space utilization. By automating this process, TMS software reduces manual errors, accelerates planning and ensures shipments are organized cost-effectively while meeting customer requirements. This is particularly useful in industries with complex transit requirements, such as food and beverage operations with frozen or refrigerated compartments. 

Fleet management functionality within a TMS system provides real-time visibility into vehicles, drivers and schedules, ensuring efficient dispatch and maintenance. This feature allows you to assign equipment, schedule routes and manage preventive maintenance tasks, minimizing downtime and extending the life of fleet assets. Advanced TMS solutions with route scheduling and planning software can also help you manage driver attributes such as skills, certifications, scheduled leave and Hours of Service compliance, ensuring all of these are factored into your schedules. Not only does this ensure you’re best utilizing your resources but it can also improve driver satisfaction and retention rate. 

5. Order Management 

Order management features within TMS software can streamline how you handle your incoming and outgoing orders. This feature acts as a central hub for overseeing transportation requests, ensuring seamless coordination between your teams. It captures order details from multiple channels—whether entered manually, imported from an ERP system or synced with eCommerce platforms—consolidating this information into one cohesive platform. This feature minimizes errors by flagging duplicate entries and standardizing order data. 

When integrated with your ERP system, the order management features of TMS software retrieve order data directly, enabling accurate and timely updates. From there, the system can consolidate and optimize transportation plans—giving you peace of mind that the final carrier and routing decisions are all based on the latest order data,  By consolidating transportation details and automating key tasks, this feature ensures that every shipment is accurately tracked at each stage, from request to fulfillment. 

The best thing about TMS order management features is that they can optimize the workflow between internal teams and logistics personnel. Integrating with systems like WMS, your TMS can facilitate a unified flow from warehouse scheduling, inventory management and transport execution. With some integrated solutions even providing intuitive dashboards where your teams can access updates on their tasks related to active, completed or delayed orders. 

6. Electronic Proof of Delivery  

Electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) is another key feature of advanced TMS software that modernizes your delivery operations by replacing traditional paper-based processes. Using mobile devices like phones or tablets, your drivers can easily capture digital signatures, photos or GPS timestamps to confirm delivery completion. This real-time data is automatically synced with your TMS, providing instant visibility to your logistics teams and automated notifications to customers for full transparency. 

The best ePOD modules offer full configurability, enabling your organization to capture the on-site delivery and operational data that suits your requirements. This includes not only proof of delivery but also supplementary information like vehicle checklists and safety inspections. And because all of this information is captured electronically and accessible immediately, it can be used for performance tracking and to speed up invoicing or other follow-up processes.  

What’s more, advanced ePOD functionality can standardize your workflows across locations, carriers and sub-contractors. With configurable templates and forms, you can create a pre-configured workflow that all your drivers must adhere to regardless of where or how the delivery occurs—you can even customize that workflow so drivers are matched with different processes for specific customer contracts. In this way, your ePOD can help you eliminate variability in processes, making it easier to compare performance metrics and identify areas for improvement. In addition, this standardization improves your operational efficiency and enhances compliance with industry regulations and customer requirements, creating a more reliable and streamlined delivery ecosystem. 

7. Automated Billing and Invoicing 

Another key feature to consider in a TMS is automated billing and invoicing capabilities, designed to eliminate the inefficiencies of manual financial processes. This functionality automates the creation and management of invoices by pulling accurate data from shipment records, delivery milestones and preconfigured pricing agreements. By ensuring consistent and error-free invoicing, this fully integrated TMS software helps you maintain professionalism, improve cash flow and reduce operational delays caused by manual errors or miscommunication. 

Additionally, a TMS can also simplify receiving invoices from carriers, ensuring seamless collaboration across your supply chain. With the help of advanced technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) and artificial intelligence (AI), a well-designed system will extract details like costs, shipment specifics and taxes, even if the documents include handwritten or mixed-language entries. It validates invoice data by matching it against shipment records and predefined rates, automatically flagging discrepancies or errors. If an invoice is rejected, a TMS system provides you with clear reasons and prompts the carrier to resubmit with corrections. Once approved, invoices are grouped into batches and imported into finance systems, simplifying accounts payable processes. 

With these functionalities of TMS software, you can ensure that invoicing and accounts payable processes are faster and more accurate—minimizing cash flow disruptions and improving partner relationships. By providing real-time cost visibility, TMS software also empowers you to monitor profitability and optimize carrier selection. Furthermore, automation significantly reduces administrative burdens, errors and financial risks associated with manual audits. So, all in all, you’ve got more control over cash flow and all related processes.  

8. Integration Capabilities 

As we’ve mentioned, integrating your TMS software can unlock additional benefits and process efficiencies. That’s why when shortlisting, you should ensure you prioritize systems that offer out of the box integration capabilities to help you create a unified logistics ecosystem. The best TMS software seamlessly connects with ERP, WMS, customer relationship management (CRM) and other systems. By facilitating a unified data flow across departments, these integrations enable real-time information sharing, minimize data silos and ensure synchronized operations throughout your supply chain. 

Advanced TMS platforms are designed with simple interfaces to accelerate integration. These solutions often come with pre-built connectors or APIs, enabling smooth data exchange with your existing software. Also look for a TMS solution that offers native connectivity with third-party carrier networks, shipping platforms and freight marketplaces. By choosing a system with this interconnectivity and a vendor with extensive implementation experience, you’re able to configure integrations with minimal IT intervention and ensure your TMS software adapts to your operations rather than requiring extensive workflow changes. 

This seamless integration enables your TMS to pull data directly from connected systems and provides visibility into inventory levels, order statuses and shipping schedules in real time. The result? Accelerated decision-making, improved accuracy, enhanced overall efficiency and smooth collaboration with suppliers and retailers—everything you need to maximize the profitability of your transportation operation. 

9. Reports and Analytics 

In logistics, data drives the best decisions. Therefore, great TMS software includes comprehensive reporting and analytics tools, transforming your raw transportation data into actionable insights. These tools help you analyze past performance, identify trends and make evidence-based decisions to optimize operations and reduce costs.  

TMS software provides at-a-glance reports and deeper analytics functionality consolidating data from different sources across your business. So, instead of sifting through spreadsheets, your management can rely on this feature to get accurate and detailed insights in an instant. This information can be customized to track key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your business, like on-time delivery rates, route efficiency, cost per mile and carrier performance metrics. This enables you to adapt to changing demands, enhance efficiency and stay ahead of competitors. 

In more advanced TMS software, reporting and analytics functionality is enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and business intelligence (BI), taking your efforts to the next level. These sophisticated capabilities can help you detect patterns in fuel costs, demand fluctuations and other recurring bottlenecks. For instance, AI/ML can identify seasonal spikes in demand or pinpoint routes prone to delays, empowering logistics teams to adjust strategies in advance. With machine learning capabilities, your TMS can refine its suggestions over time, adapting to evolving market dynamics and improving decision-making quality.  

10. Scalability and Configurability 

The logistics industry is anything but static. As your business grows, so do your transportation demands, which is why scalability and customization are non-negotiable features in any TMS software. Look out for features that ensure the platform will evolve with your needs, supporting higher shipment volumes, new geographies or additional carriers without requiring an overhaul of your system or workaround processes. 

Cloud-first approaches are a key aspect of scalability. By leveraging cloud-based infrastructure, you can easily scale resources up or down to meet fluctuating demands without incurring high costs for additional physical hardware or maintenance. This flexibility allows you to future-proof your operations while focusing on growth and innovation. Plus, a cloud-based TMS platform offers you enhanced security measures, such as end-to-end encryption, multi-layered access controls and real-time threat detection.  

Configurability is another crucial factor, ensuring your system aligns perfectly with your unique requirements. Unlike off-the-shelf solutions offering generic functionalities, configurable TMS software allows you to tailor workflows, routing variables, reporting formats, dashboards and more to fit your processes. This level of flexibility is invaluable for your business to optimize efficiency and foster user adoption by catering to the preferences of your teams. All without relying on costly software customizations or waiting for your vendor to make adjustments.

Aptean Transportation Management Software Has All the Features You Need 

Choosing the right TMS software isn’t just about ticking boxes—it’s about setting up your business for long-term success in the increasingly complex global supply chain. The ten TMS software features we’ve outlined aren’t just bells and whistles. They’re the must-have tools that can help you take control of your transportation operations, cut costs and keep your customers happy. 

But here’s the catch: not every TMS on the market delivers all these essentials, let alone packages them in a way that’s intuitive and easy to use. That’s where Aptean comes in, providing you with a user-friendly solution that your organization can easily adapt to and use to its full potential. 

With in-depth expertise and a proven track record, we’ve been helping businesses like yours thrive across industries—including food and beverage, manufacturing and logistics. Our transportation management solutions, designed by industry experts, are purpose-built to tackle real-world challenges head-on. From optimizing complex supply chains to empowering your team with real-time insights, our TMS does it all. It puts you in control and allows you to manage your operations effectively while scaling with your business as it grows—reducing costs and improving service simultaneously. 

At Aptean, our commitment doesn’t stop at delivering innovative, cloud-based software. We stand by you every step of the way, providing expert support to ensure you’re never left wondering, “What now?”. Whether it’s in-person implementation, 24/7 support or best practice advice, we’re here to ensure your business thrives—that's why we have a 97% customer support satisfaction rating. 

Still not sure where to start your TMS journey? Contact us now to discuss your questions with one of our experts or schedule a free demonstration to see how Aptean TMS can help your business.