Software assists transportation industry in cost containment
/EINPresswire.com/ Phoenix, AZ – April 9, 2013 – Ahern & Associates, Ltd has partnered with Analytical Management Techniques and is pleased to announce the provision of upgraded costing, tracking and management software options for truckload carriers, less than truckload carriers and freight brokers.
Working closely with these companies during his practice highlighted the need for these solutions to CEO Andy Ahern who has been working to provide and upgrade a range of windows based, laptop or PC useable software platforms for some time. Freight brokers have historically relied on gross margin estimations to determine charges to customers and wages to employees which in a tight economy and a fast-changing market consistently lead to problems with accuracy and forecasting. By approaching the issue from the perspective of a transportation and logistics consulting firm rather than a business brokerage or accounting firm Ahern & Associates has worked with AMT to provide programs that are specifically tailored to the demands of the industry and can be customized to deal with the issues facing specific companies.
Normally software packages with similar functionality cost thousands of dollars and are prohibitively expensive for the small and medium trucking enterprises that make up the majority of the industry as well as not providing the specific functionality they need. The newly upgraded software packages are aimed at overcoming these hurdles. They are not benchmark style programs or accounting software but instead are based on the user’s profit and loss statements. It takes about 30 days to completely populate the program with the user’s information but because of this process provides a custom result tailored to each user. After that the press of a button gives instant access to all the information that is vital to the profitability of a trucking company.
These programs have the ability to track a carrier or freight broker’s actual and projected costs and profitability on a single load, a series of dispatches or even a route as a whole. The objective is to help businesses to stay competitive within the marketplace by providing them with accurate data about real-time effects on their bottom line as well as giving them the information they need to accurately cost new opportunities. The programs can be used to track cost and productivity for pick up routes, stops, delivery routes, cross docks and line hauls. Information about time data, pounds per man-hour, load factors and other productivity measurements. The program can also show how variables such as changes in rates, cost, productivity, miles per gallon, business volume and other factors impact the bottom line.
Some of the details that can be determined almost instantly are revenues, total expenses and bottom line profit dollars. Profit percentage, operating ratio, gross margin dollars and gross margin percentage are other details that can be quickly discovered. The program provides a detailed listing of all the freight broker’s actual costs. It also calculates the revenue a freight broker needs from the customer to attain the desired profit as well as the amount that can be paid to the carrier to stay within profit margins. The information is presented in three ways: flat rates, rates per mile and rates per 100 weight.
To learn more about how these programs can assist with increasing profitability, please contact Ahern & Associates, Ltd., North America’s premier transportation consultants immediately at (602) 242-1030.
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About Ahern & Associates, Ltd.:
Ahern and Associates is North America’s leading trucking and transportation management consulting firm. The skilled consultants at Ahern and Associates specialize in mergers and acquisitions of trucking and logistics companies as well as the restructuring and evaluation of existing carriers that seek to increase operating efficiency and improve profitability. Since 1987, Ahern and Associates has aided hundreds of buyers in the acquisition of trucking and logistics companies throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as assisting many transportation and logistics companies in reducing their overall operating costs and increasing their profitability. For more information, please call 602-242-1030 or visit http://www.Ahern-Ltd.com