INTRODUCTION

Profit Tools software is built to handle the special requirements of ocean and rail drayage, and to accommodate variations in the business process to suit your company's individual needs.

The following is a brief description of how an inbound container move is handled in Profit Tools. If you like what you see and you're ready for more information such as product literature, access to our pre-recorded demos, a copy of our free report: "How to Buy Business and Operations Software for Your Trucking Company," or to contact us to schedule free phone consultation or a live demo, click here. Take your time! Before purchasing software, it is important that you understand specifically how you will apply Profit Tools to your business needs, and that we understand your special requirements.

INBOUND: ORDER ENTRY THROUGH DISPATCH

Pre-Note Entry

Enter Pre-Note into the shipment screen by selecting "New Intermodal Shipment" and entering available information such as Container#, Line & Type, Pickup, Deliver, and Container Return locations, ETA, Vessel/Voyage, Forwarder/Agent #, Bill To, etc. You will be able to track the order by any of these items as the process continues. You are not required to have all of the information up front. You can start the process with any information you have and enter more, such as the container number, size, line, etc. as it becomes available.

Tracing

To assist with your tracing process, view your Pre-Notes on the Shipment Summary screen or in printed reports during your tracing process. You also have immediate access to notes you have made during prior traces. The Shipment Summary Screen offers a wide range of options for sorting, filtering, grouping, and presenting your active shipments, to enable you to manage them by all relevant criteria. Custom views specific to your needs are also available.

Auto Rating

With Auto-Rating, system will automatically rate the bill based on the appropriate rate table for the customer and the Origin and Destination locations. Accessorial charges can also be automatically rated. Special movements, such as chassis splits or stopoffs, can be easily added to the stop sequence for dispatch, and auto-rating will make the corresponding adjustments to the bill.

Dispatch

Profit Tools automatically tracks the necessary dispatch events (hooks, drops, mounts, dismounts, pickups, deliveries) required to complete each shipment, and allows them to be assigned to truck and driver by leg. Adding, deleting, or changing events after the shipment has been created is easy to do, and will trigger appropriate changes in rating and settlements.

Chassis Positioning & Yard Moves

Adding a chassis pickup from a chassis pool is no problem. The system can automatically change the stop sequence to include a hook of the chassis and a mount of the box and/or a dismount of the box and a drop of the chassis, and will make the necessary rating and settlements changes automatically. You can also easily insert a Yard Move into the stop sequence if you need to bring a container to your yard. If this is billable, you can capture the corresponding charge in the order.

Track Key Information

Instant access to order for updating with new info such as Arrived, Grounded, Released, Pickup#, LFD (Last Free Date), Delivery Appointment. Anyone can find, open and update an order in seconds. (see dates area on Shipment Screen, above) The Shipment Summary Screen shows dispatchers all containers and rail-boxes that are available for pickup, sorting by Delivery Appointment, LFD, location, Line, Bill To customer, etc. (see Shipment Summary Screen above)

Assign 1st Leg

Assign pickup to truck/driver in one step, and pre-plan and manage that truck/driver's itinerary for each day. Profit Tools makes it easy to provide printed driver dispatch sheets, delivery schedules, delivery receipts, printed directions and maps to your drivers. Or, with mobile communications, this dispatch information can be sent to the driver automatically by the system when you make the dispatch assignment, and the driver can confirm pickup and delivery completion back to the system. As pickup and delivery confirmations are received from drivers via manual entry or mobile communications, the system can automatically transmit this information to parties involved with the load, via EDI, e-mail, or your web site.

Outgate to Start LFD Clock

Upon confirmation of out-gating the container from the pier, ramp or yard, Profit Tools starts the clock on Free Time based on the Free Time schedule for that particular line and equipment type. Free Time/Per Diem Warnings appear in yellow or red on the shipment summary. Chassis are also tracked, if necessary, according to the line or pool from which they are pulled. The system can e-mail notifications to customers of containers going into storage or per diem, and can provide them with drop reports showing all containers dropped at their facility to assist with their planning efforts. If a container does go into per diem, the system also automatically calculates charges according to the charge schedule for that line and type of equipment, and these charges can be added to your invoice and researched later when you get your bill from the line. Upon notification, containers can be marked empty in one step, and are displayed as such on the Summary Screen.

Coordinate Pickups & Returns

Dispatch can then match up the available empties with incoming full containers, to coordinate returns with new incoming loads. Sort by free-time/per-diem status to get the oldest out first. Dispatch can also use the empty-at-customer and LFD information to identify potential reloads.

Keep Customers Informed — Automatically

At any step in the process from order entry through completion of dispatch, Automatic E- Mail notification will send notices of shipment status to a pre-set list of recipients. You are in control of who gets notified, when they get notified, and what information they receive.

Invoicing

If you bill upon move completion, shipments move to a completed screen where they can be approved for billing. If you force bill upon pickup, shipments can be invoiced immediately and are moved off the active board upon completion of dispatch. Single or manifest invoices can be generated. For printing invoices, you may choose standard Profit Tools invoice forms or custom forms of your own design. Invoicing sends Accounts Receivable information to your accounting system. Profit Tools interfaces with several popular accounting systems from QuickBooks Pro® and Peachtree Complete® to MAS90® and Great Plains Dynamics®.

Settlements

Driver Settlements will identify the work each driver has done in any time period based on dispatch history. It can also separate individual legs of any move that have been performed by different drivers and apply pre-set rates or revenue splits. Accessorial charges can also be associated with the appropriate leg and automatically settled. Multiple rate tables can be created and applied for driver or work type, or for individual drivers. Regular or one-time advances and deductions can be entered, and time payments can be set up to run for a set time period and automatically terminate.

Document Imaging

Documents such as Prenotes, PODs and TIRs can be scanned into the system and stored with the order for later reference by customer service or for printing automatically with invoices. With LiveLoad.Net, customers can access these documents from your web site.

On-line Status Checks

With LiveLoad.Net, a variety of customer service functions can be offered from your web site, including retrieval of shipment status information for individual shipments, access to detailed business/transaction reports for your larger customers, retrieval of scanned documents associated with any shipment, and the submission of load tenders and rate requests.

Management Reporting

A number of options exist for creating management reports based on the data you have captured within the Profit Tools database. You can run reports within Profit Tools, or use our flexible MS Excel export feature, or use a 3rd party reporting tool like Crystal Reports. If we do not have a pre-built report that meets your needs, we can create a custom report for you, or we can train you on how to create your own. Sales and revenue reports by period or customer, driver productivity reports, on-time reports etc. Profit Tools is set up to put you in control of your data.

Custom Forms

We also offer extremely flexible custom forms capabilities. Forms can be generated through Microsoft Word® or Excel® templates, created by Profit Tools internal form/report generator, and by external reporting tools such as Crystal Reports®, InfoMaker®, and Microsoft Access®.

Further Options

Profit Tools is designed to be flexible and is adaptable to a broad range of workflow conditions. For further information about how our products can help you address your specific business requirements, or to explore other workflow options, contact us to schedule free phone consultation or a live demo, click here. Before purchasing software, it is important that you understand specifically how you will apply Profit Tools to your business needs. Thank you for visiting!