Transportation Management System

Transportation Management System (TMS)

A transportation management system plans dispatch, routing and scheduling for vehicles and drivers.

Transportation Management System: Not to be confused with

A TMS is NOT the same as an ERP, and an ERP does not replace it. The TMS handles dispatch, route planning and telematics, the ERP supplies the order data for it and takes the result for freight billing and accounting. The two systems are connected through an interface.

A transportation management system assigns orders to vehicles and drivers based on capacity, route, and driving and rest time rules, and tracks shipments through to delivery (Source 1). For freight forwarders with a larger order volume, the order management built into an ERP is usually not enough, a dedicated TMS takes over dispatch and telematics integration while the ERP handles billing and accounting.

Details on how the work splits between ERP and TMS are on the Logistics & Transport page.

Related terms

• ERP

Sources for Transportation Management System

1. Wikipedia, "Transportation management system" ↗