ERP for Logistics & Transport

ERP in logistics and transport manages dispatch, warehousing, shipment tracking and freight billing.

ERP for Logistics & Transport: Requirements

Dispatch: Assigning orders to vehicles and drivers based on capacity, route and driving and rest time rules. Dispatch itself often runs in a dedicated transport management system, with the ERP supplying order data and taking over the result for billing and accounting.
Warehousing: Bin management, picking, cross-docking and stocktaking, often with mobile scanner-based data capture in the warehouse. A clean link to upstream and downstream transport orders matters, so goods handling works without breaks between systems.
Shipment tracking: Status tracking from order to delivery, with a digital proof of delivery (signature, photo, timestamp) and a customer portal or interface through which clients can check status themselves instead of calling the dispatcher.
Freight billing: Billing by weight, volume, loading metre, distance or flat agreement, frequently several tariff models running in parallel within the same company. On top come variable surcharges such as fuel, tolls and special transports that need to be assigned correctly per shipment.
Customs and cross-border traffic: Customs data, electronic customs declarations and proof of origin for trade with the EU. As a non-EU country, Switzerland requires this for practically every cross-border shipment, and it belongs in the system rather than being added manually after the fact.
Carrier liability and insurance documentation: Every shipment needs proof of the applicable liability basis (for instance under the CMR Convention in cross-border road transport) and of the transport insurance in place. In the event of a claim, this documentation must be retrievable from the system, complete and tied to the specific shipment.

ERP for Logistics & Transport: Common problems

Dispatch runs by phone and spreadsheet, empty runs and wasted capacity go unnoticed
Customs handling is a manual side process next to the ERP, with a corresponding error risk on customs documents
Billing does not match the service actually delivered, surcharges and add-ons get missed
Shipment status is not visible to customers, phone follow-ups tie up dispatch staff
Contribution margin per route, client or vehicle cannot be analysed, price negotiations run without a solid data basis
Liability and insurance proof per shipment is kept manually in folders, with no complete record available when a claim is filed

ERP for Logistics & Transport: Matching systems

SAP S/4HANA: With the SAP Transportation Management module and Global Trade Services functionality, covers dispatch, freight billing and customs processes end to end for larger forwarders with international freight flows.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: Covers warehousing, order processing and freight billing within an SME setting. For dispatch and route planning, the system is usually connected to a dedicated transport management system through its open API rather than handling that function itself.
Sage X3: Purpose-built for companies with more complex manufacturing and logistics processes across multiple sites, positioning it between SME and enterprise ERP, a fitting scale for forwarders and logistics providers in the upper mid-market.

As a small, land-locked country at the centre of Europe, Switzerland depends on cross-border freight traffic and is at the same time a key transit country for traffic crossing the Alps between northern and southern Europe. Since the Alpine Initiative was adopted in 1994, Swiss transport policy has set a legal target of at most 650,000 heavy-vehicle Alpine crossings a year; the actual figure for 2025 was around 960,000 crossings according to the Federal Office of Transport, with rail carrying 68.6 percent of trans-Alpine freight. The distance-related heavy vehicle fee (LSVA) turns recording weight, distance and emission class per trip into an operational necessity, one that is hard to manage economically without a clean link between dispatch and billing in the ERP. The sector is strongly SME-driven: the road transport association ASTAG counts around 4,200 member companies, over 80 percent of them SMEs, employing roughly 42,000 drivers between them. For ERP systems in this environment, that means solid customs handling for trade with the EU, freight billing that keeps different tariff models and surcharges cleanly apart, and a connection to specialised dispatch and telematics systems rather than a replacement for them.

ERP for Logistics & Transport: Frequently asked questions

Is an ERP enough for a transport company, or does it need a TMS?

An ERP covers orders, billing and accounting. Dispatch, route planning and telematics are usually handled by a dedicated transport management system connected to the ERP, rather than by the ERP itself.

What matters most for Swiss logistics companies specifically?

Customs handling. As a non-EU country, Switzerland requires customs clearance with proof of origin for every cross-border shipment, which belongs in the ERP rather than running as a manual side process.

How does an ERP handle different freight tariffs within the same company?

Through tariff models stored per client or shipment type, for example by weight, volume, loading metre, distance or flat rate, combined with variable surcharges such as fuel or tolls. Without structured tariff maintenance in the system, gaps appear between agreed and actually billed service.