Year End Reports

Hi Everyone,

Happy Holidays.  I'd like to thank everyone for being with us for a great year.  This year in particular, the pace of improvement has been pretty spectacular. Here is a sample list of changes that were either already added this year, or are being added soon.

• New Carrier on-boarding through RMIS or Transcore 
• E-Signatures with Sertifi 
• Cell phone tracking  (Ufollowit, Macropoint, Locaid)
• Carrier performance rating 
• Reserving loads while waiting for carrier compliance
• Flash reports - design your own Aljex web pages and spreadsheets
• Pepsi and CEVA Equipment available for backhauls (with dropped trailers!)  (as of 12/17/13 - Megatrux too)
• Customer & Carrier CRM
• T-check and EFS integration
• LOTS of new LTL options including API's for least cost routing

We also have some great new screens on their way  to you.  There is a new home page coming out soon.  Here is a screen shot, Descriptions are down below.

1. New menu bar across the top, this is the default for the top for all the other vision pages.  Its nicer, cleaner, more standardized.
2. Home page designer.  Many of you know that you can choose which columns to display in vision.  This is where you can create them, or recall them from the dropdown. Having different pages for different tasks is very powerful.  Information you want to see while covering loads is different from when you are looking at check calls.  With the home page designer, you can have as many specialized screens as you want.   I have seen some great screens designed by users.  Its very exciting to see.
3. A great new option that allows you to filter by another ten ways, a range of pro's or ship dates, by city, by radius search, customer and more.  With a feature like this, you could be looking for just one customers shipments going to a certain state within a range of ship dates. 
4. Available trucks - we now have Pepsi, Ceva, and Megatrux equipment posted. You can do business with them electronically.  Pepsi will drop trailers and take high value loads.
5. View shipments that are assigned to a dispatcher.
6. Its blue when its being updated by another user.   Hot loads turn red.
7. Flash reports - This has been out for a while now,  you can create your own reports.  But its way better than that, You can create interactive web pages with the selected records.  You click on any of the shipments and it brings you right to that pro.  Can't beat that.  And, being the year 2013, yes,  you can also create spreadsheets with flash reports.

  Some of you have already been using the new "menu" page. The new menu page combines the previous order entry screen, and the main dispatch page (menu page). Here it is and below are some descriptions of the new features.

1. Click to expand. Display full customer, bill-to, pick-up, and consignee information. Its much faster than switching screens.  you expand it when you need the detail, shrink it when you don't.
2. Do Not Broker.  This is for some of our clients that are both carriers and brokers.  They can prevent a shipment from being brokered.
3. Billable Weight.  Some of our clients have a minimum chargeable weight - say 45000 lbs, even if the actual weight turns out to be less.
4. Hot Load.  You can designate a load to be 'hot'.  It will be displayed on the home page in red text.  (previously red was for shipments being updated, now that's blue). Red shipments stand out on the home page. Its a nice feature
5. Tabs!!!  Now you can access a lot more information without having to switch screens. Its faster to just click on tabs.
6. Now you can enter a FSC percentage and have it automatically calculate.
7. Set the carrier pay to a percentage.
8. Pre-release pay.  You can release part of a carriers pay, or one carrier and not another.  Its handy when you have to pay one vendor before the others have completed their job.
9. Updates screen and log file.  Who did what, right in front of you.  If you need more detail, you can see every change.
10. Cover a load by MC#, DOT#, or SCAC code.
11. Carriers insurance now stays on the screen. Click on 'expires' and view details.
12. Carriers SEA scores now stay on screen.
13. Track shipments where a confirmation was sent, but not received
14. Click to email the carrier.  Great Shortcut!!!
15. New carrier confirmation out soon.  Some of you are using it.  Its nicer, cleaner, easier to read. New option for a cover sheet with the customers special instructions are on it.
16. Track the shipment by tracking the drivers cell phone. We now have cell phone tracking through Locaid, Macropoint and Ufollowit.
17. Rate the carrier.  Keep track of the job your carriers are doing.
18. Invoicing!  Now you can bill your shipments right from the menu page!  It doesn't get much easier than that.
19. Commissions.  View pending commissions for this shipment.  Makes it easy for everyone to see what their cut is. 
20. Release Readiness.  Click on it to see what requirements aren't fulfilled yet.  You can have customers with special requirements, and the system will require them before you can release it. With this, you can see what else you need, very easily.
21. Lane pricing is through Transcore.  You can see what other companies are paying for the lane you are shipping.
22. Event Management -  You have an issue with a shipment, so you create an event.  The event will automatically contact all people involved in the shipment.   Whenever you go back to that shipment, the event page will popup so you cant miss it.

So,  there are a lot of improvements, a lot of new options.  Your best way to learn more about these features (and other new features), is to come to advanced dispatch training class.  They are live classes every week, they are free, and it only takes an hour.  That hour can save you hours every week.

Thanks for a great year.  We will continue to do everything we can to continue to earn your business and accolades.


Tom Heine
CEO - Aljex Software