Carrier Logistics (CLI) has launched an improved version of its Dock Management System (DMS). Features include reweigh integration, misload prevention, dimension capture, piece-level tracking, and complete automation of paperwork.

Savings of 30% and more in dock costs are possible, the company says, and adds that there can be "extensive savings" in administrative costs, too. CLI says payback can be measured in months, not years.

The new DMS offers real-time manifesting with full revenue capture while helping move shipments in the right direction. It helps to pinpoint shipment location and to scan freight at every stage. It also enables full communication with no paper notes or verbal instructions because workers see their instructions right on their hand-held devices.

DMS is not just dock scanning, CLI is quick to point out, calling it instead "the next generation of a dock system, providing complete dock productivity measurement and management down to assigning tasks to individual dock employees.”

The system allows for multiple dockworkers to load or unload a single trailer, keeping track of where all shipments are and who handled them when.

DMS immediately gets information from scales and cube-measurement devices and automatically corrects each freight bill. It enables observers to see both the old and new weights and measurements to assure application of the correct freight rate.  
                
Among other claimed advantages: the system tracks each shipment and each piece ensuring full shipment disclosure and tracking; when a truck returns to the terminal, freight can be scanned during unloading, creating a skeleton probill and a strip-unit record before re-scanning on outbound units; and assignments can be viewed online, eliminating manual dock productivity tracking.

Using a hand-held scanner, a worker can check or change the location of staged freight and can view a list of each pro bill to be loaded and the current staged location of the freight.

CLI’s DMS is available either as a free-standing system for carriers that do not use the company’s Facts (Freight Accounting and Computerized Tracking System) freight management system, or as one of a series of enhancements to the Facts system, available as an upgrade to current system users.