AscendTMS vs Manhattan TMS

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Our analysts compared AscendTMS vs Manhattan TMS based on data from our 400+ point analysis of TMS Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

AscendTMS Software Tool

Product Basics

AscendTMS is cloud transport management software for businesses of all sizes. It helps shippers, carriers, and brokers manage loads, routes and dispatching. The user-friendly interface features GPS tracking from any device. It simplifies logistics processes by providing shipment creation and carrier selection. It lets managers track, dispatch and process payments.

The platform doesn't require upfront, license or support fees. Users value the solution because it's easy to use and affordable. It offers free training and support. Reviewers also like the free tracking and integration with popular accounting tools.

The free plan suits teams under three users and has functions like shipment management, carrier selection and tracking. For larger teams, the premium plan costs $99 per user per month. It also offers a 30-day free trial of the premium plan.

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Manhattan TMS is a robust, connectable and scalable solution that provides rapid implementation with multiple utilities. It offers planning, a focus on optimization and improved transport technology execution. It lets logistics and transportation managers leverage the multi-modal outbound and inbound capabilities necessary for creating utility within a transportation network or a supply chain.

It enables clients to meet customer expectations with greater convenience, reliability, visibility and fast deliveries. Its modules include software modeling, procurement, planning and execution, fleet management, audit, payment and claims and carrier management.
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$99/User, Monthly
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Access for Free: Sign up to try the various features and tools without credit cards, contracts or deals. AscendTMS has a special pricing design. It offers a free plan, mainly for smaller teams. The paid plan is also reasonably priced per user, making it a competitive option.
  • Improve Decision-Making: Use GPS tracking and data analysis to get useful insights that support carrier, pricing and route planning decisions. These insights can improve processes and make them more efficient.
  • Minimize Errors: Give employees custom access to information based on their roles. This helps simplify tasks and ensures everyone knows what they need to do. Managing user roles can reduce the chances of errors and make operations more efficient.
  • Report Taxes: File IFTA taxes with the click of a button, and the app does all the heavy lifting. AscendTMS records where businesses bought fuel, their routes, miles through each state and the tax rates. The manual adjustment mode lets managers import fuel card data. The system then calculates the exact IFTA tax for each state.
  • Save Time: Boost ROI by automating load postings, driver tasks and payroll calculation. Managers can save planning and analysis time with fewer tasks to handle.
  • Gain Visibility: Manage and track freight using one platform. It lets companies create loads and pick carriers. Real-time visibility into the supply chain improves efficiency.
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  • Reduce Cost of Shipping: For shippers, improved planning and execution of transportation, an optimized fleet and organized warehouse management help reduce the cost of shipping. 
  • Improve Operational Transparency: This suite can strategically overcome limitations that are generally faced by shippers in an ERP system. Through dynamic management, control and visibility, higher transparency is achievable in shipment management. 
  • Manage Dedicated and Private Fleets: Fleet operators who use outside or internal carrier services can effectively manage their fleets with end-to-end transportation support. 
  • Automate Scheduling of Appointments: It enables shipment carriers to schedule their deliveries and shipment pick-up appointments, depending upon the capacity and load-type details. Automation helps minimize unnecessary wastage of time and encourages error-free communications. 
  • Optimized Yard Operations: It enables users to gain improved visibility over the inbound and outbound flow of goods in the warehouse and yard. Thus, yard operations can be optimized, resulting in optimized usage of warehouse capacity and reduced storage costs. 
  • Improved Operational Flexibility: Manhattan’s transport modeling suite uses planning tool sets as well as machine learning. These features help achieve improved flexibility and get rid of complexity in day-to-day operations. 
  • Consistent Network Optimization: Historic, forecasted and other statistics help drive specific sophisticated simulations that help validate and optimize all possible scenarios. This leads to consistent optimizations throughout the transportation networks. 
  • Better Decisions: Manhattan Associate TMS enables decision-makers to precisely analyze the entire transportation network and align resources in the best possible way, helping make better transport policy decisions. 
  • Optimal Execution: Simulation modeling of transportation routes helps planners remove unnecessary tasks related to troubleshooting issues and enables them to focus on tactical and strategic planning. This results in optimal execution day in and out. 
  • Decrease Handling and Transit Times: Planning the entire process and executing it with the help of numerous handy tools and data insights helps decrease handling and transit times. 
  • Less Empty Miles: This suite enables users to match their fleet drivers with the most appropriate loads across the transport network. Doing this in real-time, with a constant back up of crucial data, helps decrease empty miles and maximize equipment utilization. 
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  • Load Management: Use the Load Financials tool to keep track of income, budget and expenses. Easily add financial information to a load and monitor profits or losses. Businesses can also export financial data to an accounting system, which makes it easier to track finances.
  • Document Management: View and scan PoD documents that drivers send. Manage important company documents like driver paperwork, credit applications, carrier packets and contracts. Attaching them to carriers, customers, and loads is quick and easy.
  • Truckload Rate Index: Get a free truckload rate index with AscendAccuRate. Access line-haul rates for any lane (low, medium, high and average RPMs) using pickup and drop-off locations. This tool compiles the averages of hundreds of thousands of actual loads. Stay on top of the changing market with real-time rates.
  • Asset and Fleet Management: Give asset management tools to carriers, brokers and shippers. Manage power units, trailers, containers and drivers. Transfer assets or third-party carriers to any load from one screen. Text messages help track drivers.
  • Driver Payroll and Settlement: Choose data ranges for each driver and select different payment types, such as per pallet, per case, hourly, per mile or on a per hundred pounds basis. The system also considers costs like per diems, stop fees and fuel passes.
  • Claims Management: Let drivers take pictures of the cargo at pickup and delivery locations. This feature protects firms from non-legitimate claims. These pictures, sent via text message, are automatically linked to the correct load. They're date and time-stamped and help reduce the amount of a valid claim. This creates unmistakable proof to support companies in case a claim arises.
  • Ascend Dashboard: Access key information about the business in a simple-to-read format. Access modules like Financial Quick Look, Load Volumes, and National Rate and Fuel Trends.
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  • Smart Transportation Modeling: It empowers users with solutions that help implement important changes to business models while observing their impacts. 
  • Transportation Procurement: The system supports logistics and enables users to source contracts, manage bids and automate procurement, streamlining the bidding process. 
  • Fleet Management: Manhattan TMS boosts fleet efficiency with features focused on safety and compliance. It also leverages machine learning and analytics to support better decision making. 
  • Carrier Management: It provides a comprehensive set of solutions that help maximize driver and customer satisfaction while ensuring that asset utilization and operational costs remain low. 
  • Audit, Bills and Claims: This tool helps maximize savings by transforming automated sources and varied data manuals into one single freight invoice database. 
  • Shipping Planning and Execution: Manhattan Associates transportation management suite offers robust, connectable and scalable solutions to help plan, optimize and execute operations. 
  • Driver Support: This software suite offers maximum support to fleet drivers to help them with all kinds of communication, including dispatch. 
  • Load Analyzer: The load analyzer function helps users analyze and accordingly balance delivery loads across multiple shifts, resources and fleets throughout the entire transport and supply chain. 
  • Invoice Management: It enables fleet owners and clients to manage all invoices and their reconciliation through telemechanics or by a carrier portal. 
  • Customer Training: Training is offered to new and existing customers in a structured learning environment. This enables them to gather knowledge about configuration, solution use, system administration and implementation. 
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Product Ranking

#51

among all
TMS Software

#8

among all
TMS Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Transportation Order Management
Reporting and dashboards

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

AscendTMS
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Claims Management Compliance And Governance Dock Scheduling And Yard Management Freight Rating And Multimodal Transport Mobile Reporting And Dashboards Transportation Order Management Transportation Sourcing And Procurement 78 50 0 77 0 73 92 46 62 72 81 68 83 91 66 82 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

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Excellent User Sentiment 15 reviews
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91%
of users recommend this product

Manhattan TMS has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 15 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

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4.5 (5)
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4.0 (1)
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4.6 (9)

Awards

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Manhattan TMS stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Reduce Manual Work: A TMS cuts out manual work and makes processes simpler, saving time.
Save Money: The solution provides smarter routes, combines loads and arranges better transport rates. This leads to major cost savings.
Track Shipments: See shipment routes and take care of issues as they happen.
Update Customers: A TMS keeps firms in the loop about delivery so they can give customers timely updates.
Increase Capacity: TMS solutions can handle more volume and grow with business needs.
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Ease of Use: Users frequently praise the platform's intuitive design and user-friendly interface, highlighting that it simplifies complex tasks such as shipment tracking and carrier management.
Comprehensive Functionality: Manhattan TMS offers a wide range of features, covering various aspects of transportation management, from procurement and planning to execution and settlement, which caters to diverse business needs.
Visibility and Control: The platform provides real-time visibility into shipment status and transportation costs, empowering users with greater control over their supply chain operations and facilitating proactive decision-making.
Scalability and Flexibility: Manhattan TMS is designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes and can be easily scaled to meet evolving requirements, making it a suitable solution for growing companies.
Integration Capabilities: The platform seamlessly integrates with other enterprise systems, such as ERP and WMS, enabling efficient data exchange and streamlined workflows.
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Expensive: Starting and maintaining a TMS can cost a lot due to licensing and subscription fees.
Difficult Setup: Teaching employees a new system can take a while. Adding a TMS to existing software can be tough.
Hard to Use: TMS platforms can be hard to use thanks to numerous features that aren’t all essential.
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Limited Customization: The system's rigidity can pose challenges for businesses with unique workflows or industry-specific requirements that necessitate a high degree of customization.
Learning Curve: Manhattan TMS presents a steep learning curve due to its intricate features and functionalities. Users frequently report difficulties in navigating the system and effectively utilizing its capabilities without comprehensive training.
Cost: Implementing and maintaining Manhattan TMS can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. The licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing support expenses can strain budgets.
Integration Challenges: Integrating Manhattan TMS with existing enterprise systems, such as warehouse management systems (WMS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, can be complex and time-consuming.
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AscendTMS is a user-friendly digital tool. It helps all types of companies manage their transport needs. It’s especially useful for professionals who work in shipping, load carrying and routing. Supply chain activities can be seen live, which helps improve freight flow.The solution costs nothing for small teams and has a fair price for larger teams. It doesn't involve any extra fees or license costs.

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Navigating the labyrinth of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) can feel overwhelming, but Manhattan TMS emerges as a compelling contender, offering a robust suite of features designed to streamline transportation and logistics operations. User feedback from the past year paints a picture of a solution celebrated for its ease of use and comprehensive functionality, yet shadowed by concerns regarding its cost and perceived rigidity. Manhattan TMS distinguishes itself through its intuitive interface and extensive capabilities encompassing planning, execution, and tracking. The software's integration with other Manhattan Associates solutions further enhances its appeal, creating a unified ecosystem for managing various aspects of the supply chain. However, the platform's premium pricing and potential lack of flexibility have drawn criticism from some users, particularly those seeking more customizable solutions. These factors are crucial considerations for businesses evaluating TMS options, as they directly impact the software's affordability and adaptability to unique operational requirements. Ultimately, Manhattan TMS appears well-suited for larger enterprises with complex transportation needs and the budget to invest in a top-tier solution. Its comprehensive feature set and integration capabilities can empower these organizations to optimize their transportation networks and achieve significant efficiency gains.

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