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and performed quickly and efficiently based on the
regulatory requirements of the local market.
Advanced features in modern terminal management
software can manage truck traffic inside the gates in
busy terminals, directing trucks to queue at the bay in
question or even managing driver staging areas until
automatic notification is given that the needed loading
bay is available. After arriving at the specified location,
the driver may be directed by the terminal management
system (through the preset controller or other local
HMI) to revalidate the critical order information and
then execute the loading process.
Once the load or unload is completed, the transaction
is automatically archived to the terminal management
system for inventory accounting, and customers and
the terminal operator can be automatically notified
(either by email or by accessing the integrated web
portal) that the loading activity has been completed.
Terminal operators have achieved real gains in
throughput by implementing terminal management
systems such as Terminal Manager to manage their
loading operations, with 15% to 30% improvements of
terminal throughput over the baseline.
Fig. 2 - Integrated outstanding orders in real time, and visualise easy-to-
commercial and use KPIs associated with their account and activity at
operations the terminal. Maximising revenue potential
management is key to Operator benefits include reduced workload on the Operators are providing an increasing array of services
optimizing the order
to cash cycle terminal staff; a reduction of overall incoming customer to store and manage product within the terminal. Most
communications traffic via phone, fax or email; and of the time these services and the rates charged for
ultimately improved customer satisfaction due to services depend on contractual relationships on a
enhanced availability of accurate transactional customer-by-customer basis. Many terminal operators
information. are managing contracts and charges in a completely
In today’s complex terminal market environment, this separate way from the core terminal management
type of solution can be the edge that an operator system, using either another standalone software
needs to provide differentiation from the competition. platform or with homegrown spreadsheet tools. Dealing
with disparate systems and information in this way
leads to errors in the month-end close: gathering up
Improving the effi ciency of the movements and services that have occurred from
loading operations the operations environment, and then applying charges
based on contractual terms for each customer can be
Realising the maximum throughput potential of any an error-prone, time consuming process.
terminal site depends on efficiently managing the With modern terminal management software platforms,
loading and unloading process. In non-automated contracts and charges are handled within the same
terminals, managing truck traffic can be a labour- system, providing a single source for all customer
intensive activity requiring multiple staff members to related information. Additional efficiency is gained
control access to the site, check and validate driver through automatic application and tracking of
credentials, validate the order versus the currently contractual charges on a customer-by-customer basis.
available inventory in the site, and then manually assign As orders are executed, service charges are
the truck a loading bay. automatically applied to the customer’s account.
Fully automating the loading process is a core capability Terminal operators can easily apply more complex
of any modern terminal management system. Customer types of service charges, realising real gains of 2% to
order data is managed centrally and provides the 3% of topline revenue on a yearly basis. Customer
permissive information to automatically validate trucks satisfaction is also enhanced by a significant reduction
and driver information at arrival. Flexible integration to in transactional errors and lost data resulting in timely
commonly used card readers and other biometric or and automatic communication of invoices back to the
RFID devices ensures that driver validation is automatic customer.

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