TRANSPORT: Industry-Specific Information System for Transportatio

Transport management is not just about getting a shipment from point A to point B on time. Every transport operation is simultaneously a combination of capacity, vehicles, drivers, subcontractors, mileage, time, fuel, tolls, maintenance costs, and the agreed customer price. It is precisely their interrelationship that determines whether a specific order is truly profitable.

In larger transportation and logistics companies, the required data is often fragmented across multiple systems: order management and dispatch, GPS and telematics, spreadsheets, maintenance logs, or accounting software. As a result, management can see individual operational segments, but struggles to obtain a comprehensive view of actual costs, revenues, and transport profitability.

TRANSPORT therefore connects operational transport management with company financials, creating a unified data foundation from order intake through invoicing to post-trip analysis.

TRANSPORT is an industry-specific information system for transportation and logistics companies, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It combines standard TMS (Transport Management System) and transportation software capabilities with the financial and operational business processes of standard ERP. A single data model thus supports the entire business transaction from initial quote and sales order through transport planning, vehicle and driver dispatch, execution, and invoicing to post-trip analysis. The solution supports both own-fleet operations and contracted external carriers.

As a result, operational and financial data are not separated into disconnected silos. Dispatch, sales, finance, and management work within a unified data environment, tracking transportation not only by milestone progress, but also by costs, revenues, and overall margin profitability. TRANSPORT is therefore not merely a transport management tool; it connects daily freight operations directly to order economics and core business processes. This directly distinguishes it from environments where transportation management is fragmented across multiple standalone applications.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central covers standard enterprise processes such as finance and accounting, purchasing, sales, inventory, and other financial workflows. TRANSPORT builds on this foundation by adding functionality specific to transportation and logistics companies. This includes tracking consignments and transport runs, vehicles and drivers, resource planning and availability, route management, dispatch control, execution monitoring, transport cost accounting, freight billing, and fleet maintenance.

The advantage of this approach is that transport processes are not handled in an isolated application disconnected from the rest of the company. Orders, shipments, costs, billing, and financial reporting remain part of a single ERP environment. A company can thus manage daily transport operations within the same system used for finances, customers, suppliers, and other enterprise data.

Business Central also provides a foundation for extending the solution according to specific business needs. Transport data can be leveraged in Power BI for management reporting, selected processes can be automated using the Power Platform, or integrated with Microsoft 365 tools, including Teams, Copilot, and SharePoint. The ERP can also be connected to other solutions used in logistics and administration, such as EDI communication, warehouse processes, API integrations, or automated document processing using AI.

TRANSPORT integrates individual stages of the transport process into a single, cohesive workflow. From initial pricing and customer order intake through transport planning, vehicle and driver dispatch, and execution monitoring, to settlement, freight billing, and financial evaluation. Once entered, data is leveraged throughout the entire process, combining with operational metrics to provide a real-time view of both progress and profitability for every order.

A transportation and logistics company rarely builds its operations on a single system. Alongside an ERP, it typically uses specialized tools for route planning, GPS and telematics, driver communication, or systems operated by its customers and partners. Therefore, TRANSPORT is not a closed platform that forces the replacement of these applications. Instead, it can serve as a central information system that integrates their data with orders, shipments, and core financial processes.

For route planning and management, TRANSPORT can integrate with specialized tools, such as PLANTOUR or PTV Map&Guide, utilizing their data during transport planning. Similarly, it can connect with GPS and telematics systems, such as WEBDISPEČINK and others, retrieving vehicle location data, route progression, completed activities, and other operational metrics. It then links these inputs directly to the specific transport job and its underlying financial data.

TRANSPORT is also designed for data exchange with customer and partner systems. This eliminates manual re-entry of orders, allowing them to be ingested electronically and processed seamlessly through downstream workflows. The scope of each integration can be tailored to the specific systems in use and the operational requirements of the organization.

It is not enough to know where a vehicle is currently located or whether a shipment was delivered on time. For management, it is equally essential to know what a specific transport run actually cost, what revenue it generated, and whether it aligns with the initial plan. TRANSPORT therefore links operational data with financial information, enabling cost and revenue tracking both during planning and after transport completion.

During planning, dispatchers can work with projected mileage, transit times, operating costs, and expected revenues. This gives the dispatcher a clearer picture of the job economics prior to confirming the transport and subsequently enables variance analysis between plan and actuals. The system accounts for both own-fleet operations and shipments handled by external carriers.

Freight billing directly builds on transport economics. In addition to the base freight rate, it accommodates additional line items such as tolls, surcharges, cross-docking, customs services, or subcontractor expenses. TRANSPORT links source documents for both sales and purchase invoices directly to the specific consignment or transport run, allowing management to evaluate costs, revenues, and profitability per business case within a single system.