SAP Transportation Management Implementation for a European Transportation Provider

LeverX helped a large transport company to achieve transparent reporting, reduce transportation costs, and optimize routes with SAP TM.

Client

The client is a major European logistics and trucking provider offering freight transportation services across various regions.

Challenge

The customer struggled with disconnected logistics workflows and insufficient insight into transportation costs and truck usage. Manual data management led to inefficient planning, and the absence of real-time reporting delayed decisions and increased operational costs.

Solution

LeverX deployed and tailored SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) to consolidate transportation data, streamline planning processes, and optimize routing. The system was further integrated with multiple third-party applications to establish a unified logistics landscape.

LeverX enhanced SAP TM and connected it with multiple third-party systems to address the customer’s unique operational requirements:

• Ferry transportation module: Built a fully custom component to manage ferry shipment workflows that are not supported by standard SAP TM functionality.
• Truck search optimization: Linked SAP TM to an external tool that automates truck availability checks and assigns suitable vehicles to planned routes.
• Route optimization: Integrated SAP TM with a specialized routing engine for truck logistics, enabling the creation of optimal tours based on distance, fuel consumption, and travel time.
• On-board unit integration: Connected SAP TM to telematics software, allowing drivers to receive real-time route instructions, task updates, and traffic alerts.
• Real-time tracking: Enabled ongoing monitoring of vehicle locations and key transportation milestones (loading, unloading, dispatch, delivery) with automatic updates from the customer’s tracking systems.
• SAP Event Management: Incorporated SAP Event Management to support real-time event tracking and proactive handling of exceptions across logistics operations.

To support the enhancements, LeverX deployed a robust technology foundation.

Technology Stack

The solution is built on an integrated SAP logistics and transportation management stack, ensuring scalability, process automation, and real-time operational visibility:

• Core Transportation Platform: SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM)
  SAP TM serves as the central system for transportation planning, execution, freight management, and route optimization. It provides the foundation for consolidating logistics processes and enabling automated planning.
• Process Visibility and Event Handling: SAP Event Management (SAP EM)
  SAP Event Management ensures end-to-end visibility of transport activities, real-time event capture, milestone tracking, and proactive exception handling across all logistics operations.
• Integration and Extensions: SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)
  SAP BTP supports system integrations, custom business logic, and communication between SAP TM and external applications such as routing engines, telematics platforms, and truck availability tools.
• Custom Development Components
  • Ferry transportation module: A custom-built extension inside the SAP TM framework to support ferry-specific shipment processes.
  • Truck search automation: A tailored integration with a third-party truck availability and assignment solution.
  • Route optimization engine integration: Connection to an external routing system designed for truck logistics to enhance tour planning accuracy.
• Telematics and On-Board Systems
  Integration with third-party telematics solutions enables real-time data exchange between drivers and SAP TM, including route instructions, traffic updates, and task notifications.
• Real-Time Tracking Systems
  External vehicle tracking platforms feed continuous location updates and logistics event data into SAP TM, ensuring accurate monitoring of shipping, loading, transit, and delivery events.
• Backend Systems and Data Sources
  • Customer fleet and transport management systems
  • External carrier systems
  • GPS and telematics data providers
  • Routing and traffic data services

Results

The SAP TM implementation enabled the customer to achieve:

• A centralized and transparent logistics management framework
• Streamlined and automated transportation planning
• Clear, user-friendly reporting tools
• End-to-end visibility of transport processes supported by SAP Event Management
• Better utilization of transportation assets
• Lower overall transportation costs through enhanced routing and improved collaboration with carriers