Ashkan Shamili, Author at Freight Transportation Manager TMS

Minimal black and white line art diagram split down the center showing a unified cloud environment with nested customer, carrier, and document icons on the left representing a Salesforce-native platform, and two separate systems connected by an integration plug icon on the right representing a standalone TMS, both leading to the same freight truck, illustrating the core architecture difference in the FTM vs McLeod comparison

FTM vs. McLeod: A Side-by-Side TMS Comparison

by Ashkan Shamili
September 4, 2026September 2, 2026

Most TMS evaluations start in the wrong place. A buyer opens two demos side by… Read More »FTM vs. McLeod: A Side-by-Side TMS Comparison

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing a diagonal funnel with multiple faded truck icons entering at the wide top and a single solid truck icon exiting at the narrow bottom toward a handshake symbol, with six numbered stage markers along the funnel, illustrating how a carrier sales pipeline narrows unqualified leads down to converted, activated carrier relationships

How to Build a Carrier Sales Pipeline That Actually Converts

by Ashkan Shamili
September 1, 2026September 2, 2026

A carrier sales rep makes 40 calls on a Tuesday. Twelve people pick up. Three… Read More »How to Build a Carrier Sales Pipeline That Actually Converts

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing a freight truck on a road interrupted by three repeated phone check-call icons with question marks above, compared to a parallel road where the same truck uses a single GPS signal to a dispatcher screen with no interruptions, illustrating how manual load tracking through check calls damages carrier relationships compared to automated real-time tracking

Why Manual Load Tracking Is Costing You Carrier Relationships

by Ashkan Shamili
August 25, 2026August 12, 2026

A driver picks up a load at 7am. By 9am, a dispatcher calls to ask… Read More »Why Manual Load Tracking Is Costing You Carrier Relationships

Minimal black and white line art diagram of a freight truck with the road splitting into a short loaded-mile track and a longer deadhead track, both converging into a calculator icon and a bar chart showing how carrier cost per mile calculated on total miles is higher than the same calculation on loaded miles only, illustrating why most carriers underestimate their true operating cost floor

How to Calculate Carrier Cost Per Mile & Why Most Get It Wrong

by Ashkan Shamili
August 18, 2026August 5, 2026

A carrier accepts a load at $2.10 per mile. Fuel is $0.55. Driver pay is… Read More »How to Calculate Carrier Cost Per Mile & Why Most Get It Wrong

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing a large clock face with a 14-hour arc representing the FMCSA hours of service on-duty window and an inner 11-hour arc for maximum driving time, connected by a dashed line to a truck and dock on the left representing on-duty non-driving work, and a bed icon on the right representing the required 10-hour rest period

FMCSA Hours of Service Rules Explained Simply for New Operators

by Ashkan Shamili
August 14, 2026August 18, 2026

A new carrier put their first truck on the road last March. Driver was experienced,… Read More »FMCSA Hours of Service Rules Explained Simply for New Operators

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing a rising road with four outlined freight trucks at increasing sizes representing fleet growth from 5 to 50 trucks, with icons above each truck showing the evolution from phone-based dispatch to spreadsheets to operational slowdown to a proper TMS, illustrating the infrastructure stages required when scaling a trucking fleet

How to Grow from 5 to 50 Trucks Without Breaking Your Operations

by Ashkan Shamili
August 7, 2026August 18, 2026

Most carriers do not fail because they cannot find freight. They fail because they grew… Read More »How to Grow from 5 to 50 Trucks Without Breaking Your Operations

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing a freight dock with a preferred status badge above a truck on the left, a tender lead time timeline in the center, and a carrier scorecard with full performance bars on the right, all connected by a dashed curved line illustrating the operational practices that build shipper of choice status in freight logistics

Shipper of Choice: What It Means and How to Achieve the Status

by Ashkan Shamili
July 31, 2026August 11, 2026

Two shippers. Same lane. Same freight weight. One gets a truck confirmed within the hour.… Read More »Shipper of Choice: What It Means and How to Achieve the Status

What Is a Freight Management System vs. a TMS? Clearing Up the Confusion

by Ashkan Shamili
July 24, 2026August 10, 2026

Ask five freight operations people what software they use and at least two will say… Read More »What Is a Freight Management System vs. a TMS? Clearing Up the Confusion

Minimal black and white line art illustration of a freight invoice showing a base rate line at the top followed by a series of accessorial charge rows, each with a small icon representing detention, liftgate, residential delivery, inside delivery, and fuel surcharge, with a bold total box at the bottom, illustrating how accessorial charges in freight stack above the base transportation rate

Accessorial Charges Explained: What They Are & How to Stop Undercharging

by Ashkan Shamili
July 17, 2026August 11, 2026
1 Comment

Your dispatcher just closed out a load that sat two hours past its appointment window,… Read More »Accessorial Charges Explained: What They Are & How to Stop Undercharging

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing a freight invoice on the left connected by a dashed line with delayed payment coins to a wall clock in the center, and a payment checkmark on the right, illustrating how freight billing DSO represents the time gap between invoice submission and cash collection

How to Reduce DSO in Freight Billing Before It Drains Your Cash Flow

by Ashkan Shamili
July 7, 2026July 9, 2026

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) in freight billing measures the number of days between issuing an… Read More »How to Reduce DSO in Freight Billing Before It Drains Your Cash Flow

Minimal black and white line art diagram showing freight margin compression, with a rising cost arrow and a flat freight rate arrow converging above a single truck on a delivery lane, illustrating how shrinking margins squeeze profitability in logistics

Understanding Freight Margin Compression & 5 Ways to Fight Back

by Ashkan Shamili
June 30, 2026June 16, 2026

Picture this. The lane you priced confidently three months ago now barely covers your costs,… Read More »Understanding Freight Margin Compression & 5 Ways to Fight Back

A minimal black and white line art diagram showing a freight rate confirmation document on the left, an AI processing engine in the center, and a completed TMS load record on a monitor on the right, connected by dotted arrows to illustrate how FTM Autofill automatically reads freight documents and creates load records without manual data entry

How Does Autofill Work? Inside the AI That Reads Your Freight Documents

by Ashkan Shamili
June 23, 2026June 24, 2026

Most freight teams know autofill saves time. Far fewer understand what it is actually doing… Read More »How Does Autofill Work? Inside the AI That Reads Your Freight Documents

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