Manual Chaos and Mounting Costs

Before Princeton TMX, CGS relied on a single 3PL with no in-house logistics team. Carrier negotiations were purchasing-led, not strategic, leading to inflated costs and poor visibility. LTL shipping was especially painful as coordinators used four portals per load just to compare and book rates. Each load took 15–20 minutes to book, adding nearly 1,000 hours of manual labor during peak season.

“We were spending 1,000+ hours per month just booking loads,” said the company’s Logistics & Transportation Manager. “Some days, we simply didn’t have enough time to book all our freight and had to delay loads that were ready to ship.”

The consequences of this inefficiency extended beyond wasted time:

• Customer service was negatively impacted due to delays in shipping.
• Carriers were limited, forcing CGS to accept overpriced loads or risk service gaps.
• Data was incomplete or inaccessible, especially critical fields like NMFC codes and freight class, which prevented CGS from gaining new pricing from asset based LTL carriers.

The Search for Automation and Control

Recognizing the unsustainable costs and operational drag, the companies transportation team led the search for a TMS solution, evaluating 20+ platforms, including Kuebix, MercuryGate, SAP, Oracle, Manhattan, FreightWise, Shipwell, and Uber Freight.

What ultimately drew CGS to Princeton TMX wasn’t just functionality, it was flexibility.

“The ability to make the platform your own - to configure screens, workflows, and views - was beyond anything else I saw in the market. I knew our team would embrace it because it wasn’t forcing them into someone else’s system. It felt like our system from day one.”

In addition, Princeton TMX’s intuitive user experience reduced the learning curve significantly. “You book 10 loads in the system, and you’re an expert,” their logistics manager added. “That meant we could get to value faster without being dependent on external support.”

Time-Savings, Cost-Savings, and Enhanced Customer Service

The automation brought by Princeton TMX dramatically transformed how Custom Glass Solutions managed its LTL shipments. The key outcomes include:

Cost Savings and Improved Negotiating Power

• Freight Savings: When evaluating potential outcomes, Custom Glass Solutions initially expected to save around $350,000 in freight spend in 12 months. However, within just 5 months of using Princeton TMX, the company achieved an annualized freight savings of approximately $750,000, outperforming expectations by 214%.

“We expected to save around $350K in the first year. We ended up hitting $750K in just 5 months, 214% above our original target. The results blew us away.” – Custom Glass Solutions' Logistics Manager

• Expanded Carrier Base and Competitive Rates: With Princeton TMX aggregating all key freight data in one platform, Custom Glass Solutions could present detailed shipment information directly to carriers. This reduced the risk factors for carriers and enabled more competitive pricing, turning negotiations into a strategic advantage, and led to more favorable rates on what were once considered high-risk shipments.

Reduced Manual Processing Time

• Time Savings: Post-implementation, CGS’s new automated processes consolidated data entry into a single portal. This has resulted in an approximate 75% reduction in manual booking time, freeing up significant resources.
  
• Improved Efficiency: By reducing the manual input from two full-time personnel to just the equivalent of half a person, the company was able to reallocate these resources to other operational tasks.
  

Enhanced Customer Service and On-Time Deliveries

• Minimized Delays: The previous manual system led to delays in booking loads, causing some shipments to be delayed, a fact that had a ripple effect on customer service and delivery performance. The streamlined, automated booking process ensures that more loads are booked on time, thereby reducing delivery delays and improving customer satisfaction.
  

Reliable and Consistent Reporting: Although the reporting functionality was not the primary focus of the training, it emerged as the single most valuable feature. By creating a unified data repository, the reporting module empowered the team to gain complete control over freight spend data. This transparency not only boosted internal credibility but also allowed for data-supported negotiations with carriers.

Conclusion

For Custom Glass Solutions, the decision to implement Princeton TMX was transformative. By automating a previously labor-intensive process, the company not only reclaimed critical time, reducing manual booking effort by 75%, but also realized substantial freight cost savings, more than doubling the initial forecast from $350,000 to $750,000 annually. The new system’s ability to consolidate data and provide comprehensive reporting has fundamentally changed the way the company negotiates and manages freight.

Princeton TMX’s intuitive, flexible platform and exceptional customer support have proved to be more than just software, they have become essential tools in driving operational excellence. Custom Glass Solutions is now better positioned to meet customer expectations with on-time deliveries and reliable service, all thanks to the power of automation. This case stands as a testament to how strategically deployed technology not only cuts costs but also transforms the entire approach to transportation management, setting a new standard for operational efficiency in the glass manufacturing and logistics industry.