Glossary: order desk, TMS and eFTI

Systems

• TMS (Transport Management System): software a carrier uses to plan trips, manage transport orders and follow up the execution. Transpas, Cofano, Soloplan and Akanea are examples.
• WMS (Warehouse Management System): software that drives stock, receipt and warehouse processes. An order in a WMS has article lines; a TMS order has mostly addresses and times.
• ERP: the package a company runs its administration in. Some carriers book orders there instead of in a separate TMS.
• Portal: a website of the shipper where suppliers can collect or enter their orders. It only works if the shipper pushes for it itself.

The order itself

• Transport order: the instruction from a shipper to move something. In Flanders it is usually called a transportopdracht.
• Order entry: turning an order that has come in into a structured order in the system. In Belgium also called orderinname.
• Order desk: the people who take in, check and book orders. At smaller companies that is the same person as the planner.
• Retype: copying order details from an email or PDF into the system by hand. Dutch says overtypen, Flanders says overtikken.
• Shipper: the company that gives the instruction to move or store something. Also called the consignor.
• Portal export: an order file a shipper pulls from its own portal, usually a PDF or Excel.

Ways to pass orders on

• EDI: a fixed digital agreement between two companies about what orders look like. It works excellently, but the setup only pays off at high volume.
• API: an interface a system sends data straight to. Faster than a file, and it tells you whether the data arrived.
• FTP: a folder on a server that files are put into. Old-fashioned but reliable, and still the way many warehouse systems read orders in.
• OCR: a technique that turns the letters on a scan into text. Needed for scanned PDFs, but it does not understand the order.

Documents and rules

• CMR: the international consignment note for road transport, the paper that travels with the load.
• e-CMR: the same consignment note, digital. Voluntary, and both parties have to agree.
• eFTI: the European framework from Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 that makes inspection authorities accept electronic freight information from 9 July 2027 when a carrier supplies it digitally.
• SSCC: a unique number per pallet or packing unit, used to follow shipments in a warehouse.

How we talk about it

• Managed order-intake: order entry as a managed service. The orders are read, checked and booked, and the maintenance sits with the supplier instead of with you.
• Doubtful order: an order the system is not sure enough about. It is not booked, but put on a list with the reason attached.
• Human-in-the-loop: a way of working where the system does the work and a person only looks at the doubtful orders.
• Booked automatically: an order that went from email into the system without anyone touching it. That is the figure we measure.

Related pages

• What is managed order-intake?
• What is eFTI 2027?
• Connecting to your TMS, WMS or ERP
• Orders from email automatically into your TMS
• Shipper orders into your WMS
• An EDI alternative
• What does manual order entry cost?
• AI or OCR for transport orders?
• How we start: from demo to first shipper
• What happens when it reads an order wrong
• eFTI 2027 in Belgium and the Netherlands
• What is new at LaneDesk

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a TMS and a WMS?

A TMS plans transport: trips, addresses, times. A WMS drives a warehouse: articles, stock, receipt. Many companies have both.

What is the difference between e-CMR and eFTI?

An e-CMR is a digital consignment note between parties that agree on it together. eFTI makes governments accept digital freight information from July 2027.

Is order entry the same as order management?

No. Order entry is the first step: getting the order into the system. Order management is everything that happens to that order afterwards.