Question 1

What types of logistics sites/operations can be managed in Automated?

Accepted Answer

Automated may be used in ports, warehouses, control towers, factories.

Question 2

Is Automated transport modality independent?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You may use Automated for road, sea, air, rail and barge shipments.

Question 3

Can we use one Automated corporate account to oversee logistics processes of several of our sites/operations?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Automated is by design an application providing multi-site visibility.

Question 4

Can Automated handle both in- and outbound shipments?

Accepted Answer

Yes.

Question 5

Can we use Automated on a standalone basis, without transport orders?"

Accepted Answer

Yes. In this case you typically create time slot bookings schedules for your site(s) and grant access to your partners (carriers, clients, suppliers) so they can book time slots. All details of the booking will be entered by them manually.
Alternatively, you may work with transport orders in which case you upload them into Automated either manually in an Excel file or via our standard interface.

Question 6

Can Automated handle transport orders?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You may use Automated to communicate your transport orders with your partners (carriers, clients, suppliers) and/or to use them as a basis for time slot booking. 
You may upload transport orders into Automated either manually in an Excel file or via our standard interface.

Question 7

Is Automated 100% cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Automated is provided to you as Software as a Service, via your web browser.
This means you do not need to download updates or maintain any part of the software locally; updates are automatically available for all users.

Question 8

Where do you store our data?

Accepted Answer

Your data is stored in Europe in Tier IV data centers providing 99.995% uptime per year on a 2N+1 fully redundant infrastructure.
Read more on our Technology and Security.

Question 9

How long does it take to implement Automated?

Accepted Answer

If you want to use Automated standalone (i.e. without transport orders), it takes about 30 minutes to 
- invite your internal users
- create your site(s)
- create and activate your schedule(s)
- invite your partners (carriers, clients, suppliers)
and you are good to go.
If, however, you want to use it with transport orders, set aside some time of your IT team to create the Excel file for upload or build an automatic connection based on our standard interface.

Question 10

What application languages are available in Automated?

Accepted Answer

Currently, Automated is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Polish and Hungarian. Upon request additional languages may be added within a short timeframe.

Question 11

Do you offer free testing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You may test the application for 30 days for free with all functionalities.
You can register here.

Question 12

Can we enforce a time slot booking cut-off for our partners (carrier, clients, suppliers)?"

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can choose between a daily fix cut-off or a rolling cut-off x hours before the start of the time slot.

Question 13

Are there different user access levels in Automated?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Users may be corporate account administrators, have read-write access, read-only access or other specific, more granular access types.

Question 14

Does Automated send user-defined e-mail notifications?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Automated is designed to be a supply chain communications tool based on the manage by exception concept. Users have the choice to opt in/out of e-mail notifications sent by the application.

Question 15

Can Automated notify of delays?

Accepted Answer

Yes.

Question 16

Can Automated send back information directly into our ERP/TMS?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Information submitted by the site or your partners (carriers, clients, suppliers) can be sent back directly into your ERP/TMS via our standard interface.

Question 17

Do you provide transaction reports?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You may receive daily, weekly, monthly retrospective reports of time slot level transactions on a regular basis in CSV format, sent to a list of e-mail addresses.

Question 18

Can Automated measure and report dwell times, delay and OTD?"

Accepted Answer

Yes.

Question 19

Can we hang up a flat screen in our warehouse and run Automated on it with auto-refresh?

Accepted Answer

Yes.

Question 20

What do we need to do to go live on Automated?

Accepted Answer

Just a couple of things. Please read Getting Started.

Question 21

What are the next items on Automated's development roadmap?

Accepted Answer

Key users of our clients have continuous access to our development roadmap. They are kindly asked to mark their level of interest in the planned functionalities and also submit new items and change requests.

Question 22

Can we use Automated for spot transport sourcing?

Accepted Answer

Yes.
You may read more here.

Question 23

What application service level do you guarantee?

Accepted Answer

99.9%. Our scheduled downtimes related to functionality updates of Automated are typically pushed to the application Saturday nights Central European Time.
You may read more in Security.

Question 24

What is the service level of Automation's Customer Support Team?

Accepted Answer

Our Customer Support Team is available 24/7/365 via support@freetimeslot.com. Depending on the urgency of the issue, we typically reply to you in three to six hours.

Question 25

Is Automated pay-as-you-go?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We do not charge you any fix cost (e.g. for setup or maintenance). You are only charged transactional fees based on the volume of your transactions.
You may read more in Pricing.

Question 26

Who pays for Automated?

Accepted Answer

The site/shipper decides if they or their partners (carriers, clients, suppliers) pay for the transactions.
You may read more in Pricing.

Question 27

What do you charge for?

Accepted Answer

We charge related to transactions, i.e. based on the volume of time slot bookings or transport orders.
You may read more in Pricing.

Question 28

Do you charge for changing any details of a transport order?

Accepted Answer

No.

Question 29

Do you charge for moving an already booked time slot?

Accepted Answer

No.

Question 30

What are your terms of payment?

Accepted Answer

Our standard terms of payment are 30 days net from the date of invoice.
Please note in case the site/shipper decides that a partner or their partners (carriers, clients, suppliers) shall cover the cost of transactions, these partners have to purchase prepaid credits to be spent in Automated.

Question 31

Do we need to sign a contract with Automated Supply Chains?

Accepted Answer

You can use Automated just by accepting our Terms when registering or alternatively we can sign a contract.
You may find our contract draft here.

Questions on Automated?

What types of logistics sites/operations can be managed in Automated?

Is Automated transport modality independent?

Can we use one Automated corporate account to oversee logistics processes of several of our sites/operations?

Can Automated handle both in- and outbound shipments?

Can we use Automated on a standalone basis, without transport orders?"

Can Automated handle transport orders?

Is Automated 100% cloud?

Where do you store our data?

How long does it take to implement Automated?

What application languages are available in Automated?

Do you offer free testing?

Can we enforce a time slot booking cut-off for our partners (carrier, clients, suppliers)?"

Are there different user access levels in Automated?

Does Automated send user-defined e-mail notifications?

Can Automated notify of delays?

Can Automated send back information directly into our ERP/TMS?

Do you provide transaction reports?

Can Automated measure and report dwell times, delay and OTD?"

Can we hang up a flat screen in our warehouse and run Automated on it with auto-refresh?

What do we need to do to go live on Automated?

What are the next items on Automated's development roadmap?

Can we use Automated for spot transport sourcing?

What application service level do you guarantee?

What is the service level of Automation's Customer Support Team?

Is Automated pay-as-you-go?

Who pays for Automated?

What do you charge for?

Do you charge for changing any details of a transport order?

Do you charge for moving an already booked time slot?

What are your terms of payment?

Do we need to sign a contract with Automated Supply Chains?

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