ABSTRACT

This research project was focused on the development of computerized transport management information system, a case study of Akwa Ibom Transport Company, Uyo. The system was needed because the manual method of keeping transportation information makes it difficult to retrieve when needed. Reports are time consuming to prepare, to overcome these problems, an automated system is needed to enable the management of the supermarket to easily capture and store transportation information to the database so that reports can be easily obtained when needed. The programming language used to implement the system is Visual BASIC 6.0

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

The transportation community has experienced the beginnings of a cultural shift toward embedding transportation system management and operation into our culture, work ethic Manufacturers, distributors, and third-party logistics companies all have specific business needs and processes concerning the movement of goods and product from sourcing locations to factories to distribution warehouses and retail or customer locations. The movement of product between locations is frequently controlled by software applications referred to as ―automated transportation system. To support improved efficiencies in the transportation process, companies will look for an automated transportation system that fits their current and planned operational needs and that can be integrated smoothly with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or corporate financial systems.

          The term automated transportation system refers to Transportation Management Systems that allow users to manage inbound and outbound freight shipments by highway, rail, and air. Present automated transportation systems allow users to electronically prepare shipping document s, determine best rates, manage transportation bills. It is a subset of supply chain management concerning transportation operation. A typical scenario of the application of automated transportation system include procurement and shipping orders to be evaluated by the planning module offering the various the user various suggested routing solutions. These solution are evaluated by the user for reasonableness and are passed along to the transportation provider analysis module to select the best mode and least cost provider. Once the best provider is selected, the solution typically moves on to the next module of payments.

An automated transportation system is always expected to improve the shippers’ capabilities to plan, execute, analyze, benchmark and continuously improve the management of product flow. As organizations that are growing fast are having connections to different consumers in different locations, the capabilities and focus of tools designed for the logistics function are changing to meet new demands. Chief among these emerging requests are the needs for:

ü Better cost control tools

ü Continuous improvement metrics

ü Automated, best-mode decision support

ü Improved shipment visibility

ü The affordability of the automated transportation system itself.

1.1 Theoretical Background

Organizations are constantly in need of efficient systems that will enable them handle daily operations. Questions such as; how to drive sustainable savings? How to do more with fewer resources? How to optimize transportation costing via flexible rating/routing ? How to ensure the most efficient, balanced loads with routing tools ? How to improve performance execution and  how to ensure on-time deliveries, leverage transportation best practices are constantly asked. With the fact that it is possible to solve such problems using the computer system and careful programming/networking, software developers have done this using algorithms that synchronizes with the transportation operations of the establishment involved. This need for efficient communication and co-ordination of the movement of stock from within the organization to outside the organization necessitates automated transportation systems.

1.3 Statement of Problem

The following problems necessitated this study:

a. Manually recording transportation management activities is all together inefficient without applying computers and communication systems.

b. Difficulty in obtaining reports of transportation records

c. Errors in accurate computation of transportation bill information

1.4 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to develop a computerized transport management information system. The following are the objectives of the study;

1.     To design a workable automated transportation system software

2.     To create a system that can be used to record transportation records to database.

3.     To design a system that can be used to accurately compute transportation bills.

4.     To design a system that can be utilized to obtain reports of transportation records.