#DiscoverTheDifference: Transport Planning with S2data
“Our transport operations are optimally planned.” – Why this assumption rarely holds true in practice.
When experience reaches its limits
“Our transport planning has worked well for years.” A statement that seems reasonable at first glance. After all, many transport operations are built on years of experience, fixed delivery rhythms, and established Excel or TMS routines. But this is exactly where the problem begins.
Dr. Stefan Kremsner, CEO of S2data – driving the shift toward fully integrated, optimized transport planning.In many transport networks, decisions are still made in isolation: routes are planned, freight rates assessed, shipments and call-offs scheduled. These steps are performed sequentially and often in separate systems – or even manually. What gets lost is a holistic view of how all relevant factors interact across strategic, tactical, and operational levels. A route may look cost‑effective on paper yet be poorly utilized in reality. An attractive tariff may not work in practice due to actual loadability constraints. Fixed delivery cycles prevent dynamic planning – for example, combining requirements across multiple days.
The result: partially loaded trucks, increasing LTL and groupage shares, and decisions that are not economically optimal. Traditional transport planning produces clean plans, but only partially reflects operational and financial realities.
Inefficiencies in Transport Planning
Even in well‑running networks, recurring patterns emerge that barely show up in spreadsheets but have a major operational impact:
- Missed consolidation opportunities lead to partially loaded FTLs and a rising share of LTL/groupage freight.
- Freight rates may look attractive on paper but cannot be fully leveraged because loadability, axle loads, and unloading sequences are ignored in planning.
- Fixed delivery rhythms block proactive consolidation and disrupt returnable packaging cycles.
- Cost assessments focus heavily on freight rates while neglecting storage, handling, and inventory carrying costs.
The core issue:
Planning tools optimize individual parameters such as load space, route, freight rate, and demand, but do not take into account their interaction over time, load capacity, time windows, and total costs, which leads to more trips, higher costs, and unnecessary emissions.
The Difference with S2data
The decisive difference with S2data lies in the way decisions in transport planning are made. While classic systems optimize loading space, routes, rates, and call-offs sequentially, the AI-based S2data Platform evaluates the network, requirements, route, rate, and loading space in a single planning step. This results in transports that are not only sound in calculation but actually work operationally.
The software recognizes when requirements can sensibly be brought forward to purposefully utilize FTLs and milk runs, and from the outset takes potential constraints into account: stackability, dimensions, loading meters, axle loads, and loading sequence are automatically incorporated into the planning. Decisions are not guided solely by freight costs but by overall economic efficiency, including transport, storage, inventory, and capital tie-up costs. And this from strategic and tactical network planning to operational optimization of day-to-day dynamic transports.
For the customer, this means a structural advantage: fewer manual interventions, no corrections at the ramp, and transport planning that reliably optimizes costs, utilization, and CO₂ at the same time. Not through more effort, but through better, consistent decisions in the system.
Meet Us at LogiMAT 2026
Meet us at LogiMAT in Hall 4 at our joint booth with Logistikbude, 4A64, and experience live how S2data automates your transport planning, fills every truck optimally, and reduces transport costs by up to 25%.
About the author: Thomas Jellenz-Hartmann, Head of Communications & Marketing at S2data GmbH
-1-800x352.webp)
-800x352.webp)