August 28, 2024 (Fort Wayne, IN) – Princeton TMX, a leading multi-modal transportation management system (TMS) provider, today announced a strategic partnership with OpenTug, a marine logistics platform dedicated to enhancing freight efficiency on inland and coastal waterways by streamlining booking, quoting and tracking. Integrating OpenTug’s marine logistics capabilities into the Princeton TMX system lets shippers easily book and manage terminal, barge and vessel capacity within the platform.
Princeton TMX’s multi-modal TMS automates complex transactions by simplifying the entire transportation planning and execution process, providing shippers with better rates, better lanes and lower risk. Seamless integration with OpenTug’s digital tool, BargeOS, allows shippers to compare quotes, book capacity and track shipments for barge shipments the same way as over-the-road, rail and intermodal transport. This not only streamlines the transportation management processes but unlocks additional opportunities for operational and financial improvement by enabling shippers to manage their entire transportation operations in a single system.
“Today’s supply chains are complex and businesses need to ship across multiple modes to reduce costs, manage risk and reduce their environmental impact,” said Mark McEntire, CEO, Princeton TMX. “Partnering with OpenTug allows us to provide comprehensive barge management capabilities—something lacking in most TMS offerings on the market—to our customers. This integration helps facilitate intermodal transport by letting shippers manage truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), rail and barge seamlessly on one platform.”
OpenTug blends traditional automatic identification systems (AIS) location information with GPS devices deployed onto barges to provide situationally aware mapping to enable accurate ETAs, unparalleled data and quick decision-making. OpenTug also provides a marketplace that gives shippers access to thousands of barges, tugs and terminals across more than 25,000 miles of marine highways, and its software enables operators to automate pricing, routing, booking and tracking.
“Tug and barge transportation offers shippers an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to transport goods,” said Jason Aristides, CEO, OpenTug. “While transportation technology has made significant strides in recent years, there is still an opportunity to better connect current systems with barge operations. By integrating our platform with Princeton TMX, we aim to bridge this gap and empower shippers to utilize the nation’s great marine highway system, creating a more effective, resilient and sustainable supply chain.”
.png)
