TMW, 3Gtms Create Partnership

TMW Systems announced a partnership with 3Gtms to provide a broader set of services to companies such as third-party logistics operators and brokers that manage both asset-based and non-asset-based freight services.

Trimble Navigation Ltd., parent of TMW, took a significant minority stake in 3Gtms of Shelton, Connecticut, David Wangler, president of TMW, told Transport Topics. 3Gtms was created 18 months ago by Mitch Weseley, an industry veteran. It has 45 employees, according to Weseley.

Financial terms of the investment weren’t disclosed.

Wangler said the partnership adds capabilities for Cleveland-based TMW, which historically has focused on services to asset-based carriers, to tackle a more complex hybrid model that embraces both asset-based and non-asset-based services.

“What we have seen in the marketplace is an ongoing convergence,” Wangler said, creating the hybrid as some asset-based operators expand into brokerage and non-asset-based operators move to secure adequate asset capacity. “We concluded that we could get there [to serve the hybrid model] more elegantly and more quickly through the partnership,” Wangler said, because 3Gtms fully integrated the planning and execution process.

“The real magic is in the optimization,” he said.

“Their solution was a better solution than anything else in the market,” Wangler said, because the planning and execution processes are fully integrated.

That is especially important for the 3pl and broker community, Wangler added, because those businesses need “speed to market.” That means focusing on faster planning and execution that brokers and 3pls need to support their customers and trading partners.

By contrast, he said, asset-based carriers’ contracts with shippers typically are more focused on the long-term.