Transportation Costing Group Inc (TCG) has announced the awarding of United States Patent #6,604,081 by the US Patent and Trademark Office to Kenneth M Manning and William R Shults. They received a patent for the cost accounting formulas “Method for Analyzing Profitability of Freight Load Hauling Operations.” Manning and Shults are president and executive vice-president, respectively, of TCG.
Manning said, “In our 21 years of providing activity-based cost systems to the motor carrier industry, we have developed systems for both traditional LTL network carriers as well as irregular route carriers of all types; truckload, bulk, flatbed, reefer, and LTL ‘loaded-to-ride’.
“We realized that our approach to costing irregular route freight on a round trip basis was unique to the industry,” he said. “It accounts for empty mile costs as well as the profitability implications of lower rated backhaul freight, and properly assigns costs to the loads or shipments comprising the entire round trip within which the freight moves. As a result, the costing process moves beyond the simplistic methods showing all headhaul freight as profitable and all backhaul freight as unprofitable. This methodology is incorporated into TL/CIS as well as all other appropriate components of TCG's Cost Information System product line.”
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