In the current shipping environment, shippers and 3PLs need access to real-time, over-the-road (OTR) carrier connectivity to respond quickly to rapidly changing market conditions.
According to FreightWaves, “Shipper networks have been put to the test over the past two years and data has allowed for shippers to build resilient supply chains despite the curveballs they have been thrown.”
Connecting your TMS with reliable data creates a single source of truth in your shipping operations that unlocks agility. OTR carrier connections provide a host of benefits outside of rating and scheduling shipments that will improve your carrier and customer relationships.
Let’s look at 5 reasons why carrier connectivity matters.
1. Carrier Connectivity Improves Agility
As shippers, you must increasingly rely on the way freight information flows across your network. The faster you receive and respond to this information the more agile your operations become. Freight management application program interfaces (APIs) provide shippers with the unique ability to connect their entire supply chain to receive real-time data.
Carrier pricing APIs integrated with software as a service (SaaS), results in a quicker and more accurate data flow for your business. Through the implementation of freight pricing APIs, you can access dynamic pricing information, real-time data, and digitized freight documents, allowing you to simplify and accelerate your entire shipment process.
2. Accurate Information from Carriers
In addition to agility, carrier connections via APIs provide shippers with accurate information they can trust. Having the ability to rate, schedule, track, and pull documents via APIs eliminates the opportunity for manual data entry errors and improves information flow.
It also keeps rates and shipments up to date, so you aren’t relying on old data at a time when capacity and costs are changing by the minute. According to FreightWaves, “It’s a competitive market and if you are working with rates from a year ago, that’s not going to get you much traction today… By having the ability to run RFPs and process them quicker — that’s the flexibility and adaptability you need.”
3. Visibility Enhanced through Carrier Connectivity
As your customer’s delivery expectations evolve and disruptions continue to affect the entire supply chain, real-time connections provide end-to-end visibility. Visibility not only includes pick-up, transit, and delivery notifications, but other important data about carrier and/or lane performance.
This enables you to analyze past shipment data, including transit time, rates, lane performance, on-time deliveries, and trends by location or time of day, to identify areas of efficiency or where trouble or issues may be slowing your freight.
4. Connectivity to Cost Savings
With capacity constantly in flux and shipping costs rising across the supply chain, carrier connections provide cost savings in a host of areas. The first is in comparison rate shopping. The more carrier connections you have, the more diversity in pricing you can access, leading to direct cost savings through selecting lowest cost providers.
In addition to rate shopping, having access to real-time OTR carrier data allows you evaluate your freight bills to identify and rectify variances. Paired with carrier performance data and visibility, you can make better informed decisions about your freight spend and act on performance issues that may be impacting your bottom line.
5. Convenience through Connectivity
As your operations and needs grow, carrier connections provide your organization flexibility and convenience to grow along with you. The ability to adapt and leverage API technology to scale your business will prove essential to your success. It allows you to be highly connected for better freight management spend and helps you provide the premium service that customers expect.
Having access to all OTR modes from a single connection saves you time finding carriers in local markets and accessing delivery services that improve your customer’s experience, like first and final mile carriers.
As you start to grow your carrier connectivity inside your MercuryGate account, look for partners like Banyan Technology’s LIVE Connect™ that can be seamlessly integrated with a single API connection.
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About Banyan Technology & LIVE Connect
MercuryConnect Partner, Banyan Technology, enables shippers and 3PLs to remain agile in any market through real-time carrier connections in their LIVE Connect™ platform.
LIVE Connect is a flexible solution that provides more than 25,000 daily active users access to 3x more OTR carrier connections than any other provider in North America, including access to LTL, Truckload, First/Final Mile, and Parcel.
Integrate LIVE Connect to your MercuryGate account today to expand your carrier connections and add truth and agility back into your operations again.
