According to the Digital LTL Council, there’s really only one type of operation that wouldn’t benefit from using a standardized electronic bill of lading.
“If you only work with one carrier, standardization doesn't do anything for you,” said Brian Thompson, a council member at Digital LTL Council and chief commercial officer at SMC3, a provider of LTL and truckload data and solutions. “But if you want to connect and integrate with 10, 20, 30 carriers, suddenly it becomes exponentially large — a huge obstacle to connecting to your carriers and engaging with them digitally."
To help foster more efficient data sharing among LTL stakeholders, the relatively new Digital LTL Council comprised of various industry players worked together to produce standardized electronic bill of lading (eBOL) attributes.
Available through their website, the Gold Copy bill of lading API (application programing interface) seeks to streamline the digitalization of LTL with features like access to YAML file; request/response examples; field names and definitions; required fields; request/response schemas; and standardized enumerations.
J.B. Hunt is counted among the growing membership at Digital LTL Council.J.B. Hunt
Following its start in September 2019, the Digital LTL Council has risen from 12 to 30 members and counts among its membership some of the biggest names in the industry including Estes Express Lines, XPO Logistics, Yellow, TForce Freight, J.B. Hunt, Worldwide Express and Uline.
In addition to project44 and SMC3, other technology providers like BlueYonder, Manhattan Associates, Banyan Technology and My Carrier joined the council and put their differences aside to “facilitate collaboration, automation, standardization and digitization across all LTL industry participants with the hopes of elevating the industry together,” a council mission statement reads.
