Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022:
Convoy, J.B. Hunt Transport (CCJ Top 250, No. 3) and Uber Freight announced Monday the formation of the Scheduling Standards Consortium (SSC), which aims to solve transportation scheduling challenges by establishing the freight industry’s first formal set of appointment scheduling application programming interface (API) standards.
Today, scheduling system and interface fragmentation is a point of friction amongst carriers, brokers and shippers. As the industry turns increasingly to an integrated network of providers and solutions to manage the end-to-end lifecycle of each shipment, it has become increasingly important to define and share a consistent data architecture and API standard for the distribution of scheduling information, the companies said.
“Technology has ushered in a new era for transportation – new players, new apps, new platforms, new services. Yet, our industry remains extremely fragmented,” said Spencer Frazier, executive vice president of sales and marketing at J.B. Hunt. “We want to change that, starting today with the three of us and hopefully many more providers in the coming months.”
Frazier added that the goal is to “create an open exchange of data so that the numerous TMS and digital freight platforms can communicate at a level where we can help one another when needed,” adding that the “challenge is to make the systems they use daily work together to generate greater value and efficiency for their supply chains.”
The SSC’s objectives are to define an API standard for sharing scheduling information, implement those standardized interfaces to enable integrations in existing systems, and advocate for the standard across the industry. The standard will bring more cohesion and resiliency to the movement of goods, making it easier to book and manage appointments; optimize processes for drivers, shippers and receivers; and drive operational efficiencies for the industry at large.
SSC said adoption is critical for the effort to succeed. Its goal is to sign on other brokers or third-party logistics service providers, transportation management system and warehouse management system vendors, and others to help shape the future of supply chain efficiency. Initial SSC standards and documentation, starting with full truckload freight, will be available as early as Q1 2023.
