Connect your carriers and subcontractors to your own system
A carrier integration from your TMS: trips go automatically to the party that drives them, status updates and PODs come back automatically. If you subcontract trips, orders often leave by email today and status updates come back by phone. We take that manual work out.
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Subcontracting now takes as much time as driving yourself
A trip goes to a subcontractor. The planner sends an email or a PDF with the order, or retypes it into the carrier’s portal. Then the waiting begins: has it been loaded, is it at the delivery address yet, where is the signed consignment note? Often that gets solved with a phone call, and the status only reaches the TMS when someone enters it by hand.
As long as you have one regular subcontractor, that is manageable. With ten carriers, each with their own portal, email address and way of reporting back, it becomes a full-time job. Meanwhile your own customer simply wants to see in your track & trace where their shipment is — even when it is on someone else’s truck.
An integration with your carriers takes that manual work out: the order goes to the right party automatically, and everything that comes back lands automatically on the right order in your system.
What goes out, and what comes back
To your carrier
- The transport order with all trip and address details
- Changes and cancellations to a trip in progress
- Documents: consignment note, packing slip, customs papers
- Loading and delivery time windows and special instructions
Back from your carrier
- Acceptance or rejection of the trip
- Status updates: en route, loaded, unloaded, completed
- The signed POD or e-CMR as a file with the order
- Exceptions: damage, refusal, waiting hours
- The invoice lines, to check against your own trip
Your planner no longer has to call to find out where a subcontracted trip stands, and your customer sees the same status as you.
Every carrier can be connected differently
Your carriers are not all equally advanced. The large ones have EDI or an API, the small ones have a phone and an email address. That need not be a problem: we connect each party at the level it can handle.
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01
Do they have EDI?
Then we exchange transport orders and status updates in the standard messages (IFTMIN, IFTSTA) over AS2, SFTP or OFTP2. See EDI integrations.
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02
Do they have an API or portal?
Then we place the order directly in their system and retrieve the status updates in real time, or receive them via a webhook. See API integrations.
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03
Do they only have email?
Then we automatically send them an order in a fixed format, and read their reply back just as automatically. It works the same way as importing orders without EDI.
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04
Everything arrives in the same place
Whichever route a carrier uses, it looks the same in your TMS: one status list, one place for the PODs, one overview of what has not yet been completed.
Do you ship from a warehouse?
This page is about trips you subcontract from your TMS to carriers and subcontractors. If you book shipments from your warehouse software, that is a slightly different integration: the shipment is booked with the carrier automatically when it is marked as shipped, and the labels come back into the WMS.
Everything about that flow, and about how we connect the WMS and the TMS to each other, is on the page WMS integration with carriers.
We start with the carrier that handles the most volume
Connecting all carriers at once is rarely wise. We start with the party you subcontract the most trips to: that is where the biggest time saving is, and the second integration goes faster because your own system’s side is already in place.
- Which TMS or WMS you use and whether an interface or API is available. If you do not know, we will find out.
- A short list of your regular carriers, with how you exchange information with them today: email, portal, EDI or phone.
- Which status updates you want to see and whether the POD should be attached to the order digitally.
With that, we show you which carriers can be connected quickly, which ones need to arrange something on their side first, and in which order it pays off most. How we approach such a project is described under how we work.
Carrier integration, briefly answered
Does my carrier need to buy anything for this?
Not necessarily. If they have EDI or an API, we use it. If they do not, we connect them via email in a fixed format. They do not need to buy any software for that.
Does this work if every carrier has a different portal?
Yes, that is precisely the reason to integrate. We translate to each carrier’s own way of working; in your own system it remains one uniform flow.
Do I get the signed consignment note back digitally too?
If the carrier makes the POD or e-CMR available digitally, we attach it as a file to the right order. If they still work on paper, that stays manual work, but the status updates can still be automated.
Can I show my customer the same status?
Yes. As soon as the carrier’s status is in your system, we can pass it on to your customer or portal, via EDI or API. Your customer does not need to know who is actually driving.
Which TMS does this work with?
With Mendrix, Transpas, Qargo and other packages with an interface or API.
How long before the first carrier is up and running?
That depends mainly on the carrier and on how quickly you and they can supply test data. A first integration is usually a matter of weeks, not months; what it will be in your situation, we can only say once we have seen your systems.
How many trips do you subcontract each week?
Tell us which TMS you use and which carriers you work with. We will show you, without obligation, which integration saves time fastest.