Carrier Logistics and LSP44 Team Up to Automate LTL Identification
Carrier Logistics, LSP44 announce partnership to automate LTL shipment identification
Carrier Logistics and LSP44 have launched an application programming interface designed to help shippers and third-party logistics providers identify less-than-truckload shipments when a valid tracking number is missing or incorrect.
The companies announced the collaboration Oct. 14. The partnership combines Carrier Logistics’ freight management software for LTL carriers with LSP44’s artificial intelligence and API infrastructure for logistics service providers. Carrier Logistics said the system is now live, although the companies did not disclose how many carriers or customers are participating in the rollout.
The technology addresses a common problem in LTL transportation: a shipment may be moving through a carrier’s network, but the shipper, broker or 3PL may not have the correct PRO number, the identifier traditionally used to track LTL freight.
When a tracking request contains an incorrect or missing PRO number, a conventional tracking system may not be able to locate the shipment. The customer then may have to call or email the carrier so a customer service representative can search for the freight manually.
“If both parties don’t know what the tracking number is, then that electronic communication fails,” Carrier Logistics President Ben Wiesen said.
The new API allows a shipper or 3PL to submit other shipment information, including origin and destination, ZIP codes, company names, delivery locations, shipment descriptions and approximate dates. The system searches recent shipment records and produces potential matches.
Carrier Logistics said the API searches roughly a week’s worth of shipment records. After identifying possible matches, its artificial intelligence ranks them based on the information available and the likelihood that each record represents the shipment being sought.
That process is intended to account for incomplete or inconsistent data. For example, the system could recognize a shipment number with two transcribed digits as a possible match. It also could rank a shipment higher when the ZIP code matches, even if the weight provided in the search does not match the carrier’s record.
Shippers and 3PLs can compare the potential matches with their own records, select the correct shipment and resume electronic tracking. The goal is to resolve the identification problem through a standard, non-intrusive API instead of requiring a carrier employee to handle each inquiry.
For professional drivers, the change is aimed primarily at the communication and data systems surrounding a load rather than at the physical movement of freight. A driver may still be asked to provide shipment details or paperwork, but the companies are targeting the back-office delays that occur when a shipment cannot be connected to the right record.
Those delays can affect dispatchers, dock personnel and customer service teams. When freight cannot be matched electronically, updates may be delayed and staff may need to make additional calls to confirm a shipment’s status or location. The companies also said better shipment identification can reduce data discrepancies that lead to reweighing freight and reworking freight bills.
Carrier Logistics primarily serves asset-based LTL carriers, last-mile operators and cross-dock providers. Its software is used to manage freight and operational information within carrier systems. LSP44 provides AI agents and API infrastructure for brokers, 3PLs and other logistics operators. The platform is built on network data and carrier coverage associated with project44.
Nick Ruggiero, LSP44’s head of product, said carrier customer service departments have absorbed the cost of manual tracking requests for decades. He said connecting systems that can identify freight without a clean tracking number could remove one category of manual work.
The companies announced the collaboration during Carrier Logistics’ user group conference in Chicago on Oct. 9. Wiesen said the technology was developed to address the underlying problem rather than add another automated layer to calls and emails.
“We could put voice bots on our side to answer voice bots on your side, and email-responding AI to email it,” Wiesen said. “But why? Why can’t we just solve the bottleneck and the fundamental problem?”
There are limits to what the system can accomplish. Its effectiveness will depend on the quality and uniqueness of the information submitted, the accuracy of its matches and whether the requesting company’s software can use the results without additional manual intervention.
Carrier Logistics said the API is password-protected and uses account-specific credentials. Only shipments associated with validated accounts are considered as potential matches, limiting the records available through a search.
The partnership comes as the LTL industry works toward more consistent standards for sharing shipment information. The National Motor Freight Traffic Association’s Digital Standards Development Council has published an In-Transit Visibility API standard covering shipment status, delays and delivery estimates. The standard uses common milestones such as pickup, in transit, out for delivery and delivered.
That effort and the Carrier Logistics-LSP44 API address related but separate issues. Standardized visibility data helps transportation systems interpret and exchange status information. The new API is designed to identify the shipment itself when the tracking number supplied to the system is missing or inaccurate.
The companies have not said how many manual inquiries the system will eliminate. Wiesen said Carrier Logistics will not know whether the technology reduces phone calls until it is implemented and deployed across participating operations. For carriers and the people supporting their freight, the immediate focus is whether more shipments can be matched electronically before a tracking problem becomes a manual customer service task.
