The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) is hoping to create more efficiency for carriers and the overall supply chain with its new electronic bills of lading (eBOL) standard for the less-than-truckload sector.
The council is asking its members to pledge adoption of the standard by July 2023 with hopes of spurring widespread adoption. Nearly 30 companies had already taken the pledge by Oct. 24.
“It will require a joint effort between shippers, carriers and 3PLs to adopt a standard eBOL API, and some IT expenses will be necessary,” Paul Dugent, executive director of the Digital LTL Council, told CCJ.
But stakeholders will see a return on that investment.
Carriers will benefit by automating or even eliminating certain administrative, bill entry and customer service tasks, saving up to 1.3% of their current costs and equating to industry savings of potentially $470 million.
“The benefits, of course, don’t stop there,” SMC³ Chief Commercial Officer Brian Thompson said in a statement. “In addition to eliminating manual data entry and risk of transcription errors, carrier systems receive shipment information sooner, enabling advance operational planning and network optimization. Carriers estimate they could realize an additional 2% reduction in operational costs, making the industry-wide savings nearly $1.2 billion.”
Christian Piller, vice president of value engineering at project44, said the benefits of digitizing the LTL shipment lifecycle will trickle down to manufacturers and distributors as well.
