Good day,
Two weeks after announcing it had opened up its platform to application programming interface (API) connections, Convoy has announced a free transportation management system (TMS) pre-configured with Convoy’s network of carriers.
Convoy Connect gives shippers access to Convoy’s network of capacity and guaranteed, real-time pricing. It also allows carriers to continue to use their own network within the TMS architecture, keeping all potential carriers and key lane data in a single system.
“Our customers have continuously asked us to expand the Convoy experience to their entire carrier network,” Ziad Ismail, Convoy’s chief product officer, explained. “They want help moving away from spreadsheets and emails as their primary way of managing freight, while also getting the ease and efficiency of Convoy’s instant booking. Convoy Connect provides customers a single, free tool to manage and book all their freight, across all their carries, including immediate access to Convoy’s high-quality network.”
Convoy said that shippers retain total control over their routing guides within Convoy Connect. The system does not dictate who they use, what lanes they run, or any other attributes of their operation. It is designed to support their logistics and give them access to rates guaranteed through the Convoy network as needed.
Convoy Connect’s integrated network of carriers helps shorten the process of tendering loads by eliminating the need to email back and forth with carriers to secure capacity, especially for shippers that might otherwise turn to the spot market. This fragmented process also makes tracking and managing shipments all the more challenging as each shipment’s status lives across a variety of spreadsheets, email threads, and notes from phone calls, Convoy said.
“Prior to Convoy Connect, we were sending out emails every five minutes to try and move our daily loads, Phil Russell, transportation supervisor of Encore Glass, said. “Being able to put information into Convoy Connect and let them do the legwork on the backend allows us to switch gears and focus on other things that are pain points. With Connect I was able to reduce tendering time by half.”
Just last month, Convoy announced API and developer tool access through Convoy Now. Convoy offers immediate integrations with BluJay, MercuryGate and One Network. More TMS providers will be added in the future. Convoy Now offers integration through any solution with its developer tools.
Convoy Now also gives shippers access to the same information Convoy has when it comes to real-time pricing available in Convoy Go, which is the company’s nationwide drop-and-hook program.
Did you know?
Blackstone Group continues its expansion in the last-mile industrial real-estate space with its $5.9 billion purchase of real estate from Colony Industrial. Earlier this year, Blackstone spent $18.7 billion to acquire the logistics portfolio of GLP as it banks on growing demand for urban and last-mile warehouse space.
Quotable:
“Based on the level of interest from the industry, [USPS] may identify candidates for a future solicitation to develop the Postal Service’s UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] operations and demonstrate the necessary reliability and safety of unmanned aircraft technology.”
-UPSP request for information from drone operators that could potentially supply drones for delivery purposes
In other news:
Rental trucks for consumers
Electric truck startup Rivian is considering a subscription service for its vehicles, allowing users to use a truck based on their level of subscription. (Automotive News)
Shanghai to ban diesel trucks
Shanghai is planning to ban “lower end” diesel trucks by 2022. The trucks make up 2.9% of the city’s vehicle fleet, but produce 30% of the emissions, the government said. (PaulTan.org)
U.S. trucks account for 17% of fuel use
U.S. medium- and heavy-duty trucks account for 1% of U.S. vehicles, but accumulated 6% of all vehicle miles and used 17% of all vehicle fuel use. (Green Car Congress)
Belarus prepares big cargo push
Belarus is preparing to triple the volume of air cargo into and out of the country by 2025. (Belarus News)
Virgin Atlantic targets Heathrow for cargo
Virgin Atlantic sees opportunity to increase its cargo presence at London’s Heathrow Airport in the midst of the ongoing pilot unrest at British Airways. (Handy Shipping Guide)
Final Thoughts
More proof that strikes at major companies such as General Motors impact more than just the paychecks of the striking workers have come over the last few days. Two factories in Mexico laid off 200 workers due to the strike in Detroit. Previously, Martin Transportation laid off more than 40 drivers in Windsor, Ontario, due to the strike. It’s important to remember that strikes or lockouts have consequences that extend far beyond just the factory’s workers, and can have wide-ranging impacts on the economy as a whole as workers see paychecks slashed or disappear altogether.
Hammer down everyone!
This article is published jointly with our partners at Convoy. To view more Future of Freight content, click here.
David Tildern
Isn’t this just another broker web portal for shippers to get quotes? If it’s a true TMS software system, surely none of the big TMS providers like McLeod, TMW, Ascend, Mercurygate, BlueJay etc will want to integrate Convoy’s rates into their shipper TMS systems as Convoy is now competing with them.
Wouldn’t Convoy just be better going to all the major TMS software providers and paying them to inject their real time rates directly into those TMS systems directly? That way Convoy covers the entire shipper market AND they don’t get the entire TMS vendor market working against them.