CH Robinson allows real-time pricing, instant booking with TMS integrations

Dive Brief:

C.H. Robinson's Navisphere platform is now able to integrate with 19 transportation management systems and ERP systems, allowing shippers to pull real-time pricing and freight procurement into existing platforms, the company announced Tuesday.
The list of TMSs with which C.H. Robinson can integrate includes Blue Yonder, Oracle Transportation Management, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Shipwell.
"We give them a real-time market price, and they can view it and book it instantaneously," C.H. Robinson CTO Mike Neill said. "So, no more phone calls [or] web cruising."

Dive Insight:

Digital freight procurement and TMS providers have become increasingly interwoven in recent years. Loadsmart integrates with Oracle, for example, and Uber Freight has partnered with BluJay, Oracle and SAP.

Digitization is also becoming increasingly important for companies in general as the pandemic forces staff to work remotely and limit in-person interactions. One survey found the pandemic has sped up digital transformation strategies at 97% of companies.

"The appetite for digitalization of the supply chain world is like we've never seen it," Neill said.

The ability to access real-time rates is nothing new for C.H. Robinson. But giving shippers the the ability to pull them into their existing TMSs allows the data to be brought into an ongoing workflow without the introduction of a new tool.

C.H. Robinson laid out the details for connecting to its APIs on its developer portal. But the company has worked with TMS providers to make sure all its APIs are in sync.

"Once we're ready to go ... turning on a customer at a time is very straightforward," Neill said. C.H. Robinson just has to provide a key for access.

When the systems are connected, shippers can see rates from C.H. Robinson as part of the other dashboards and screens within their TMS or ERP.

A shipper's TMS can automatically assign shipments on lanes where it already has a carrier. But there will usually be exceptions where they will need to find a carrier, negotiate a price and finalize a deal. Figuring out how to move the "exceptions" has traditionally been a fairly manually intensive process that could take up to an hour per load, Neill said.

With C.H. Robinson's integrations, these exceptions can now be managed in the same place as other freight procurement processes, Neill said. "Integrating with our platform and not having to bounce out either our website or someone else's, allows them to be much more efficient," he said.