Dive Brief:

• A new partnership between Flexport and Convoy means cargo owners shipping into North America can access truckload service offerings in the same place they book ocean capacity, the companies announced Tuesday.
• The companies have integrated their systems to allow shippers to book end-to-end loads and have information on Convoy shipments show up in Flexport's Transmission dashboard.
• "A client’s shipment would arrive on a cargo ship at port. From there, it would be transported through drayage using Flexport Transmission to a Flexport facility," Flexport said in an email. "It would then be transloaded onto a Convoy trailer and a carrier from Convoy’s network would haul it to its destination."

Dive Insight:

The partnership means shippers can access guaranteed capacity through Convoy's carrier network by booking on Flexport's platform. And it puts the quoting and booking process that Convoy facilitates within Flexport for international shipments to North America.

And all shippers have to do is select their origin and destination. "Everything is automatically handled through the Flexport platform," Flexport said.

One aspect the companies are attempting to underscore about the partnership is the increased visibility provided to shippers by putting all of this information in the same place.

"This partnership creates a more seamless experience for shippers, and advances a vision long-shared by Convoy and Flexport that technology will create efficiencies and bring flexibility to the supply chain," Convoy CEO and Co-Founder Dan Lewis said in a statement.

This is not the first time Flexport has pitched its product as being able to combine all these levels of the supply chain. In a video posted last year, Flexport explained how trucking partners could use its trucking platform to accept delivery orders and see when shipments arrive at a port and the date of the last free day. And its warehouse application allows a delivery time to be scheduled.

But now it is able to tap into the carrier network that Convoy has built up. In 2019, Convoy was working with 100,000 truckers and around 35,000 carriers.

And as companies look to become the one-stop shop for supply chain, integration with other digital supply chain companies is becoming increasingly common. Convoy has integrated with multiple transportation management system providers in an effort to make its network "most widely available in the industry," it announced last year.