KNOWLEDGE Base SPONSORED CONTENT
Future Proofing Your Shipment Lifecycle with Electronic Bills of Lading Better Service, Lower Cost— The LTL Electronic Bill of Lading
A nyone who has shipped freight knows paperwork continues to play a big role in the LTL shipping process. The bill of lading (BOL) carries signi cant importance to all parties in the supply chain— shipper, consignee, carrier, and 3PL. It contains the shipment’s origin and destination addresses, freight details, services requested by the freight owner, and other critical identi ers such as hazardous materials. In short, the bill of lading contains information the carrier needs to transport the goods in a timely and safe manner. Completed bill of lading details live within the carrier’s freight management systems. When a shipment is tendered using a paper bill of lading, the details are manually entered, inviting errors. These errors can mean lost time and potential added costs. This leads to delivery delays and a higher risk of damage due to additional freight handling. Billing accuracy and invoice errors also occur due to challenges matching accounts to pricing agreements or freight reweighs and reclassi cation due to commodity description and classi cation transcription errors. It’s frustrating when a freight invoice doesn’t match the original paper bill of lading, and it can lead to disputes and payment delays.
and on-time performance, improved carrier performance, decreased dwell times, reduced safety stock levels, and better worker ef ciency. Industry-wide, this could potentially add up to $470 million in savings. eBOLs will provide information more quickly to carriers, allowing them to plan operations in advance and optimize networks. Lower costs to serve will bene t all stakeholders across the LTL industry. It’s Time to Adopt a Digital Bill of Lading Getting to this point—where electronic bills of lading have progressed from a promising concept to a full reality— required collaboration among all LTL transportation ecosystem stakeholders. The Digital LTL Council was the launching pad from which carriers, logistics service providers, shippers, and technology providers initiated a set of uniform standards to guide scalable automation and digitization of LTL shipments. If you are ready to learn more about how SMC³ LTL APIs can partner with you to achieve eBOL adoption and automate your entire shipment lifecycle, visit: https://www.smc3.com/ltl-api/.
Digitizing the bill of lading leads to fewer classi cation and invoice issues down the road. This digitization adds up to a better customer experience and accurate billing. Pre-programmed eBOLs require speci c information such as density, classi cation, and dimensional speci cations. Improved Service Performance In addition to ensuring correct address information, there are several other ways early visibility to the complete, accurate freight characteristics assist with carrier service performance. For example, communicating the freight characteristics to the carrier digitally enables the carrier to ensure they have the proper equipment and capacity to complete the pickup the rst time. Additionally, the carrier can begin planning the linehaul routing when they have visibility to the freight characteristics before the freight hits the origin dock. Cost Savings for Shippers and Carriers The Digital LTL Council published an article recently that states shippers can expect to see an average of 2-4% cost savings per shipment once widespread adoption of eBOL occurs. These savings will come from greater network ef ciency
—By Brian Thompson
Fewer Invoice Errors Electronically transmitting the
information on the bill of lading from the shipper’s transportation management system (TMS) directly to the carrier’s management system dramatically reduces the potential for human error.
Chief Commercial Ocer SMC 3 www.smc3.com/ltl-api/ 800-845-8090
SMC³’s potent and dependable LTL API solutions oer real-time visibility into the full shipment lifecycle, from planning to delivery. www.smc3.com/ltl-api/
30 Inbound Logistics • May 2023
Powered by FlippingBook