Share this
90% of Warehouse Facilities Have No Digital Solution And It’s Time to Start Talking About It
by jpallmerine
Dock scheduling is in the headlines–finally. We’ve been waiting. Let’s talk.
By Jeff Booth, Director, Product Management
Here at Loadsmart, we are highly focused on solving inefficiencies caused by fragmented transportation processes. It’s in our DNA; Ricardo and Felipe were inspired to form the company in 2014 because of the fragmentation they saw in freight quoting and booking. In 2017, Loadsmart launched the first dynamic instant pricing API with Oracle TMS, and since then the company has continued this cycle: identify fragmentation, solve for it, repeat. In 2021, dock scheduling entered this cycle, and–so did I. Since then, I’ve helped Loadsmart turn its attention to the warehouse.
In Q3 2021 Loadsmart bought Opendock, the leading stand-alone dock scheduling solution in the market. Opendock provides scheduling solutions for over 1,000 unique customers across thousands of individual facilities and appointments for over $18B in freight spend.
The lack of standards is a growing challenge and we applaud the efforts of the Scheduling Standards Consortium and look forward to supporting them in every way possible. However, we have identified a few upstream challenges we need to solve before we arrive at industry-wide API standards that move the needle for carriers.
First, Opendock is the only scheduling solution with a carrier-facing API today. We make this documentation publicly available for our 30,000+ unique carrier companies scheduling appointments today, including the key members of the Scheduling Standards Consortium. Other scheduling solutions often require unique URLs and credentials per customer so there isn’t standardization within their own customer base. We feel these same challenges within our brokerage business and logistics service offerings.
Second, which is the larger challenge, is low digital dock scheduling penetration across the industry. Less than 10% of facilities in the US and Canada have a dock scheduling solution. With over 90% of facilities using phone calls, emails, and first come first serve, we need systems in place first before we can standardize them.
Creating an API standard today is a good start and will make it easier to schedule at this 10% of facilities in the US and Canada, but how do we attack the larger problem of 90% of facilities with nothing to standardize in the first place?
That’s why we are strong believers in Opendock. Loadsmart acquired the market leader in dock scheduling because it had the best opportunity to solve this core problem: 90% of facilities have no digital solution. The key is an easy-to-use, lightweight solution that’s built API-first and integration friendly. We can get a facility up and running in less than 90 minutes with no costly implementation fees. At the same time, we can serve enterprise solutions with things like SSO and integrations into TMS, WMS, and visibility providers.
We look forward to continuing to expand the Opendock facility footprint with easy-to-use APIs for carriers to schedule appointments. Currently several of the top brokerages in the US are already using the Opendock API to programmatically schedule and update appointments. We hope to continue that with the Scheduling Standards Consortium.
ABOUT LOADSMART
Transforming the future of freight, Loadsmart leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and strategic partnerships to automate how freight is priced, booked and shipped. Pairing advanced technologies with deep-seated industry expertise, Loadsmart fuels growth, simplifies operational complexity and bolsters efficiency for carriers and shippers alike. For more information, please visit: https://loadsmart.com.
Share this
- Blog (96)
- Shipper (89)
- Market Trends (85)
- Enterprise Shipper (69)
- Carrier (66)
- News (57)
- Data Insights (51)
- Thought Leadership (44)
- SMB Shipper (38)
- Our Partners (34)
- Warehouse (31)
- Product Updates (29)
- Mode Optimization (25)
- ShipperGuide TMS (22)
- Mid-Market Shipper (18)
- Opendock (17)
- Loadsmart (13)
- Brokerage Services (12)
- Case Study (12)
- Managed Transportation (10)
- Video (8)
- FreightIntel AI (5)
- Award (4)
- Instant Execution (4)
- Asset (3)
- Food and Beverage (3)
- Freight Management (3)
- Logistics Solutions (3)
- eBook (3)
- Podcast (2)
- Paper Packaging (1)
- Retail (1)
- Transportation Management System (1)
- November 2024 (4)
- October 2024 (11)
- September 2024 (11)
- August 2024 (5)
- July 2024 (5)
- June 2024 (9)
- May 2024 (7)
- April 2024 (6)
- March 2024 (2)
- February 2024 (2)
- January 2024 (5)
- December 2023 (6)
- November 2023 (2)
- October 2023 (12)
- September 2023 (5)
- August 2023 (3)
- July 2023 (4)
- June 2023 (10)
- May 2023 (5)
- April 2023 (5)
- March 2023 (7)
- February 2023 (5)
- January 2023 (7)
- December 2022 (4)
- November 2022 (13)
- October 2022 (4)
- September 2022 (7)
- August 2022 (11)
- July 2022 (6)
- June 2022 (5)
- May 2022 (2)
- April 2022 (4)
- March 2022 (6)
- February 2022 (7)
- January 2022 (9)
- December 2021 (3)
- November 2021 (5)
- October 2021 (7)
- September 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (2)
- July 2021 (4)
- June 2021 (6)
- May 2021 (6)
- April 2021 (5)
- March 2021 (8)
- February 2021 (3)
- January 2021 (3)
- December 2020 (7)
- November 2020 (9)
- October 2020 (7)
- September 2020 (6)
- August 2020 (10)
- July 2020 (8)
- June 2020 (3)
- May 2020 (1)
- April 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (2)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (1)
- November 2019 (2)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (2)
- June 2019 (2)
- May 2019 (3)
- March 2019 (1)
- February 2019 (3)
- December 2018 (1)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (1)
- September 2018 (2)
- August 2018 (1)
- July 2018 (1)
- June 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (4)
- April 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (4)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (2)
- June 2017 (1)
- May 2017 (2)
- April 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (1)
- January 2017 (2)
- October 2016 (1)
- August 2016 (1)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (6)
- July 2015 (1)
- June 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (2)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (17)
- January 2015 (15)
- December 2014 (35)
- November 2014 (26)
- October 2014 (60)
- September 2014 (2)