CargoSphere offers real-time rate upload platform for carriers

The cloud-based rate management software provider launched a new upload platform to give forwarders and shippers access to real-time carrier rate and surcharge changes.    The global freight rate and contract management software provider CargoSphere has been making several waves in recent months with functionality that more directly ties carrier rate data to freight forwarders and forwarders to their customers.
   In mid-2016, the company announced that first SEKO Logistics, and then Dachser, would gain direct access to rates supplied by shipping line UASC in the CargoSphere rate sharing network, called Rate Mesh.
   That chain set up real-time sharing of rates from carrier to forwarder, who could then quote their customers faster and more accurately, given ocean rates are subject to frequent changes and amendments.
   On Tuesday, CargoSphere said it has taken another step to empower forwarders with real-time rate access by launching a systematized process for distributing freight rates to customers online in real-time.
   The new tool, called eSUDS (smart upload and diagnostic solution), is an update to CargoSphere’s existing rate document upload platform, launched in 2013. The new “e-version” is designed to speed the process of carrier rate uploads to better provide real-time rate data to forwarders.
   “SUDS accelerates the conversion of ocean freight rates to a fully digital environment and provides a simple, standardized process,” said Neil Barni, president of CargoSphere.
   The process, according to CargoSphere, works like this: a carrier updates confidential contracts, rate sheets, and/or surcharges in its internal system. The carrier’s system triggers creation of an export file containing new or updated rates and sends it to the CargoSphere system via sftp.
   The eSUDS tool detects the new carrier rate file and initiates the diagnostics process. eSUDS reads the carrier file, converts the carrier codes and data structures into CargoSphere Rate Mesh standards and inserts updated rates into the carrier’s CargoSphere cloud system. Updated rates are automatically shared via the CargoSphere Rate Mesh in either the customer’s CargoSphere system or the carrier’s website, giving customers real-time access to updated rates, base rates and/or surcharges.
   Barni has been working for more than a decade to bring real-time carrier data into CargoSphere’s platform. That is especially crucial as more tools come into the ocean freight market that provide forwarders, non-vessel-operating common carriers and shippers with access to instant quotes. Some initiatives are being driven by carriers themselves, while others are being developed by startup technology providers aiming to build marketplace environments where shippers of freight can get real-time quotes.