Echo implements p44 APIs for LTL connectivity

The truck brokerage and managed transportation services provider will use project44’s integration layer to connect its carriers and clients on tendering, documentation and visibility.    The third-party logistics and truck brokerage provider Echo Global Logistics said Tuesday it has integrated application programming interface (API)-based solutions from the software provider project44 for less-than-truckload (LTL) and volume LTL shipments.
   Echo, a $2 billion brokerage that also handles managed transportation services for shippers, also plans to extend those services to additional modes of transportation via future integrations, the companies said. Echo will use project44’s API-based integration layer for carrier connectivity and data standardization.
   “project44 delivers state of the art automation and visibility solutions today, while also presenting a roadmap for supply chain digitization that will help us become an even more connected, innovative, and proactive provider in the future,” Doug Waggoner, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Echo, said in a statement.
   Specifically, project44’s solutions will enable Echo to tender shipments, access live end-to-end visibility, and receive delivery documentation via a single, API-based integration to improve interoperability between Echo’s capacity providers, internal systems and customers.
   At a transportation and logistics conference in Miami Tuesday (organized by the investment firm Stifel), Waggoner grouped Echo’s investment in technology into four buckets: internally developed technology that shippers use; internally built systems for carriers; integrations with external systems like shipper ERPs; and integrations with third-party platforms that keep Echo from having to write code.
   Without naming project44 specifically, Waggoner talked about his company’s internal ability to develop APIs, but said it made more sense to outsource that development instead of building APIs for each of the 125 LTL carriers with which it gets capacity.
   project44 said this approach “will ultimately reduce their administrative costs while increasing productivity, and advance their position as an innovative, strategic partner with both their clients and carriers.”
   “project44 is an accelerator,” Miles English, chief information officer at Echo Global Logistics, said in a statement. “Their cloud-based architecture, focus on security, guaranteed uptime, customer support, and onboarding efficiency rival that of other leading iPaaS (integration platform as a service) providers. Yet, they also have the necessary deep domain knowledge required to help us successfully address the complex challenges present in today’s logistics networks and client’s supply chains.”