project44 adds rail to visibility suite

A month after adding truckload visibility, the freight API technology provider is now offering rail shipment status capability to its multimodal platform.    The freight transportation and logistics technology provider project44 on Tuesday continued to build out its suite of multimodal application programming interfaced (API)-based visibility by adding rail visibility across U.S. and Canadian railways.
   The added capability is intended to help shippers, brokers, and other software providers eliminate traditional visibility gaps on rail shipments.
   project44, which made its name building API-based system-to-system connections in the less-than-truckload (LTL) sector, has been endeavoring to build a multimodal platform that provides real-time information on critical processes like rating, transit times, and shipment status.
   Last month, project44 added truckload visibility to its existing LTL, volume LTL, and parcel capabilities.
   The addition of rail visibility gives customers the ability to track rail shipments in real-time from origin to destination Standard Point Location Code (SPLC), the company said.
   “Types of visibility functions supported include both live status updates and historical data reviews, illustrating 1) shipments on hold, 2) when shipments have been ramped or left the origin location, 3) when shipments have reached an interchange or departed/switched trains, and 4) if the equipment has reached the final destination and was de-ramped,” the company said in a statement.
   Rail has long been a blind spot when it comes to freight visibility for shippers and 3PLs, creating holes in end-to-end shipment tracking. However, in-transit visibility has moved from being a luxury tool to a necessity for most cargo owners, especially as most shippers and their service providers wrestle with the implications of e-commerce and related inventory management and fulfillment complications.