Carrier Integration / Carrier Connectivity

Carrier integration is the set of electronic connections that allow a shipper's transportation management system to communicate directly with carrier systems. Instead of emailing rate requests, calling in pickups, checking carrier portals for tracking updates, and manually entering invoice data, an integrated system handles all of these exchanges programmatically – rate quotes return in seconds, tenders transmit with one click, tracking updates flow in automatically, and invoices arrive in a structured format ready for audit.

These connections work through several mechanisms: direct API integrations with carrier platforms, EDI transactions (204 for tenders, 210 for invoices, 214 for status updates), ELD data feeds for real-time location tracking, and carrier portal scraping for partners that don't support electronic data exchange. The breadth of a TMS's prebuilt carrier network determines how quickly a shipper can go live – if your top 20 carriers are already connected, onboarding is a configuration exercise rather than an integration project.

Carrier connectivity directly affects daily operational efficiency. Every carrier that isn't integrated means manual rate lookups, phone or email tenders, portal-hopping for tracking, and hand-keyed invoice data. Multiply that across dozens of carrier relationships and hundreds of weekly shipments, and the labor cost of poor connectivity becomes significant – not to mention the errors introduced by manual data handling. The goal is a single platform where every carrier interaction happens electronically, regardless of whether that carrier supports API, EDI, or only a web portal.

The cost and effort of building these connections matters too. Legacy TMS platforms often charge per integration and take weeks to activate each one. Modern platforms invest in prebuilt connector libraries and add new carriers continuously – treating integration as an included capability rather than a billable project.