Transportation firms eyeing APIs

Technology develops rapidly, and recently transportation firms have taken to considering how these changes could transform their own industry.

The Journal of Commerce (JOC) reported that these companies are looking into the ways that application program interfaces (APIs) could change their world for the better. For many people, this begs the question, "what are APIs?" They are sets rules and processes that are used to build software applications that communicate with each other, according to ReadWrite. In addition, they allow disparate systems to communicate with each other. This makes it possible for someone to copy and paste information from the Internet to a document, for instance.

APIs are changing the way some companies operate
Though these sets of protocols used to build software and communicate with other applications have been around for some time, the transportation industry in particular has begun shifting its focus toward them. From truck carriers to shippers, numerous transportation players could see their world's changed substantially by the introduction of certain APIs. A combination of software growth, mobile emergence and e-commerce popularity are at the heart of the transition toward new technologies for transportation firms, the JOC explained.

Devices and applications are linking and working together more than ever before, and because of that APIs are becoming increasingly important. As this happens, transportation companies are looking for ways to take advantage of them and improve the movement of goods.

Real-time changes offer benefits to transportation firms
For example, project44 recently released an API for less-than-truckload carriers that allows them to better utilize dynamic pricing models. This allows truck operators to rapidly adapt their pricing models and transit times to unexpected changes.

"If it snows in the Northeast, with this module, they can slow transit times just for that week," Tommy Barnes, project44 president, told the JOC.

With extreme weather during the winter proving a major hindrance to transportation in recent years, a dynamic application such as project44 could prove useful for truckers.

SMC3's CarrierConnect is another API, and one that has grown quite popular among shippers. This third-party service offers shippers transit times. Hundreds of carriers provide SMC3 with transit updates as they happen, which allows the application to provide real-time updates to shippers.

One of the reasons that APIs could end up proving so effective for transportation firms is the fact that they operate based on a variety of networks. By offering these networks as a means of communicating with each other, APIs can make the industry more effective.

"With the transition to e-commerce, APIs allow shippers, third party logistics providers, others to have access to information without the barriers of legacy systems," Barnes explained to the JOC. "This will let them drive change and have a more effective, productive network."

Out with the old, in with the new
API is slowly replacing the dominant means of software communication, electronic data interchange (EDI). While this isn't expected to happen immediately, many, like Barnes, see it happening eventually, according to the JOC. EDI doesn't happen in real time and information has to be translated to turn bulk sets of data into smart numbers and trends. Because of this, EDI can be an obstacle to rapid decision-making.

While transportation firms aren't often particularly fast to change, when the need to transform comes around, the change typically follows. For this reason, while APIs may not become dominant among transportation firms this year, one can reasonably expect these programs to become increasingly more popular.