Your Routing Guide Needs More Automation. Our Rating API Can Help.

Routing guides were put through the wringer in 2020, resulting in many supply chain leaders throwing out their planning and pricing manuals for the year. 

In all fairness, no one could have predicted the impact Covid-19 would have on transportation networks across the country. Still, it has left planners examining their logistical operation’s integrity during market peaks, valleys, and disruptions.

Do we have access to enough capacity when things get dicey? 

Am I spending too much time on manual tasks not directly adding to the bottom line?

Are we paying too much on our primary, backup, or spot freight?

While these concerns are certainly top of mind for decision-makers daily, the stakes are even higher. Now more than ever, enterprises are searching for new ways to prepare their networks to respond faster and more efficiently to drastic market shifts and enable their people to increase their output. 

If we have learned anything in the pandemic’s wake, manual pricing and procurement processes are no longer sustainable tactics for future scale and growth. The ability to proactively pivot to the ever-changing transportation landscape is a crucial differentiator to establishing your business as a preferred shipper of choice. 

Being able to quote seamlessly, book, and track shipments with fewer touchpoints is paramount to reducing time and money spent carrying out your primary and spot freight transactions. With more time and money, you can allocate extra resources to other projects that drive meaningful results to your bottom line.  

So, how can you make this dream become a reality? By integrating more automation into your routing guide. 

Where can you get more automation? Redwood’s Rating API solution. 

What is Redwood’s Rating API solution? 

Redwood’s Rating API is a real-time rate call that delivers instant market-responsive rates directly into your TMS for guaranteed capacity and quickly executes shipment planning at a fraction of the cost. And with 100% tender acceptance for primary, backup, and spot shipments, you get peace of mind in any market. 

With the ability to instantly compare and book rates in seconds, you save hours out of your day by eliminating manual procurement processes. You can also plug into Redwood’s integration platform, RedwoodConnect, to enable immediate rate responses and instantaneous carrier communications for tendering through payment. 

What does Redwood’s Rating API solve?

Shippers like you need more flexible transportation solutions to respond to changes in the market faster and more efficiently. During peak demand, your transportation team often has to scramble to source capacity to move your freight leading to countless emails and phone call exchanges to find the most cost-effective coverage.

Redwood’s Rating API puts an end to all the back forth that costs you extra time by connecting you to real-time pricing, guaranteed capacity, and automated workflows that streamline operations and provide complete visibility. Our Rating API advances connectivity in the supply chain and removes operational friction from sourcing and procuring capacity in the spot market.

In addition, you also get competitive rates on low volume or new lanes that you may not have contracted carrier rates. 

How does Redwood’s Rating API work? And how do shippers use it?

Our Rating API leverages 20 years of historical buying data, equivalent to billions of managed freight spend and market indices, to quickly and accurately forecast market rates for transportation planning. After a rapid one-time setup, shippers can request instant rates directly into their TMS for easy comparing and booking shipments.   

Requiring minimum maintenance, shippers can utilize the Rating API based on their TMS capabilities. Some shippers’ TMS has many options to enable automated use of the API through workflow, while others have limited spot market use cases. Regardless, the API offering serves as a valuable tool to their operations. 

How is Redwood’s Rating API unique from its competitors?

Redwood has been a supply chain leader for over 20 years. With extensive experience in technology integration and transportation brokerage, our offering among the Rating API community is unmatched when compared to our competition.

Our tech-forward approach enables us to connect customers to solutions that help them WIN in the marketplace, including:

• Automated primary and spot freight workflows
• A private network of 20,000+ carriers for reliable capacity
• 100% tender acceptance
• All modes supported (truckload, temp controlled, LTL, flatbed)
• Receive rates regardless of market conditions (not just when the coverage is favorable)

So what does this all mean for you?

Save hours out of your day by automating primary, backup, and spot workflows. Lower your freight spend with algorithmic load matching based on buying history and real-time market data. Streamline communication for instantaneous rate responses and carrier updates. Reduce spot market rates on average by up to 10% or more.   

Best of all, fewer headaches and more peace of mind your shipment are quoted, booked, and shipped with superior technology and logistics professionals. 

How can you get set up?

First off, Redwood offers the Rating API solution at no cost to our shipping partners. A FREE solution that will help you save time and money on your freight? Kind of a no-brainer. 

Transportation planners can quickly gain market and rate insights by integrating the solution into their current operations. 

Drop us a line, and a freight tech specialist will be in touch with you as soon as possible. 

To learn more, visit our Rating API page for more information.