Optimizing Real-time Freight Visibility Through Technology Integration Collaboration

Transportation One (T1) provides premium logistics services to customers throughout North America with a network of 40,000+ carriers across multiple modes of transportation. Following a successful deployment of the Descartes MacroPoint™ real-time freight visibility platform, T1 is working together with Descartes in the next step of technology systems integration as it builds its own transportation management system (TMS) from the ground up. Partnering with Descartes to develop a seamless API connection to the new TMS optimizes carrier engagement and connectivity and provides live shipment tracking information to enhance the customer experience. 

Transportation One had already streamlined load tracking with Descartes MacroPoint, eliminating time-consuming and costly driver check calls and email exception management, but the company had outgrown its legacy TMS. To meet increasing customer expectations for transparency, accuracy, and timeliness, T1 began building a proprietary TMS. With tens of thousands of carriers in its network, T1 needed an efficient way to connect and track them and share the tracking data seamlessly with the new system.  With the objective of delivering an unparalleled customer experience, the brokerage sought to build on its partnership with Descartes, taking the next step in the integration of technology systems to optimize visibility and enhance carrier and customer relationships. 

“Building on our stellar track record using Descartes MacroPoint to provide quality real-time load tracking data, we’re enhancing our long-standing partnership with Descartes to take the next step in the integration of technology systems at T1. The robust API integration ensures a seamless flow of data from Descartes MacroPoint into our custom TMS, helping us deliver a higher standard of service to customers and enhance relationships with carriers.” 

- Devashish Potdar, Sr. Product Manager, Transportation One 

Founded in 2010, Chicago-based Transportation One is a results-driven, service-oriented transportation company that offers mode-agnostic, multi-dimensional transportation solutions to meet any demand at any time. With its vast network of carriers and warehouse providers, T1 provides white-glove freight service to satisfied customers across the U.S, Canada, and Mexico. 

After initially replacing inefficient, labor-intensive, manual track-and-trace processes with the Descartes MacroPoint real-time freight visibility solution, T1 was able to unlock operational efficiencies, deliver visibility across the entire freight journey, and meet customers’ growing expectations for transparency.  

“Descartes MacroPoint provides accurate real-time load tracking updates that minimize operational pressure and costs for our team,” said Devashish Potdar, Sr. Product Manager at T1. “Simultaneously, the solution offers our valued customers direct visibility into their freight, creating the ability to make real-time decisions.” 

Poised for growth, T1 recognized it had outgrown its legacy TMS and collaborated with Descartes on the next step in its technology evolution. “Given that access to quality location information is critical for the success of our shipments and the ability to support our customers, we’re engaging with the Descartes MacroPoint team in parallel with the ground-up build of our own TMS software,” said Potdar.  

With some customers demonstrating higher expectations for data transmission due to the growing prominence of Application Programming Interfaces (API), T1 and Descartes leveraged API connectivity to enable better engagement with carriers and for valued customers to receive real-time tracking information about their shipments.  

“Many of our customers now require a level of load transparency and freight tracking from their transportation providers in order to earn repeat business or receive discounted business,” said Potdar. “By using Descartes MacroPoint seamlessly integrated with our custom TMS, we can access precise live location data and predictive ETAs to help us easily manage by exception and proactively manage at-risk loads to build trust with our customers.”  

Depending on their preference, T1’s carriers use on-board electronic logging devices (ELDs) or a mobile driver application on their smartphone to connect to Descartes MacroPoint. “Automating carrier activation through Descartes MacroPoint’s carrier self-service portal has been a game changer for telematics onboarding, as the T1 team can now empower its carriers to self-onboard their ELDs with Descartes MacroPoint instantaneously,” noted Eimy Colorado, Customer Success Manager at Descartes. “By simplifying the carrier onboarding experience, T1 has increased visibility into ELD-tracked shipments and boosted overall compliance.” 

Building on its long-time relationship with Descartes, T1 further leveraged the interoperability of Descartes MacroPoint by integrating it with its own custom TMS to deliver quality freight tracking information in real-time and enhance the customer and carrier experience.

The Descartes MacroPoint API integration with T1’s proprietary TMS enhances the customer experience by providing a real-time view into shipments, proactively managing disruptions to improve delivery performance, and helping customers make data-driven decisions to optimize order fulfillment and inventory management. 

Descartes MacroPoint has market-leading levels of carrier compliance, translating into more detailed location data, greater load visibility, and improved communication across T1’s transportation operations.

With robust API integration, real-time tracking data flows seamlessly from Descartes MacroPoint into T1’s own TMS. By eliminating the need for labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly manual track-and-trace processes, T1 lowers logistics costs and minimizes operational pressure on its team.