A consortium of less than truckload (LTL) transportation and logistics service providers says it is making progress toward digitalizing the trucking sector by establishing an electronic bill of lading (eBOL) standard to replace paper records.
C.H. Robinson today said it was the first third-party logistics provider (3PL) to adopt the standard, which was created in 2023 by the Digital LTL Council, a division of the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA).
Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based C.H. Robinson said it has now implemented an eBOL with 10 of the top LTL carriers and is in progress with four more. In the past year, 17,240 C.H. Robinson customers benefited from the eBOL and that number will rise in 2024 as the company helps additional LTL carriers come on board.
“While there are fewer carriers in the LTL universe and the top 25 handle over 90% of the market, the complexity of moving LTL freight means that digitization in this part of the logistics industry has been more challenging than truckload,” Greg West, Vice President for LTL at C.H. Robinson, said in a release. “With truckload freight, there’s generally one origin and one destination and a customer has exclusive use of the trailer. With LTL, you can have up to 30 customers’ freight on a trailer, with 30 destinations and 30 sets of paperwork. That makes it so valuable to have a common eBOL everyone can use.”
According to C.H. Robinson, eliminating the manual work of tracking shipments with paper and stickers allows users to lower administrative costs, cut down on errors, and increase efficiency at every shipper’s dock. It also gives shippers true real-time visibility and earlier tracking updates, allowing for detection and avoidance of disruptions along the route and enhancing predictive estimated time of arrival (ETA) stats.
"C.H. Robinson's adoption of the electronic bill of lading (eBOL) stands as a landmark achievement in the digitization of the industry,” Paul Dugent, Executive Director of NMFTA’s Digital LTL Council, said in a release. “Their pioneering collaboration with leading LTL carriers and embrace of the Council’s standards showcase a firm commitment to modernizing logistics for enhanced efficiency and real-time visibility. This visionary approach will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for broader industry adoption, ultimately benefiting both shippers and carriers alike."
