McLeod Software introduced a new digital freight matching (DFM) web service API for its PowerBroker TMS product. This web service allows McLeod customers to integrate third-party providers of available freight and capacity-matching solutions into their brokerage operations.

The newly published API web service for digital freight matching in PowerBroker gives companies with freight and capacity matching services or products the ability to write and test their own integration solutions for PowerBroker.

McLeod’s PowerBroker already supports direct integration with several DFM products in the marketplace that allow their customers to take advantage of the business process automation that these companies provide.

The new DFM web service API provides a connection from the third-party DFM solution directly to the McLeod PowerBroker application though a secure and configurable set of web service end points specifically designed for freight-matching functions.

These service endpoints give vendors the ability to receive notifications on newly added or updated available shipments, to validate the qualification status of a given carrier based on PowerBroker’s business rules, to send capacity information on available equipment in a given area, to “cover” the load with a qualified carrier that will trigger an automated carrier rate confirmation, and to send a counteroffer on behalf of a qualified carrier for an available load. 

“The release of this service achieves two primary goals,” said Robert Brothers, vice president of product development. “The first is to provide the greatest flexibility for our PowerBroker customers to choose the third-party freight-matching solutions that help their business be more efficient in locating and transacting with capacity matching solutions. Secondly, we designed this to give control of security and shared data elements to our customers, the PowerBroker system user. Sometimes the external service interfaces available in the market do not allow a brokerage company to know or limit the amount of information that is shared outside their system. The McLeod DFM API changes that model, because the service is configurable with respect to the data that is retrieved by the external system supplier or service vendor.”

McLeod Software will have a certification program for vendors to become eligible to use and support the DFM service in PowerBroker. This will ease the burden of implementation and ensure proper usage of the service offering, according to the company. The certification process will provide integration partners with a “sandbox environment” that includes simulated data for development and testing.

Companies that offer DFM services and want more information on participating in the McLeod Software DFM API certification program, or the licensing of this service, should email Partner@McLeodSoftware.com