Manufacturer Case Study: Improved Carrier Visibility in OTM
See how a manufacturer improved OTM carrier visibility across drayage, truckload, LTL, and niche carriers using EDI 214, API, and digital status...
How Jarrett Logistics Took Control of LTL Carrier Connectivity with 1Logtech
Jarrett Logistics needed more than basic shipment visibility. The fourth-party logistics provider needed timely carrier data, responsive integration support, and direct control over the information flowing into its proprietary transportation management system.
By consolidating carrier API, EDI, and webhook connections through 1Logtech, Jarrett created a standardized integration layer supporting rating, tendering, booking, electronic bills of lading, shipment status, freight invoices, proof of delivery, and other transportation documents.
The result was better data visibility, faster problem resolution, and less manual work retrieving routine shipment status.
Case Study at a Glance
Customer: Jarrett Logistics
Industry: Fourth-party logistics
Transportation focus: Less-than-truckload
TMS: Proprietary jShip platform
Integration methods: API, EDI, webhooks, XML, and JSON
Live workflows: Rating, tendering, booking, eBOL, status, invoicing, POD, and shipment documents
Key result: Operations teams assigned to support shippers reduced approximately eight hours per week of work previously spent calling carriers and manually entering missing shipment updates.
About Jarrett Logistics
Jarrett Logistics is a 4PL that manages hundreds of thousands of loads annually. Its operations depend on reliable connections between carriers, shipper requirements, and Jarrett’s proprietary transportation management system, jShip.
These connections span the full transportation lifecycle:
- Freight rating
- Tendering and booking
- Electronic bills of lading
- Pickup, transit, exception, and delivery status
- Freight invoicing
- Proof of delivery
- Other shipment documents
Carrier connectivity is therefore not simply an IT requirement. It is critical to dispatch, shipment monitoring, customer service, freight audit, and Jarrett’s ability to mitigate exceptions.
The Challenge: Carrier Connectivity Without Sufficient Control
Jarrett selected 1Logtech to replace a visibility platform and integration solution that did not provide the responsiveness, data confidence, or operational control the company required.
Vendor support issues could take weeks before an appropriate technical resource was assigned to the ticket. Jarrett also believed that only some of the shipment status was sufficiently timely and accurate for its needs.
At the same time, different technologies and vendors supported visibility and carrier connectivity. This divided the transportation workflow across systems and made it harder to determine:
- Where a transaction had failed and at what step in the process
- Whether the problem involved the carrier, data transformation, or TMS delivery
- Who was responsible for resolving the issue
- How quickly the problem could be corrected
Jarrett identified four primary requirements.
1. Direct visibility into carrier data
Jarrett’s technology team needed to follow a transaction from the carrier connection through transformation and delivery into jShip. The team needed to see the specific message, field, mapping, or processing step causing the problem.
Self-service integration was a key project goal delivering two high-value outcomes: improved customer service and increased automation.
2. Reliable and timely shipment status
Missing or suspect carrier updates created manual work for operations teams assigned to support shippers. These teams spent approximately eight hours per week calling carriers and manually entering shipment information needed to track loads and serve customers.
3. Responsive integration support
Jarrett wanted a partner that could respond quickly while also giving its internal team the visibility needed to diagnose and correct routine issues independently. Corrections in the visibility platform could only be accomplished by vendor staff assigned to a prioritized ticket. Changes in the integration solution required technical staff to triage, troubleshoot and correct issues.
“1Logtech integration platform is a game-changer for our operations. We can troubleshoot issues from start to finish and implement changes in real-time.”
— Jarrett Logistics
4. Standardized data
Carriers use different technologies, field structures, status codes, and message formats.
Jarrett needed those differences normalized into a consistent interface for its proprietary TMS rather than maintaining a separate jShip integration for every carrier and protocol.
The Solution: One Logistics Integration Layer for jShip
Jarrett implemented 1Logtech as the integration layer between jShip and its LTL carrier network.
The initial carrier connections combined:
- API integration for electronic bills of lading: Shipment and document data could be exchanged using carrier web services.
- EDI integration for shipment status: Carrier events were received, translated, and standardized before entering jShip.
As carrier capabilities evolved, selected status integrations moved from conventional EDI feeds to carrier-hosted APIs and webhooks.
This allowed Jarrett to change the external connection method without rebuilding the interface to jShip.
The integration now supports live workflows across the transportation lifecycle.
| Live workflow | Purpose | Connection methods |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | Request and return carrier rates and service options | API, XML, JSON |
| Tendering and booking | Send shipment instructions and receive carrier responses | API, EDI |
| Electronic bill of lading | Transmit shipment, commodity, and pickup information | Carrier API |
| Shipment status | Receive pickup, transit, exception, and delivery events | EDI, API, webhook |
| Freight invoicing | Receive carrier charges for audit and payment processing | EDI, API |
| POD and documents | Retrieve proof of delivery and other shipment documents | API, webhook, document link |
The Results
Reduced manual status-retrieval work
Before the implementation, operations teams assigned to support shippers spent approximately eight hours per week per shipper team calling carriers and manually entering missing shipment updates.
Standardized carrier data gives Jarrett’s operations teams more confidence that routine shipment events will reach jShip in a consistent and usable form. Better access to the underlying transactions also makes it easier to investigate missing, late, or unexpected information.
One platform saves time and dollars
Jarrett consolidated carrier connectivity that had previously been divided across separate providers and technologies. The resulting savings in technology spend rapidly paid for the new platform.
The 1Logtech platform now manages API, EDI, webhook, XML, and JSON transactions while presenting a standardized interface to jShip.
Automation delivers improved productivity. Operations teams had to manually check carrier sites for status updates or continually check the carrier website to manually retrieve a POD (proof of delivery) or other documentation for freight payment and audit functions. Now, the system polls carrier sites instead of operations.
Faster diagnosis and resolution
Jarrett can inspect transactions from the original carrier message through transformation and delivery into jShip. This end-to-end visibility allows the team to identify where a transaction failed, determine whether the problem involves the carrier connection, data mapping, business rules, or TMS delivery, and take action to resolve the issue without waiting for a technician to be assigned to a support ticket.
Problems that previously depended on a lengthy external support process can now be diagnosed and addressed much faster.
Greater control over data and format
Jarrett can adjust mappings, normalize carrier values, and adapt integrations to shipper or carrier requirements without maintaining separate custom code for every connection.
This gives Jarrett greater control over how carrier information is transformed and delivered to jShip while 1Logtech continues to manage the underlying integration infrastructure. Additionally, process automation can now be used to automate complex workflows between shipper ERP and TMS and Jarrett's own system further reducing data entry, accelerating service and opening the door to new shipper services.
A consistent and flexible interface for a changing carrier network
Individual carriers can use the technology best suited to their systems and workflows. One carrier may provide rating and eBOL capabilities through APIs while sending status through EDI. Another may make shipment events available through webhooks or a carrier-hosted API. 1Logtech standardizes these different methods and data streams before delivering the information to jShip.
Jarrett can therefore add carriers, change connection methods, and expand workflows without creating a new TMS interface or waiting for a technology project team to deliver an integration.
What Other 3PLs Can Learn from Jarrett’s Experience
Jarrett’s experience illustrates important distinctions between shipment visibility and transportation integration:
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A visibility application may present shipment events. A 3PL, however, must also control how carrier data is received, validated, normalized, connected to the correct load, and delivered to its TMS.
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There is no one best type of carrier connectivity. Each integration has its own needs for speed and its own constraints for accuracy and availability.
Connection methods should be matched to carrier capability
A carrier may support modern APIs for rating, booking, and documents while continuing to send shipment status or invoices through EDI. Another carrier may provide more accurate status events through webhooks.
A scalable integration architecture must support the appropriate method for each workflow rather than imposing one protocol across the entire carrier network.
Transportation data must be operationally trusted
A shipment event has little value when it arrives late, uses unmapped codes, contains incomplete information, or cannot be associated to the correct load. If operations doesn't trust the data, they will call the carrier, rekey data and change their focus from exception management to manual data management.
Carrier connectivity must therefore include:
- Data validation
- Code normalization
- Shipment matching
- Exception handling
- Transaction monitoring
- Operational troubleshooting
3PLs need control without becoming software developers
Jarrett wanted direct visibility into carrier transactions and the ability to make changes without assuming responsibility for maintaining custom code. A configurable logistics integration platform gave Jarrett greater operational control while 1Logtech continued to manage the underlying connectivity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What TMS does Jarrett Logistics use?
Jarrett Logistics uses a proprietary transportation management system called jShip. 1Logtech connects jShip to Jarrett’s carrier network and standardizes the information exchanged across different carrier technologies. Jarrett uses the 1Logtech integration to connect once and manage every carrier integration without brittle hard-coded connections.
How does Jarrett connect LTL carriers to jShip?
Jarrett uses 1Logtech as the integration layer between jShip and its LTL carriers.
Each carrier connection and/or document type uses EDI, API, XML, JSON, or webhooks, depending on the carrier and the message type. This approach allows Jarrett to optimize for speed of response, accuracy or carrier capability.
What LTL carrier transactions are supported?
The live integration supports:
- Rating
- Tendering and booking
- Electronic bills of lading
- Shipment status
- Freight invoicing
- Proof of delivery
- Other transportation documents
Documents can be downloaded in bulk via a configurable workflow that polls the carrier site. The system finds and retrieves the document automatically.
Did API integration replace EDI messages for LTL carrier integration?
Not necessarily.
A carrier may use an API for rating, booking, or electronic bills of lading while continuing to use EDI for shipment status or invoicing.
Jarrett’s integration model supports multiple methods and standardizes the resulting information for jShip.
How did the integration reduce manual work?
More accurate and timely carrier status messages minimized the need for operations teams to call carriers to provide the data requested by their shippers. This is also called check calls.
Technical teams were freed up as well. 1Logtech's self-service integration enables non-programmers such as analysts to build and maintain carrier connections.
What is the difference between visibility solutions and carrier integration?
Shipment visibility shows users where a load is or what event has occurred. The vendor network controls what carriers are available and how the data is retrieved and presented.
Carrier integration manages how the underlying information is requested, received, validated, transformed, matched to the correct shipment, and delivered into the TMS. 1Logtech's integration layer gives operations control with a point and click user interface and easy to understand field layout.
Download the Case Study
See how Jarrett standardized LTL carrier connectivity, improved data visibility, and gained greater control over integrations supporting its proprietary TMS.
Download the Jarrett Logistics Case Study
