Electronic Freight Management
Freight volumes by 2020 are forecasted to increase by 70% from 1998 totals,
and freight volumes through primary gateway ports could more than double. Improvements
in speed, accuracy and visibility of information transfer in a freight exchange
could reap large rewards for America's economic vitality. The Electronic Freight
Management Initiative will assist in making these improvements through the
development of a common electronic freight management.
What are EFM and CEFM?
The Electronic Freight Management (EFM) initiative is a USDOT-sponsored project that applies Web technologies that improve data and message transmissions between supply chain partners. It promotes and evaluates innovative e-business concepts, enabling process coordination and information sharing for supply chain freight partners through public-private collaboration. The CEFM (Columbus EFM) project was a successful 2007 deployment test which implemented web services and other components to support an existing international import truck-air-truck supply chain.
The goal is to provide a mechanism for sharing supply chain freight information that is simpler, cheaper, and more efficient to implement than traditional EDI, allows for all, but especially small to medium sized and less sophisticated, supply chain partners to access the information, and makes it easier to customize the flow of information between and among partners. Another goal of the initiative is to design a system to ensure that data are entered once but used many times, thereby eliminating data transcription errors. EFM aims to help companies replace paper trails with electronic information, freeing up human resources that were previously devoted to manual data entry.
What will EFM do for me?
Provide a common electronic communication platform
Rather than creating large databases for each partner to collect and maintain shipment related information, the web services approach used with EFM allows partners to maintain only the data they “create” and then share that data with other authorized users through a common web interface. This reduces the amount of duplicate data entry and the associated data quality problems. This has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of providing daily status reports to shippers and to reduce the time required to complete these tasks (from 4-6 person-hours down to less than a minute). Implementation of digital certificates and “XML signatures” provides the data integrity and security necessary to insure protection of their information.
Provide comprehensive shipment information visibility
The key is to provide comprehensive shipment visibility information to authorized supply chain partners without requiring them to replace or overhaul their existing information systems. The CEFM provided complete visibility of the shipment (from the time the purchase order was issued, through manufacturing, transport and delivery to the distribution centers) to all authorized partners in the supply chain. CEFM partners found visibility benefits related to administrative costs and data availability. For example, the customs broker saw shipment information as much as 18 hours sooner which allowed them to begin the preparation of their documentation earlier cutting the overall clearance time and balancing their workload throughout the week. The container freight station had better visibility into the number and size of shipments coming to them and was better able to plan their personnel resources to handle them while reducing the labor required to correct errors or fill in gaps in existing data. (See the Business Case tabs and Program Documents tab for more details.)
Implement data standards in a transportation logistics environment
The CEFM Deployment Test used standardized data exchange among trading partners based on the Universal Business Language (UBL) version 2.0 data standards and then extended for use within the chosen supply chain. In addition, EFM allows users to reliably and uniquely identify each transaction for all authorized supply chain partners. This unique consignment reference (UCR) was developed based on the approach favored by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and was used satisfactorily as the key shipment identifier in the deployment test. The transportation status data element used in CEFM was submitted as a standard and has been accepted into the next UBL revision.
Will my trading partners use it?
EFM focuses on the entire supply chain of shippers, carriers, forwarders, distribution centers, suppliers, and receivers. It is particularly well suited for small and medium sized partners with limited technology sophistication. The reduced cost and complexity associated with implementing this technology will make it easier for small- and medium-sized partners to connect with each other and provide and use automated visibility information. The CEFM test demonstrated the ability to provide shippers with better quality data, more efficiently and more quickly. Reduction in duplicate data entry allowed participants to enter data once but use it many times. Results of the CEFM test have been documented. Some of the key uses of the CEFM data – and benefits - were by the freight forwarders, overseas manufacturers, customs broker, and container freight station operator. Particularly if a supply chain owner initiates an EFM effort with its partners, those partners will use the technology and find improvements in data quality and availability.
How much does it cost?
The answer depends on the number of partners and the extent of integration of EFM with back office systems. The EFM web services and architecture developed as part of the EFM initiative are being made available by USDOT at no cost to industry (See the Program Documents tab). The EFM web services perform some of the data exchange functions; EFM uses the Internet for its network communications, which can be obtained through existing internet service provider connections. These components make information exchanges with partners and with back office systems easier and cheaper and help ease implementation and deployment, especially compared to a typical EDI implementation. EFM requires computer server resources, but does not require dedicated hardware, so existing computers can be used.
Contact
For more information about this initiative, please contact:
Kate Hartman
ITS Joint Program Office
(202) 366-2742
kate.hartman@dot.gov
Michael Onder
FHWA Office of Freight Management and Operations
(202) 366-2639
michael.onder@dot.gov
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