3PL Integration

  


What is 3PL: 3PL stands for "Third-Party Logistics." It refers to the outsourcing of logistics and supply chain management functions to a third-party provider. These providers offer services such as transportation, warehousing, distribution, freight forwarding, and inventory management. 


This document will cover the standard requirements for a new transporter integration.

Prerequisite for a new integration

For any new 3PL integration request, the following are required to be shared with the Transporter Management team:

    1. Latest API documentation
    2. Sandbox environment credentials (Testing credentials)
    3. Test / dummy data to work with API
    4. Working postman collection

 

API Documentation Contents:

The API documentation should include information on the following:

  • Data type of the parameters (string, integer, Boolean, etc.)
  • Field descriptions 
  • Possible & default values (especially, in the case of when only specific values are to be passed in a parameter)
  • Character length limits of each parameter
  • Mandatory, Optional and Conditional parameters


Reference Link: https://clickpost.github.io/slate/#introduction


3PL Touchpoints: A standard set of touchpoints (APIs) are integrated for any transporter. The availability of any of these APIs and their nomenclature may be different for each transporter.

The standard touchpoints are:

  • Authentication API (also may include Token Generation API)
  • Serviceability API
  • Rate API
  • Forward Manifest API (also called Order Creation API, Order Generation API, Booking API, etc.)
  • Tracking API (also called Get Order Details API)
  • Reverse Manifest API
  • Cancellation API

 

Delivery Approach: The average time taken for a touchpoint is 4 days, provided all the details shared are complete. Usually, we make the 3PL integration live when all the touchpoints are integrated.

If the same is required on a high priority, then the below mentioned phased approach can be suggested:

  • Phase 1: Authentication API, Rate API, Serviceability API and Forward Manifest API are made live. Any other API required to be called before the Forward Manifest API is also included in this phase.
  • Phase 2: Tracking API is made live.
  • Phase 3: Reverse Manifest API and Cancellation API are made live.