Freightools can ask your carriers for a live spot rate at the moment you search in Instant Quotes, and list the answer next to the rates from your buying agreements. This article covers connecting a carrier account once so that happens, and what Freightools sets up for you when you save the connection. Running the search and reading a spot result is covered in How to search live spot rates in Instant Quote.
Before you start
- You need your carrier account credentials — the account you already use with that carrier. Freightools asks the carrier for rates on your account.
- Carrier connections are company-level setup, under Settings → Integrations → Spot Rates. If you cannot open the Integrations page, ask your Freightools administrator. See Where to find your user and company settings for the Settings navigation.
- Each carrier you connect has to exist in Freightools as a supplier that is related to that carrier's System Carrier. Freightools creates it for you when you save the connection (see below); if you created the supplier yourself earlier, check that it is related — see How to relate a supplier to a System Carrier.
Which carriers you can connect
Freightools currently connects to these ocean carriers for spot rates:
| Carrier | How the rates reach Freightools |
|---|---|
| Maersk | Direct integration with the carrier's own spot-rate service |
| MSC | Direct integration with the carrier's own spot-rate service |
| Hapag-Lloyd | Direct integration with the carrier's own spot-rate service |
| CMA CGM | Direct integration with the carrier's own spot-rate service |
| ONE | Spot rates via the in-house Crawler Platform — no carrier API needed |
| COSCO | Spot rates via the in-house Crawler Platform — no carrier API needed |
| OOCL | Spot rates via the in-house Crawler Platform — no carrier API needed |
| HMM | Spot rates via the in-house Crawler Platform — no carrier API needed |
For air freight, the WebCargo (Air) card on the same tab connects real-time air cargo rates and eBooking across major airlines.
Whichever way the rates arrive, they are listed in the same results list, with the same charge breakdown and validity date on each option.
Connect a carrier
- Open Integrations in Settings and choose the Spot Rates tab. The tab is titled Spot Rates Integrations — "Connect your carrier accounts to get real-time spot rates directly in Freightools." — and holds one card per carrier: Maersk Spot, MSC Spot Rates, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM Spot, WebCargo (Air), Ocean Network Express (ONE), COSCO Shipping, OOCL and HMM. The same tab opens from Manage Spot Rates Integrations at the top of Tariffs → AI Tariff Loading.
- On the carrier's card, click Manage connection and enter your carrier account credentials.
- Save the connection.
What Freightools sets up when you save
Saving a spot-rate connection does two things in your company's data, so you do not have to do them by hand:
- The carrier is created as a supplier. A supplier partner for the carrier is added to your partners, related to the carrier's System Carrier. The search uses this link: before it asks a carrier for a spot rate, it checks that a supplier related to that System Carrier exists in your company.
- A spot selling rule of 10% is created for it. This is the selling rule Freightools applies to that carrier's spot rates.
Choose the providers each time you search
Some carriers impose daily search limits on an account. For that reason you decide which carriers take part in each search: under Spot Rates on the Instant Quotes form, each provider is a chip — MSC Spot, Maersk Spot, CMA Spot, Hapag Spot, ONE Spot, COSCO Spot, OOCL Spot, HMM Spot — with a green check button whose tooltip reads Included in search - click to exclude. Click the check on a carrier that does not serve the corridor before you click Get Prices, and that call is not made. When results land, each chip reports how many rates it returned (N Rates), so you can see at a glance which carriers answered.
How to use the ticks, and how to read a spot result against a buying-agreement result, is in How to search live spot rates in Instant Quote.
If something goes wrong
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| A connected carrier never appears in the results | Check that its chip under Spot Rates was included (green check) for that search, and that a supplier related to its System Carrier exists in your partners. See How to relate a supplier to a System Carrier. |
| The carrier imposes a daily search limit | Exclude the carrier's chip under Spot Rates on searches that do not need it, so the limit is spent on corridors it serves. |
| A chip reads INTEGRATION ERROR after a search | The carrier's connection did not answer. Read the message on the chip, then open the carrier's card on Settings → Integrations → Spot Rates and check it with Manage connection. |
| A carrier you work with is not on the list above | Tell your Freightools contact which carrier you need. |