ogistics and transportation leader Ryder Systems Inc. is set to implement a revamped E-commerce strategy using new technology to match more than 1,000 fleet customers and common carriers with freight that shippers need to move right away.

The initiative, to be deployed in stages starting next week, uses a freight-matching engine from i2 Technologies Inc. that isn't generally available yet, says John Wormwood, Ryder's group director for E-commerce. A small number of test customers will use the freight-matching engine before it's offered to all Ryder fleet-management customers by July 1. Ryder will expand the service in November to use i2's Freightmatrix.com transportation exchange to match carriers and shippers that aren't Ryder customers.

Greg Swienton, president and CEO of the $5.3 billion Miami company, says the changes are the results of a yearlong planning effort aimed at expanding the company's fleet-management supply-chain business. "We've focused on serious transformation initiatives and many of them involve using technology to do a better job for our customers as well as for our own efficiency," he says.

Profit margins are thin in the third-party logistics business, says AMR Research analyst Chris Newton, but matching available capacity to freight as an Internet service can generate revenue for Ryder, and customers will benefit too. It's a significant value-added service, he says.

Wormwood also says Ryder's Web site, Ryder.com, was redesigned as a business-to-business site where customers can communicate with Ryder. "We've reduced the clicks it takes to track a shipment from 10 to one," she says. The site will let shippers place orders online and let carriers book orders in real time.

The site will incorporate services such as Ryder's fuel-and-maintenance terminal locator for carriers that will link drivers with information about Ryder's 600 repair and fuel facilities. Future B-to-B offerings will include an order-management application and a transportation analytics package based on technology from NCR Corp.'s Teradata data warehouse division and MicroStrategy Inc., a business analytics software vendor. Pricing for the E-commerce services wasn't disclosed.