Ryder Tests i2's New Freight-Matching Engine

Ryder System Inc., the $5.3 billion logistics giant in Miami, is set to implement an 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, which will be deployed in stages beginning later this month, uses a freight-matching engine from i2 Technologies Inc., which is not yet generally available, says John Wormwood, Ryder group director for E-commerce. It will first be used by a small number of test customers and offered to all Ryder fleet-management customers by July 1. The company will expand the service in November to use i2's Freightmatrix.com transportation exchange to match shippers with carriers who aren't current Ryder customers.

Greg Swienton, Ryder president and CEO, says the new efforts are the results of a yearlong planning process aimed at expanding the company's fleet-management and supply chain business. "We have focused on serious transformation initiatives, and many of them involve using technology to do a better job for our customers," he says.

AMR Research analyst Chris Newton says profit margins are thin in the third-party logistics business but matching available capacity to freight as an Internet service can generate significant new revenue for Ryder, and customers will benefit too. "This is a significant value-added service that Ryder will be offering their customers," he says.

Wormwood says Ryder's Web site, Ryder.com, was redesigned as a business-to-business site where customers can interface 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 new site will also incorporate services such as Ryder's fuel-and-maintenance terminal locator for carriers, which will link drivers with information about Ryder's 600 repair and fuel facilities.

Future B-to-B offerings will include a new 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. The cost of the E-commerce services wasn't disclosed.