The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) has established a new Digital Standards Development Council (DSDC), to speed along efforts to digitize the freight industry, and to oversee its newly-formed full truckload council.

The DSDC will oversee the NMFTA's Digital Full Truckload (FTL) and Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) councils, providing a bridge between the FTL and LTL sectors to share application programming interface standards, and improve communication among carriers, shippers, 3PLs, and technology providers. 

“We have successfully gathered a group of well-known industry leaders who are enthusiastic about this strategy and champion our effort to ensure digital standards are developed,” NMFTA executive director Debbie Sparks said in a December 17 news release. 

The NMFTA's digitization efforts started with the LTL sector in 2021, when it launched its electronic bill of lading standard, which was then widely adopted by LTL shipping companies. Now, the organization is turning its attention to setting up its Digital FTL Council, as it looks to unify its approach to establishing digital standards. The Digital FTL Council includes representatives from companies such as Nordstrom, Uber Freight, J.B. Hunt and C.H. Robinson among others.