The Electronic Freight Management Initiative

The Electronic Freight Management (EFM) initiative is a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) sponsored research effort that partners with freight-related industries to improve the operating efficiency, safety, and security of goods movement.

Web technologies that improve data and message transmissions and facilitate business transactions from one end of the freight management supply chain to the other play a prominent role.

A serviceoriented architecture (SOA) leverages these Web technologies and supports them by setting standards, and the EFM program packages them so that both government and commercial users could use them to support their needs.

Potential benefits of using Web services technologies include improved shipment visibility throughout the entire supply chain, a reduction of redundant data entry, improved tracking, simplified interfaces with government authorities, and enhanced security.

This paper provides the context for developing the EFM initiative and describes the program’s approach, components, and products.

It also discusses the benefits of using EFM concepts and the importance of adopting data standards to improve communication among supply chain partners and government agencies.

The paper identifies opportunities for implementation in both the private and public sectors and ends with a discussion of approaches to achieve broad adoption.

Contents

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Background
• EFM Definition
• Value Proposition
• EFM Technology Approach
• A Business Process Perspective
• Standards Development
• EFM Demonstration Test
• Market Overview: Government Sector
• Market Overview: Commercial Sector
• Moving toward EFM Adoption