Freight cost API

[anxious_ant]

I am looking for a tool that would provide freight costs by carrier via API calls, at point of order entry.

The requirement is to integrate this into internal system. (CRM hosted onsite) and so far I believe API and some development in CRM is the only option. Certainly can’t find any off the shelf product for this.

The input would be:

• Point of Origin
• Destination
• Weight
• Dimensions (optional)

Minimum output would be:

• Carrier
• Service
• Costs (in GBP for now)
• Estimated Shipping time

Would be ideal if the API could integrate to major couriers like UPS,DHL, FeDEx etc to get account rates.

I’ve so far found ShipEngine and EasyShip however looking at the API documentation it looks like the API expects that shipment is manage via the API as well, unless I am mistaken.

All I want is the courier options and cost estimates.
Just wondering if anyone have some recommendations please.

[paulrockliffe]

Do those APIs exist? I can see DHL have them, so I guess they do.

I'm not an expert on APIs but I have managed to get a live feed of my bank transactions via Open Banking using PostMan. I've also accessed a number of public government APIs simply using Excel like this:

https://www.howtoexcel.org/power-query/how-to-acce...

If you can code a bit both approaches will handle authentication if that's necessary.

[anxious_ant]

paulrockliffe said:

Do those APIs exist? I can see DHL have them, so I guess they do.

I'm not an expert on APIs but I have managed to get a live feed of my bank transactions via Open Banking using PostMan. I've also accessed a number of public government APIs simply using Excel like this:

https://www.howtoexcel.org/power-query/how-to-acce...

If you can code a bit both approaches will handle authentication if that's necessary.

Cheers.
I would consider off the shelf but can’t find any that integrates into Dynamic CRM at the point of order entry.

API is considered as this will limit the development scope required. Other option is full in house development, which will involve writing code to integrate to various courier APIs (DHL,FeDEx,UPS) etc but that would affect the timelines.

Solutions I’ve looked at are:

• ShipEngine
• Postmen
• EasyShip

ShipEngine is winning at the moment after looking at the developer API docs. Postmen looks interesting but looks like the rates integration requires lots of compulsory information.