Carriers move freight between suppliers, plants, warehouses, stores and customers. The shipper, or the company that arranges freight, tenders each load to a carrier, and the carrier accepts or declines it, picks it up, reports its progress and bills for the move. A motor carrier is a carrier that moves freight by truck, the most common mode for domestic B2B shipments.
Carrier EDI uses standard transactions for each step:
- Load tender (EDI 204) offers a shipment to a motor carrier.
- Response to load tender (EDI 990) accepts or declines it.
- Shipment status (EDI 214) reports pickup, in-transit and delivery events.
- Freight invoice (EDI 210) bills for the move.
Not every carrier exchanges EDI, and many status updates and freight bills still arrive by email, PDF or carrier website. When carrier events aren’t linked to the order and shipment they belong to, late deliveries surface only when a customer calls, and freight invoices are hard to audit.