Splice is excited to announce the addition of rail receiving to Splice Exports, further enhancing its ability to provide visibility into export receiving windows. This feature expands Splice Exports’ coverage to over 230 rail and marine terminals across North America, helping exporters, freight forwarders, and truckers streamline their logistics operations with greater predictability and control.
Managing export logistics - especially rail bookings - has long been a pain point for shippers, forwarders, and truckers. Updates from ocean carriers are often inconsistent, and railroads rarely provide real-time information on receiving dates. As a result, logistics teams are forced to manually track information across various platforms or rely on sporadic updates, which leads to inefficiencies, increased costs, and missed connections.
Even the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and industry groups like the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) have taken notice of these challenges, emphasizing the need for better communication and reliable data.
Solving the Problem with Splice Exports
Splice Exports solves this issue by providing automated updates on key data points like Earliest Receiving Dates (ERDs) for both ports and rail terminals. This allows logistics teams to stop relying on frequent website checks or waiting for email updates from carriers. Instead, they can make informed decisions in real-time, proactively managing their supply chain and responding to changes before they cause disruptions.
The platform gathers, normalizes, and organizes data from multiple sources - including booking confirmations, rail and vessel schedules - and uses this information to predict rail ERDs. By integrating this data with a company's existing freight management systems, Splice Exports enables logistics teams to optimize scheduling, reduce rework, and improve efficiency throughout the export process.
“Exporters, forwarders, and truckers often face unexpected costs due to poorly communicated changes in receiving dates. Our solution puts the power back in their hands,” says Kevin Speers, CEO of Splice. “With Splice Exports, they can anticipate changes and adjust their operations accordingly, rather than constantly reacting to last-minute updates.”
Delivering Real Benefits to Exporters, Forwarders, and Truckers
For exporting shippers, Splice Exports reduces operational costs by providing the transparency needed to allocate orders and shipments more efficiently. It helps companies avoid costly mistakes, such as incorrect allocation of inventories, and streamlines the order-to-cash process. By cutting down on rework and optimizing logistics planning, shippers can see tangible improvements in their bottom line.
Freight forwarders benefit from the scalability that Splice Exports provides. The platform automatically extracts and digitizes booking confirmations, which are often received via email as PDFs. This instant identification of changes enables forwarders to update bookings quickly, saving time and reducing errors. It allows forwarders to focus on the impact of these changes rather than spending time on manual data entry, improving their ability to serve existing clients and onboard new ones.
For truckers, Splice Exports significantly reduces the daily workload of manually checking terminal and carrier websites for updates. The platform automatically matches dates from ocean carriers and rail terminals, highlighting any discrepancies and allowing truckers to avoid costly early pulls, storage charges, equipment fees, and dry runs. These unplanned costs can severely impact profit margins, but with Splice Exports, truckers can prevent them and improve customer satisfaction.
Enhanced Compliance with Comprehensive Reporting and Audit Trails
One of the standout features of Splice Exports is its comprehensive reporting capabilities. Every update to a booking is logged, creating a detailed audit trail that can be used to verify detention or demurrage invoices. This is particularly valuable in light of recent FMC rule changes, which have placed stricter regulations on how detention and demurrage fees are applied. Splice Exports ensures that exporters have the accurate data needed to dispute unfair charges and remain compliant with evolving regulations.
A Seamless Integration for Better Control
Splice Exports is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing freight and transportation management systems. Accessible through an intuitive online portal, the platform ensures that users can easily manage their bookings and receive timely updates. Whether you’re an shipper, freight forwarder, or trucker, Splice Exports provides the tools needed to take control of your logistics, reducing operational complexities and enhancing efficiency.
“Our goal is to make logistics more predictable and manageable for everyone involved,” says Speers. “With the addition of rail receiving, we’re offering even more value to our customers by helping them stay ahead of the curve in an industry where change is constant.”
Get Started with Splice Exports Today
With the expansion into rail receiving, Splice Exports is more powerful than ever, helping companies navigate the complexities of export logistics with ease.
Learning more about Splice Exports has never been easier. Visit our new YouTube channel to see how Splice Exports works.
For more information or to schedule a demo, go to our Contacts page, connect with us on LinkedIn, call 757-530-5300, or email hello@splice-it.com.
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