aid: nmfta
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/nmfta/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: NMFTA
description: 'The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) is the nonprofit membership body
  that has set the standards for North American freight since 1956, and through its Digital Standards
  Development Council (DSDC) it publishes that industry agreement as open OpenAPI contracts. Two councils
  sit under the DSDC — the Digital LTL Council, founded November 2020, and the Digital FTL Council, which
  absorbed the Scheduling Standards Consortium — and between them they turn the paper artifacts of trucking
  into machine-readable APIs: the electronic bill of lading, the rate quote, the invoice and supporting
  documents, in-transit visibility, appointment scheduling, book and tender, and preliminary freight charges.
  For most of NMFTA''s history its standards were classification and coding — the NMFC freight classification,
  ClassIT+, SCAC carrier codes, SPLC location codes — and the DSDC is the same institution doing the same
  job for the API layer. It is one of the clearest examples of an old, mandate-free trade association
  choosing specifications-as-code over another PDF behind a membership wall, and the gap between what
  its website advertises as released and what its public repositories actually contain is the most interesting
  thing about it.'
tags:
- API Standards
- DSDC
- Digital FTL Council
- Digital LTL Council
- Freight
- Full Truckload
- LTL
- Less-Than-Truckload
- Logistics
- NMFTA
- OpenAPI
- Standards
- Standards Body
- Supply Chain
- Transportation
- Trucking
kind: standard
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/nmfta.png
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2026-08-03'
modified: '2026-08-03'
position: Producing
specificationVersion: '0.20'
x-type: standards-body
x-category: Specification
x-host: National Motor Freight Traffic Association
x-host-structure: Trade association division
apis:
- aid: nmfta:nmfta-dsdc-ltl-ebol-api
  name: DSDC LTL eBOL API
  description: The Digital LTL Council's electronic bill of lading standard, version 2.1.0 — the council's
    first and most adopted contract. This is the standard's own specification, not any carrier's implementation.
  humanURL: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/apis/ebol-api-standard
  tags:
  - eBOL
  - Bill of Lading
  - LTL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nmfta-dsdc-ltl-ebol-2.1.0-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/apis/ebol-api-standard
- aid: nmfta:nmfta-dsdc-ltl-preliminary-freight-charges-api
  name: DSDC LTL Preliminary Freight Charges API
  description: Gives shippers, carriers and 3PLs visibility into freight charges as they evolve — reclassifications,
    reweighs and accessorial changes mid-shipment rather than weeks later on the invoice. The only LTL
    specification committed to the public DSDC repositories.
  humanURL: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/apis/preliminary-freight-charges-api-standard
  tags:
  - Freight Charges
  - Pricing
  - LTL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nmfta-dsdc-ltl-preliminary-freight-charges-openapi.yml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/dsdcapis/less-than-truckload
- aid: nmfta:nmfta-dsdc-ftl-ebol-api
  name: DSDC FTL eBOL API
  description: The Digital FTL Council's electronic bill of lading standard. Published in the public repository
    as 1.0.0-public-preview while the DSDC website advertises 1.1.0 as released.
  humanURL: https://dsdcapis.github.io/full-truckload/
  tags:
  - eBOL
  - Bill of Lading
  - FTL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nmfta-dsdc-ftl-ebol-openapi.yml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/dsdcapis/full-truckload
- aid: nmfta:nmfta-dsdc-ftl-rate-quote-api
  name: DSDC FTL Rate/Quote API
  description: Full truckload rate and quote exchange between shippers, carriers and intermediaries. Published
    as 1.0.0-public-preview.
  humanURL: https://dsdcapis.github.io/full-truckload/
  tags:
  - Rate Quote
  - Pricing
  - FTL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nmfta-dsdc-ftl-rate-quote-openapi.yml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/dsdcapis/full-truckload
- aid: nmfta:nmfta-dsdc-ftl-invoice-and-documents-api
  name: DSDC FTL Invoice and Documents API
  description: Invoicing and supporting document exchange for full truckload movements. Published as 1.0.0-public-preview.
  humanURL: https://dsdcapis.github.io/full-truckload/
  tags:
  - Invoicing
  - Documents
  - FTL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nmfta-dsdc-ftl-invoice-and-documents-openapi.yml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/dsdcapis/full-truckload
- aid: nmfta:nmfta-dsdc-ftl-in-transit-visibility-api
  name: DSDC FTL In-Transit Visibility API
  description: Shipment status and location events while a full truckload movement is under way. Published
    as 1.0.0-public-preview; the LTL council's equivalent is still in development.
  humanURL: https://dsdcapis.github.io/full-truckload/
  tags:
  - Visibility
  - Tracking
  - FTL
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/nmfta-dsdc-ftl-in-transit-visibility-openapi.yml
  - type: SourceCode
    url: https://github.com/dsdcapis/full-truckload
common:
- type: Portal
  url: https://nmfta.org/
- type: Specification
  url: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/apis
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/dsdcapis
- type: SourceCode
  url: https://github.com/dsdcapis
- type: WorkingGroups
  url: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/digital-ltl-council
- type: Contributing
  url: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/contributor-agreement-form
- type: News
  url: https://dsdc.nmfta.org/news
- type: Events
  url: https://nmfta.org/nmfta-event/2026-dsdc-membership-meeting/
- type: Contact
  url: mailto:dsdc@nmfta.org
- type: Governance
  url: governance/nmfta-governance.yml
- type: Taxonomy
  url: taxonomy/nmfta-taxonomy.yml
- type: Companies
  url: companies/nmfta-companies.yml
- type: Adoption
  url: adoption/nmfta-adoption.yml
- type: Leads
  url: leads/nmfta-new-company-leads.yml
- type: Repositories
  url: repositories/nmfta-repositories.yml
- type: Contributors
  url: contributors/nmfta-contributors.yml
- type: Features
  updated: '2026-08-03'
  sources:
  - https://dsdc.nmfta.org/apis
  - https://github.com/dsdcapis
  data:
  - 'Host: NMFTA, founded 1956; DSDC is a division, not a separate entity'
  - 'Councils: Digital LTL (November 2020) and Digital FTL (absorbed the Scheduling Standards Consortium)'
  - 'APIs advertised: 10 across the two councils'
  - 'Specifications in public repositories: 5 of 10'
  - 'GitHub repositories: 6, two of which are named test repositories'
  - 'Contributors: 5 humans, 123 total contributions'
  - 'Participating companies published as logos: 32'
  - 'Participants already in the API Evangelist network: 15'
  - 'Regulatory mandate: none — adoption earned on cost and friction'
  - 'Server declarations across all six harvested specifications: zero'
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com
  X: apievangelist
  url: https://apievangelist.com