NMFTA

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.

NMFTA publishes 6 APIs on the APIs.io network, including DSDC LTL eBOL API, DSDC LTL Preliminary Freight Charges API, DSDC FTL eBOL API, and 3 more. Tagged areas include API Standards, DSDC, Digital FTL Council, Digital LTL Council, and Freight.

NMFTA’s developer surface includes developer portal, product news, and 14 more developer resources.

21.3/100 emerging Agent 22/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1
6 APIs 10 Features
API StandardsDSDCDigital FTL CouncilDigital LTL CouncilFreightFull TruckloadLTLLess-Than-TruckloadLogisticsNMFTAOpenAPIStandardsStandards BodySupply ChainTransportationTrucking

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1
Composite quality — 21.3/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 12.4 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 1.7 / 20
Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20
Operational Transparency 0.7 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 6.5 / 10
Agent readiness — 22/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 6 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/nmfta: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 6

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

DSDC LTL eBOL API

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 ca...

DSDC LTL Preliminary Freight Charges API

Gives shippers, carriers and 3PLs visibility into freight charges as they evolve — reclassifications, reweighs and accessorial changes mid-shipment rather than weeks later on th...

DSDC FTL eBOL API

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.

DSDC FTL Rate/Quote API

Full truckload rate and quote exchange between shippers, carriers and intermediaries. Published as 1.0.0-public-preview.

DSDC FTL Invoice and Documents API

Invoicing and supporting document exchange for full truckload movements. Published as 1.0.0-public-preview.

DSDC FTL In-Transit Visibility API

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.

Features 10

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

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

Scroll for all 10

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Other 10

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Scroll for all 10

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
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