A Longitudinal Assessment of EDI Use in the U.S. Motor Carrier Industry

Electronic date interchange (EDI), the direct computer-to-computer communication of business documents and information in machine-readable structured format, plays an important role in supply chain management. Supply chain management emphasizes vendor responsiveness, flexibility, and dependability as means to improve customer service and logistics productivity. Information exchange between channel members is important to successful supply chain management as timely and accurate information is essential for responsiveness, flexibility, and dependability. The availability of more accurate and timely information may facilitate improved operational planning and performance by the carriers. Thus, EDI facilitates an effective and efficient supply chain. Suppliers and users of transportation, a major cost and time activity in the supply chain, may be expected to benefit greatly from EDI. Documents and information associated with many transaction activities between shippers and carriers could be exchanged via EDI, as could those associated with pre- and post-transaction services and activities.