Most RMS–TMS integrations fail—not because the systems are bad, but because the process is wrong.
Ask five different vendors how to connect a rate management system (RMS) and transportation management system (TMS), and you’ll get five different answers. Each one optimized for their product. Each one incomplete.
At Chain.io, we’ve worked across dozens of platforms, freight forwarders, and global networks. We’ve seen what works—and what doesn’t.
So we built our best practices to reflect what actually happens in complex global supply chains. Not theory. Not vendor opinion. Just hard-won experience embedded into a common data model that connects your systems the right way.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Treat the RMS as the system of record. Always.
Anti-pattern to avoid: Letting operators tweak pricing in the TMS.
It sounds harmless—“just a quick edit”—but the results are expensive: conflicting rate data, margin leakage, broken reporting.
Best practice: All pricing adjustments flow through the RMS. TMS receives rates via one-way sync, never the other way around.
2. Build around clearly defined business processes—not systems.
Whether you're spot quoting or handling an RFP award, the integration should follow the business logic, not just what a system can technically do.
- For spot quotes, build and negotiate in RMS. Pass the accepted quote to TMS for execution.
- For contracted lanes, push awarded rates from RMS into the TMS pricing module. No switching back and forth for operators.
- For pricing and repricing active shipments, trigger the RMS to recalculate when shipment details change. Then push the new rate back to TMS.
This modular design ensures each system does what it’s best at—with clean handoffs and zero duplication.
3. Don’t overwhelm your TMS with data.
More isn’t better.
Dumping every FAK rate into the TMS might sound like you’re helping operators—but you're not. It clutters their interface, slows them down, and leads to quoting mistakes.
Use the TMS for execution only. The RMS remains your dynamic pricing engine for real-time quoting and updates.
4. Use a common data model to cut through the noise.
Here’s where Chain.io shines.
Our integrations sit on top of a supply chain-specific data model, built from years of hands-on work across the biggest freight tech platforms. That means you’re not building for how a single vendor thinks about rates—you’re building for how the industry actually works.
And it means you’re not starting from scratch. Our templates, APIs, and mappings reflect tested best practices—so your integration reflects real-world success patterns, not platform constraints.
Final thought
A good integration isn't about connecting two systems. It's about connecting the right systems in the right way, based on how freight actually moves.
That’s what Chain.io delivers:
- A neutral foundation across platforms.
- A clear view of how the world’s top forwarders manage rates.
- And a path to implementation that’s informed, scalable, and resilient.
If you're evaluating RMS–TMS integrations, this best practices guide is your blueprint. And if you’re ready to stop reinventing the wheel, let’s talk.