European truckload shippers say poor carrier onboarding and weak data quality are undermining visibility projects, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.

Onboarding is a formal legal process that starts before the employee's first day and continues into the first months. It involves various steps and requirements that can vary by country.

For example, in France, a pre-employment health check is mandatory, and in Germany, proof of statutory health insurance must be verified before finalising employment terms. In Poland, the contract must be in Polish, even if the working language is English. These requirements ensure compliance with national labour laws and cultural norms, making the onboarding process complex.

At the Shippeo VisibilityNow conference in Paris, BASF's Frank Hildebrandt said procurement must be involved and service level agreements built into contracts. Without them, he warned, shippers are "toothless tigers." Arla Foods' Jurgen Neyses added that carriers should know visibility expectations before onboarding, stressing "no visibility, no contract."

Mr Neyses highlighted inefficiencies caused by siloed information, such as mismatched appointment scheduling between freight tenders and receiving facilities. He said better integration of visibility data could improve coordination.

Geodis executive Olivier Cuntz said including Shippeo onboarding requirements in contracts has improved data accuracy. He noted carriers face technical issues, which Geodis addresses by offering a mobile app.

Sources told the Journal of Commerce that onboarding remains a hindrance to using visibility tools effectively. Shippers cited variability between vetted drivers and third-party drivers, as well as difficulties with application programming interfaces for companies with legacy systems.

Dutch 4PL provider Caroz's chief operating officer Bas Schoone said carriers are rarely rewarded for onboarding, despite being asked to integrate with multiple platforms at their own cost. He urged Shippeo customers to share information about integrated carriers to give them more freight.

Hildebrandt agreed, saying shippers have overlapping carrier networks yet repeat the same onboarding exercises individually, despite having common requirements.