Your everyday UPS tools can manage your freight shipments, too

Access to the freight service you need may already be at your fingertips.

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If you've considered UPS Freight^® for your heavy shipments but can't stand the thought of installing yet another shipping system and all the training that goes with it, here's some great news.

You can create and manage UPS Freight shipments on tools you may already use, including UPS WorldShip^®, UPS Internet Shipping (shipping at ups.com), and Quantum View^® Manage. Access to the freight service you need may already be at your fingertips.

Plus, UPS now brings to freight the very same tracking technology that you have come to trust and rely on for your package shipments. You can even take care of your electronic freight billing the same way as your electronic package billing options.

You can access UPS Freight from any of the familiar UPS shipping tools below.

Two shipping platforms
Both UPS WorldShip and UPS Internet Shipping have been enhanced to support freight shipping: Now you can create LTL (less-than-truckload) bills of lading and air freight waybills, request a freight pickup, see custom rates, manage commodity lists and much more. So you can use the same UPS shipping platform whether you're processing palletized freight, multipiece shipments or just a single package.

Tracking and visibility
Get a comprehensive view of all your transportation activity, including package shipments and LTL, air and ocean freight with the powerful Quantum View Manage. Or use ups.com to track package and freight shipments. The end result: Readily available shipping information to help serve your customers better.

Electronic billing options
With UPS Billing Data, you get a detailed data file in CSV or XML format. The Billing Analysis Tool then helps you analyze your UPS Billing Data file, allocating charges and generating reports. Or select UPS PDF Invoice to save time by receiving an exact copy of your UPS and UPS Freight paper bills electronically – without waiting for the mail.

"With UPS technology, we have been able to fill the gap LTL customers have been looking to fill for some time. Our customers now have visibility throughout the LTL supply chain, from pickup through delivery," says Jack Holmes, president of UPS Freight.

View helpful demos that illustrate UPS Freight and explain the nuts and bolts of LTL.

This story was originally published under the headline "Speed freight shipping with UPS technology tools" in the winter 2009 print edition of Compass.