AscendTMS is fully integrated with Highway for carrier onboarding, monitoring and more. With this integration, you can link your AscendTMS account to your Highway account, invite carriers to your Highway carrier network, import your Highway carriers (which will build a Carrier profile in AscendTMS if the carrier does not already exist), import your carrier documents, monitor your carriers, and request updated carrier packets and other documents, all from your AscendTMS!

To get started, go to your Settings tab then once there, go to the Premium Features area and click on Add or Edit your Carrier Onboarding/Monitoring Settings.

Here you will see the Highway Connect set-up area.

Based on your current status, if you already have a Highway Connect account, you will choose the button "I already have a Highway Connect account". This will alert Highway that your current account with them is flagged to be integrated with Ascend. Highway will then send an API key to Ascend Support where they will activate your existing Highway account. Once the API is entered by Ascend, your Highway account will now be Active and ready to use.

The next step is to choose how you would like Highway to monitor your carriers by choosing from the below options. The first option allows you to continue using the carriers already set-up with Highway Connect.

The 2nd option is if you want ALL of your carriers from Ascend sent to Highway for monitoring and the last option is if you would only like to send some carriers for monitoring. If you choose to only send some carriers upon initial setup, you will be redirected to Search My Carriers in Ascend to choose which carriers to select and then send to Highway.

As Highway has pricing tiers based on the amount of carriers to be monitored, please review the options and make the best decision for your business.

Once you choose from the above, your request will show Pending. Your integration request is now sent to Highway where they will review your account details. Once they confirm your account, they will advise Ascend Support of the API key to setup your account. Ascend Support will then add the key to your account and your account will become Active. You can then proceed to steps 2 -7, which are outlined below.

If you are subscribing to Highway as a new user of their product, then you will choose "I do not currently have a Highway Connect account".

From here you will need to choose a tier. Highway tiers are setup based on the amount of carriers you want to have monitored.

Ascend will show you how many carriers you currently have in your carrier list as shown below. If you choose to only send some carriers upon initial setup, you will be redirected to Search My Carriers in Ascend to choose which carriers to select and then send to Highway. Once you choose if you want to send some or all carriers to Highway, click next. This will take you to the final setup where you can confirm which tier you want to subscribe to and send a notification to Highway to start processing your request for a subscription.

This will take you to the final setup where we will can confirm which tier you want to subscribe to and send a notification to Highway to start processing your request for a subscription. It may take up to 24-48 hours for Highway to respond with your integration confirmation email.

Once you receive the integration confirmation email from Highway with your login credentials, Highway will also send an API key to Ascend Support where they will activate your existing Highway account. Once the API is entered by Ascend, your Highway account will now be Active and ready to use. You can return to this setup screen and complete your setup.

The next step is to configure you Carrier Risk Assessment Business Rules. To do so, this step must be done by Highway. You can configure your Business Rules by contacting your Customer Success Manager or by calling Highway at 906-HIGHWAY.

Once completed, you can select "I've completed this step or do not need to do it" to move to the next step.

The next thing is to map your Truck Types and Commodities to Highway's acceptable types. If you do not initiate this process from the setup page, you will be asked to do this upon sending the load details via Highway Load Lock so it is best to take the time to do this step on the initial setup. Just click on the "Map my Truck & Commodity Types to Highway" shown below.

This will redirect you to Edit Company Lists>Truck Types where you can match your truck types to Highways truck types.

You will also do this with Commodities. Once done, you can click the Save & Return to Highway Connect Integration Setup option where this will return you to the main setup where you can complete the integration process.

Next step is to Configure Your Alerts by clicking the "Configure my Notifications/Alerts button. This will redirect you to Ascends Alert Automated Alerting system. Here you can set up alerts to notify users of changes to Highways Onboarding status's, Carrier Monitoring alerts as well as some Load Lock alerts.

Once you are redirected to Automated Alerts, click Add Alert button.

Click the dropdown Alert On, scroll to the Highway alerts and set up 1 or all Highway alerts. Alerts can be sent to a users email, text message as well as Ascends messaging area. Once created, you can click back to Settings to finish up.

Next up is AWE rules, Automated Workflow Engine. AWE rules will help you automate updates from Highway. Just click the button "Configure my AWE Rules" and you will be taken to the Highway section in AWE Rules. You have a few options of AWE rules so we suggest you take your time to set these up.

Last step is to add users to your Highway account. This is done in your Highway dashboard account. Click "Add my Users to Highway" and we show you how and where to do this. Once you complete this, your setup of Highway Connect is completed.

Now that you have successfully setup your Highway integration with AscendTMS, the below will walk you through Pre-assessing and monitoring your carriers.

Navigate to your View Carriers List and click on the "Pre-Assess/Import Carrier from Highway" link. You will get a modal where you can add the carrier's MC# or DOT# to

Pre-assess your carrier. Once you enter either, click on the Pre-Assess Carrier button.

This will bring up another modal that will show all carrier details and whether the carrier pass's or fails pre-assessment based on your rules set with Highway. If this carrier is not in your carrier list, you can import them here as well.

You can also Pre-Assess carriers from the Carrier Verification area within the carrier profile if they have already been created in AscendTMS.

If you have a carrier that is not currently being monitored by Highway, you can invite that carrier to register with Highway. From within the carrier profile, scroll down to the Carrier Verification area to the Highway tab. Here you will see a button to invite carriers to register. Once invited, the status will show Pending until carrier is actually Onboarded. Some other status' that you may see are Needs to Onboard, Needs to Onboard but can Remain Active, Onboarded or Do Not Dispatch.

Once your carrier is fully onboarded, you can now start monitoring that carrier. Just click on the Start Monitoring button. You will get a modal confirming you want to monitor this carrier.

Once carrier is being monitored, the button will now change to red. You may cancel monitoring at anytime.

You can also get updated carrier data from Highway here as well. So, if for instance, you do not have a current COI, you can click update and the documents will be stored in the carrier profile>View Attached Documents or click the View Carrier Documents button.

Other items that are monitored within Ascend are located in the Additional Carrier Info area in the carrier profile. Here you can find Insurance details, Equipment, Lanes and Certifications pulled from the carriers details.

Something else that we added to make monitoring your carriers even easier is a new column on the Carrier list page. You can now add a column that will show you which of your carriers are being monitored with Highway as well as their status.

Lastly. you can add this column to your carrier list by clicking the "Customize Columns" button on the top right, and then making sure there is a green check mark next to the "Connected via Highway" option then make sure you hit the save button.