If you've ever built quoting, a TMS integration, or any LTL shipping feature, you've hit the same wall I did: the reference data is a mess. Every carrier's terminal list is a different scraped HTML page, and seaport data is scattered across PDFs.
I got tired of re-scraping it for every project, so I put it behind one REST API: FreightAPIs. This post shows the lookups I reach for most.
WHAT'S IN IT
- Carrier terminals — 10 LTL/freight carriers (ABF, Estes, Saia, TForce, CEVA, USPS, and more), searchable by state, ZIP, city, radius, or batch
- Seaports — 4,400+ global ports by UN/LOCODE, country, shipping company, or geographic radius
- USPS drop points — 98,000+ post offices and collection boxes by ZIP, keyword, or ID
One API key, JSON in / JSON out. Free tier is 20 calls/month, no credit card.
SETUP
Grab a key at https://freightapis.dev/account, then:
npm install freightapis (Node 18+)
pip install freightapis (Python 3.8+)
1) LOOK UP A CARRIER'S TERMINALS
Node:
const FreightAPIs = require('freightapis');
const fa = new FreightAPIs(process.env.FREIGHTAPIS_KEY);
// Estes terminals in Georgia
await fa.carrierByStateOrZip('estes', { state: 'GA' });
// Search any carrier by city/ZIP
await fa.carrierSearch('saia', 'atlanta');
2) RESOLVE A SEAPORT
Node:
await fa.port('CNSHA'); // Shanghai, by UN/LOCODE
await fa.portsByCountry('CN'); // all China ports
await fa.portsNearby(31.2, 121.5, { radius: 200 }); // ports near a coordinate
3) PYTHON IS THE SAME SHAPE
from freightapis import FreightAPIs
fa = FreightAPIs(os.environ["FREIGHTAPIS_KEY"])
fa.carrier_by_state_or_zip("estes", state="GA")
fa.carrier_search("saia", "atlanta")
fa.port("CNSHA")
fa.ports_by_country("CN")
PREFER RAW HTTP?
Every endpoint is a plain REST call — no SDK required:
curl https://freightapis.dev/api/estes-location?state=GA -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"
There's an OpenAPI spec (https://freightapis.dev/openapi.yaml) and a Postman collection (https://freightapis.dev/freightapis.postman_collection.json) if you'd rather generate your own client.
WRAPPING UP
Full reference is at https://freightapis.dev/docs. I built this because I needed it — if you work with LTL/freight data, I'd genuinely love feedback on what's missing. What logistics data do you end up scraping over and over?
