RESTON, Va., April 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trucker Tools LLC, which provides a portfolio of next-generation mobile, web-based applications that bring together drivers, freight brokers, fleets and truckload shippers to efficiently match and manage loads with trucks, today announced two major milestones.
Smart Capacity, which provides predictive freight-matching and capacity management tools, has signed up its 50th freight-broker customer, reaching this key milestone after only six months on the market.
Introduced in September 2017, Smart Capacity is a SAAS-based application suite built for the freight broker and third-party logistics community. It bridges the gap between brokers and carriers as a next-generation, predictive freight matching and carrier connectivity platform. It's designed to help brokers streamline the process of finding and securing available capacity, and then more efficiently managing the process from load acceptance through pickup and in-transit status, to delivery and settlement.
“Smart Capacity leapfrogs current freight matching technology, freight marketplaces, load boards and other players who are trying to disintermediate or 'uberize' the transportation industry,” says Prasad Gollapalli, founder and CEO of Trucker Tools.
Trucker Tools is taking an inclusive approach, Gollapalli emphasizes, with Smart Capacity focused on complementing and leveraging the broker's skills and experience. "No matter how much technology is introduced, this is still a business of people and relationships. The knowledge and expertise of the broker remains an invaluable part of the equation," he explains. "We are enabling the broker to work faster, better and smarter. We're a trusted partner, providing easy-to-use tools that solve real business problems brokers face every day."
He noted that in today's freight brokerage business, the process of covering a load - matching an available truck with an available shipment at the right time and price - can take anywhere from 20 to 50 individual phone calls and emails. Some industry estimates peg the broker's cost to find and secure a truck - from the first phone call to confirmed acceptance - anywhere between $50 and $75.
With Smart Capacity, its automated matching and ranking features, and its connected network of drivers and available capacity, those calls can be reduced to less than 10, creating significant opportunities for brokers to improve productivity and reduce costs - with the ROI going right to their bottom line.
Trucker Tools mobile smart phone app for drivers reaches 500,000 downloads
The company also announced that the Trucker Tools mobile app, used by small fleets and independent owner-operators nationwide, has reached 500,000 downloads. Launched in 2013, drivers use the Trucker Tools mobile app to communicate with customers and broker-partners, find and secure loads, optimize routes, locate low-cost fuel and maintenance services, scan and send documents, secure payment for services and access other up-to-date information critical to the successful operation of a trucking business.
"We built the app from the perspective of the driver, creating easy-to-use tools that solve problems for them, help them run their business, and connect them in a more efficient way with customers and revenue opportunities. It's free for them to use," noted Gollapalli.
Now with a community of a half-million drivers, the Trucker Tools mobile app represents a critical mass of capacity, accessed through a single, common platform. "We have a proven track record with drivers as a flexible, trusted and reliable partner, providing information and collaboration tools that help them maximize revenue and better manage their business," he said.
Joining drivers and brokers on a trusted, collaborative, mobile-driven platform
With its widely-adopted mobile driver app and Smart Capacity freight-matching tools, Trucker Tools has established a trusted, reliable and efficient web-based business ecosystem, where carriers and brokers can interact in a secure, private network that protects confidential information. Drivers spend less time to get better loads more often. Brokers gain new tools, real-time, up-to-date, accurate information, and a faster process to find and secure available capacity.
For the driver, the app tracks available loads in proximity across a network of 3PL/broker partners and/or shippers in real time. The app then aggregates that information and recommends to the driver a list of optimal available loads, which the driver can accept or reject. Once accepted, load and driver are matched, confirmations sent, and the driver proceeds to pickup. Drivers spend less time searching for "good" loads, and benefit from a streamlined matching process in a private and protected environment.
Similarly for the freight broker, the Smart Capacity application creates a real-time, visual map of all available trucks, and all available loads in a selected geography, and through sophisticated algorithms, ranks and suggests to the broker the optimal match of truck to load. The broker need only to evaluate the options then click on a selection, and the load and truck are matched. Once accepted by the driver, the system confirms for the broker. Importantly, the visual map also presents to the broker not only what trucks are available today, but those that are projected to be available in 2, 3, 4 days or more into the future, which creates opportunity for more efficient and effective planning.
And by utilizing the GPS functionality of the driver's smart phone, Smart Capacity's Load Track feature enables real-time, continually updated shipment tracking, visibility and event notifications throughout the engagement. The result is a common collaborative ecosystem of carriers and brokers, underpinned by reliable technology that reduces waste and makes the overall process of freight-matching and in-transit visibility more timely, efficient and accurate.
Customer adoption accelerating
“We have always wanted to be able to map our carriers more efficiently, and know in real time where as many of them are at any point,” notes Darin Puppel president of the Columbus, Ohio-based Triple T Transport, and a recent adopter of Smart Capacity. Triple T arranges transportation for approximately 60,000 loads annually, specializing in refrigerated truckload and less-than-truckload logistics and an expanding portfolio of dry van, flatbed and intermodal shipments. "We found Smart Capacity to be a proven, effective platform that delivered these capabilities and that we could quickly implement."
Puppel cited as key differentiators Smart Capacity's ability to effectively predict when and where capacity would become available, connectivity to literally thousands of trucks, its accurate, real-time data and its sophisticated freight matching algorithms.
"This is game-changing technology. We gained features, functionality and connectivity it would have taken months or years to develop on our own," noted Puppel. "Smart Capacity has immediately given us strategic advantages in both finding and managing capacity more efficiently, as well as generating new business.”
Added Geoff Turner, president and chief executive officer of Preston, MD-based Choptank Transport, a leading full-service logistics provider, and an early Smart Capacity adopter. Choptank manages truckload and less-than-truckload shipments of refrigerated and dry freight as well as flatbed shipping and intermodal transport.
“Smart Capacity gives us visibility to more capacity and helps make our internal carrier salespeople more efficient by talking to trucks they know are in a particular region,” said Turner. “Besides making our process more efficient, the technology will help carriers reduce deadhead miles and give us visibility to trucks that we may not have had visibility to before.”
Smart Capacity also is integrated with major supply chain and transportation management system (TMS) technology providers, including McLeod Software's PowerBroker, Mercury Gate International, High Jump Software, Tailwind Transportation Software for brokers, and Strategy Live's fleet management software.
About Trucker Tools - Trucker Tools, based in Reston, Va., is the leading provider of trip planning, shipment visibility and freight matching solutions for the transportation industry. The company’s popular driver smart-phone app has been downloaded by some 500,000 owner-operators and small-carrier drivers to access information and services conveniently while on the road. Load Track is a robust feature in the app that connects drivers with carriers and freight brokers to eliminate manual check calls. Its groundbreaking Smart Capacity platform uses accurate, real-time data and powerful algorithms to optimally match freight by predicting when and where capacity will become available, days in advance. Visit Trucker Tools at www.truckertools.com or contact us directly at sales@truckertools.com
Media Contact:
Gary Frantz
Trucker Tools
(925) 594-1434
garynfrantz@hotmail.com