Business automation tools have become more important for transportation companies to keep their operations, safety and back-office functions continuing in a virtual work environment. News and product announcements from technology suppliers during the week of Oct. 5 reflected this trend.
Transflo started the week by acquiring Ontario, Canada-based Microdea to broaden its digitized workflow capabilities for shippers, freight brokers, carriers, drivers and receivers. The combined business will operate under the Transflo brand and have a portfolio of mobile apps, telematics, electronic logging device (ELD) and business process automation systems that now include Microdea’s enterprise document management software, Synergize.
“The transaction is a strategic step in growing our footprint in the key Canadian supply chain sector and will drive additional efficiencies and solutions to the market today,” said Frank Adelman, chief executive officer for Transflo.
Transflo’s product suite also includes electronic bills of lading (EBOLs), electronic proof of delivery (EPOD), Velocity+ broker services, document scanning, freight visibility and truck navigation. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Platform Science, an Internet of Things (IoT) fleet management platform, became a Certified Integration partner with McLeod Software. With the two-way integration, fleets that use both McLeod’s LoadMaster enterprise platform and Platform Science have the ability to monitor hours of service and load visibility with real-time updates and driver-dispatch communications through workflow and messaging applications.
Drivers can use prefilled form fields in the Platform Science in-cab platform attached to each load, and dispatchers are connected to drivers within LoadMaster to send real-time messages.
The ELD mandate, not the COVID-19 pandemic, can be credited with pushing the industry toward digitization. More than a year ago, ELD and telematics provider KeepTruckin (KT) announced it was working on a freight-matching system. This week, it debuted a Smart Load Board that will be available free to users with KeepTruckin accounts.
