Trucker Tools announced that Teknowlogi is integrating Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity into its service offerings.
The integration will enable Teknowlogi’s TMS customers such as Logistics Fox and Freightsaver to employ Smart Capacity’s market intelligence and capacity management features to improve predictive freight-matching and booking processes, secure available truck capacity faster and more accurately and improve engagement with truckload service providers.
Teknowlogi also announced its timetable for integration of Trucker Tools Book it Now, an easy-to-use feature within the multi-function Trucker Tools mobile driver app. Book it Now enables truckers and brokers to automate and streamline the communication and workflow by which carriers find, select, accept and book loads with brokers and 3PLs. Implementation is under way and Teknowlogi expects Book it Now to be available for its customers next month.
With the adoption of Smart Capacity and the planned launch of Book it Now, Teknowlogi deepens its strategic engagement with Trucker Tools. The TMS provider is adding productivity-enhancing features and functions that help brokers accelerate the freight-matching process, and improve shipment visibility with more real-time, continually updated truckload tracking data. Teknowlogi clients also gain access to expanded market capacity via Trucker Tools’ network of some 850,000 truckers who’ve downloaded its mobile driver app.
Smart Capacity delivers “reliable data and process automation into the critical challenge that consumes much of a broker’s time - finding the right available truck, matching it to the customer’s load and completing an exception-free booking quickly and accurately,” says Walter Mitchell, Teknowlogi’s chief technology officer.
“By launching Book it Now, brokers and carriers on our platform gain more efficiencies, since the actual task of booking the load is automated,” Mitchell said. The potential productivity gains can be substantial since a booking task that manually might take over an hour of a broker’s time, is compressed to five minutes or less. “These initiatives address core operational issues all brokers face to eliminate wasteful manual tasks, improve data accuracy and latency, and accelerate time to value. It’s a strategic collaboration that’s well-aligned with our goal of helping our customers increase productivity and reduce the cost of covering a load,” he says.
Reston, VA-based Trucker Tools provides trip planning, shipment visibility, freight matching and execution solutions for the freight transportation industry. Its Smart Capacity platform is integrated with the industry’s most popular driver smartphone app, which has been downloaded by some 850,000 owner-operators and is used by more than 130,000 small-carrier fleet operators to access load information, secure loads with brokers, and provide real-time, automated shipment tracking updates for logistics managers and their customers.
Prasad Gollapalli, founder and chief executive of Trucker Tools, noted that the integration embeds Smart Capacity into Teknowlogi’s platform so brokers can seamlessly access its real-time capacity data, and employ Smart Capacity’s carrier relationship management and automated booking tools, without having to toggle between screens.
“As a broker working to cover a load, you can click on the Smart Capacity icon in the Teknowlogi booking screen, and it will pull up all available trucks today, by the hour, in the area,” Gollapalli notes. Available trucks are ranked with the best match on top, incorporating machine learning and collective intelligence that considers history, driver/carrier preferences, equipment type, service need and other decision factors.
The broker also gains insight into when and where that truck will be available in the future, 2, 3 or 4 days out. “That’s a huge benefit to the broker, who can keep carriers happy with quality reloads that match their preferences and retain them in the broker’s network. It eliminates ‘one load wonders’,” he explained.
“Teknowlogi is the ideal partner for us,” Gollapalli noted. “The automation and intelligence their TMS brings to the LTL market complements our strengths on the truckload side and enhances the value for brokers.”
Smart Capacity’s predictive freight-matching tools and the Book it Now automated load feature is in implementation and is expected to be fully available to Teknowlogi customers in March. The platform already receives real-time, GPS-stamped load tracking data from Trucker Tools’ visibility solution.