Leveraging Tech To Move Freight Faster And Safer – Demo Day 1 Highlights

Technology that helps you get the most from your drivers, trucks and trailers was in the spotlight at the Rapid-Fire Demonstrations on Tuesday at FreightWaves LIVE Chicago.

The seven-minute, live demonstrations allowed companies to showcase their products' capabilities.

CloudTrade 

David Cocks, CEO of CloudTrade, said their e-invoicing e-document technology network enables companies to "get rid of a reliance on paper invoices."

London-based CloudTrade uses rule-based technology to read and convert electronic documents such as invoices, sales and purchase orders, advanced shipping notices, and other data-rich documents into a 100% data-accurate freight-processing solution.

"The goal is having no manual touch — a fully automated solution that you can scale and run 24/7," Cocks said.

SkyBitz

SkyBitz, which provides transportation and logistics companies with real-time asset tracking and data analytics, discussed its new GPS tracking device, SA2012.

The device, which SkyBitz launched in October, is equipped with the latest 4G LTE with 3G fallback and is positioned for the light- to medium-duty vehicle tracking market.

"We are passionate about providing actionable data to our customers," said Debbie Sackman, senior product manager with Herndon, Virginia-based SkyBitz.

K-Ratio

K-Ratio used FreightWaves LIVE Chicago to launch its new card service, in which a client's card is made up of visual elements displaying different types of graphs, metrics, filters and tables, all populated with data that K-Ratio extracts and organizes from a company's transportation management software.

Zachary Brictson said the service allows clients to choose the metrics they want to track to make "real-time, data-driven decisions."

"The goal is to get around storytelling and gut instincts to make decisions because those often have biases," said Brictson, K-Ratio's senior business intelligence analyst.

K-Ratio, a commodities trading adviser based in Chicago, advises carriers and shippers on hedging strategies.

Transflo

Velocity+ from Tampa, Florida-based Transflo is the company's new solution to connect brokers, third-party logistics providers and carriers.

"Velocity+ is a business solution for brokers that want to eliminate paperwork and communicate quickly with their shippers, carriers or their own back office," said Don Mitchell, Transflo's director of marketing.

Velocity+ has been integrated with the Transflo mobile+ app that has more than 1.3 million downloads and is used by a network of 60,000 carriers for managing loads, hours of service, documents and payroll, Mitchell said.

Trimble MAPS

Princeton, a New Jersey-based Trimble MAPS which offers commercial routing and navigation solutions for freight, also introduced new services at FreightWaves LIVE Chicago.

Using trucking application programming interfaces, third-party logistics providers can use Trimble MAPS to automate real-time visibility and ETA impact of current conditions like traffic and weather, as well as driver behavior on the road.

"Trimble MAPS has a new notification service built on top of a unique trip management solution to effectively monitor and manage freight movement — it offers an advanced collision detection alerting system, and it can alert drivers to upcoming changes in speed limits," said Rishi Mehra, director of business strategy for Trimble MAPS.

Imaginnovate

Imaginnovate discussed technology platform Fleet Enable for last-mile delivery solutions during its demo and also discussed machine learning smart dispatch technology.

"Fleet Enable is a last 2-mile delivery platform that is customizable for small enterprise clients with scalable solutions," said Corey Boelkens, vice president of operations for Imaginnovate.

Fayetteville, Arkansas-based Imaginnovate works with carriers, shippers and third-party logistics providers in load management, capacity management, fleet optimization, route planning and delivery solutions across all modes of transport, including over-the-road, intermodal, regional and last-mile delivery.

FreightFriend

Chicago-based FreightFriend discussed its new new Capacity Guru routing engine at FreightWaves LIVE Chicago.

FreightFriend — which works with shippers, brokers and carriers — is a carrier relationship management (CRM) software and next-generation freight matching platform that allows users to gather proprietary data on carriers and assets.

"Capacity Guru uses multiple data sets — load history, lane history, truck history, tracking data, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data — to give carriers the information they need to make decisions," said Michael Culberson-Fehling, director of business development at FreightFriend.

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