What does it really mean to scan documents from the cab of the truck? You read all around the transportation publications and web articles how companies are experimenting with this, but who's out there really doing it? And what does it really mean.? And how will it save shippers money?
In the hazardous material world, having images of the original documents is our "gold". Shippers need this as fast as possible to bill their customers and to verify their various inventory procedures. Unfortunately, many trucking companies are still using snail mail and faxes to do this. There is a better way, and it's called E-Cab, or in-cab scanning, and those carriers that do it right provide an incredible cost savings and ease of use to shippers.
E-Cab scanning means being able to complete a load 500 miles away from headquarters, and automatically send the images of the delivery documents from the cab to the shippers email inbox real time. It doesn't mean waiting till the end of the 12 hour shift and scanning documents the next day when markets have changed and the information is stale. It means proof of delivery - documents arrive in the shipper's email in-box within minutes of the delivery.
(An interesting fact about scanning over faxing: Scanned images are actually clearer when you scan them over faxing. A truck equipped with the proper scanner will transmit easier to read images than an ordinary fax machine.)
Highest Image Quality (Kofax, an image technology company)
"Innovative SmoothView™ technology enables you to manipulate multiple document images with ease. Find, replace, gather, zoom, divide, rotate, swap, order, and place document images in ways you never could imagine with a stack of paper. Also, with integrated Kofax VRS, your images will look better than their paper originals without any pre-scan document preparation or fiddling with scanner controls."
Our E-cab system digitizes and indexes documents so they can easily be sent to virtually anybody's desktop instantly and more readable than the original. It sounds like fantasy, but Abenaqui Carriers has been doing this successfully since 2009. This means their shippers are getting documents delivered into their workflow, ready for ACH withdrawal before the trucks even return to the terminal. No lost images, internal copying or endless paper documents to chase down.
Electronically captured documents are available online from any delivery 24 x 7 when you need it, not when a carriers staff "gets around to it", or worse yet, waiting for the mail!
Escalated image delivery. Perhaps someone in your company only wants to see certain documents relating to accessorial charges only, but doesn't want to be inundated with proof of delivery documents for every single load. E-Cab allows the driver to flag a delivery, which automatically re-routes documents to additional in-boxes. This provides less "noise" and more actionable information to make faster decisions.
E-cab provides a true advantage for our shippers by automating the process right from the cab, and near instance access to high quality images when and where you need them!