Launched in 2018, downloads of the Drive XPO app have doubled in 2020, surpassing 200,000 downloads as of Thursday, according to XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO). More than 65,000 carriers are registered on the associated XPO Connect platform.
“The immediate access to capacity that XPO Connect brings to every transaction is really resonating with shippers and carriers,” Drew Wilkerson, XPO’s president of North American transportation, said in a statement. “September has been another strong month for driver app downloads [and] we’ll continue to ensure quality service for our customers by developing capabilities that are important to our carriers.”
XPO had 100,000 driver downloads for the Drive XPO app as of Jan. 1 and 40,000 registered carriers. The company attributed the rapid growth to its continued investment in the technologies that underpin both Drive XPO and XPO Connect, and the “rapid response to the pandemic to keep supply chains moving.”
The mobile app has seen several new features added this year, including a Get Me Home tool that locates loads heading in the direction of home for drivers. XPO has also enhanced its proof-of-delivery upload process to enable faster payment processing.
As COVID-19 took hold in the country, XPO added a multilingual carrier dashboard to the app that aggregates alerts issued by states, provinces, countries and infrastructure sources.
XPO has continued to invest in technology “since day one,” Lou Amo, president of freight brokerage and expedite at XPO, told FreightWaves’ What The Truck?!? podcast in August.
Watch: XPO’s Lou Amo joins What The Truck?!? to discuss XPO’s technology investment
“We’re doing exciting things with our digital platform XPO Connect — automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning are at the core of XPO Connect — and in today’s environment, our largest customers are asking us for accurate, real-time pricing and committed capacity, and technology allows us to do that,” he told hosts Timothy Dooner and Michael Vincent. “More broadly, XPO has been investing in technology since the beginning and technology is our secret sauce.”
Launched in 2018, XPO Connect is used by shippers to track and trace their shipments, request a quote, and manage their spend with XPO. The platform provides virtual access to the company’s multimodal range of transportation services. The technology uses machine learning to analyze data histories and market conditions in seconds, becoming continually smarter at helping shippers and carriers buy and sell capacity. In late 2019, XPO added last-mile deliveries to the platform.
Click for more FreightWaves articles by Brian Straight.
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