It’s been a busy month for Josh Asbury, vice president of 3PL and Broker at HubTran.
Making the rounds this past month announcing HubTran’s latest product, Lights-Out Processing, Asbury is excited to divulge yet another monumental move for the back-office automation platform.
HubTran announced earlier this month plans to consolidate with carrier payments platform TriumphPay, in an ambitious effort to form a fully integrated payments network for the entire transportation industry.
Both companies are eager for the deal to close and for the opportunity to combine their respective expertise – TriumphPay’s efficient payment platform with HubTran’s back-office automation experience with third-party logistics (3PL) providers and brokers.
The $97 million acquisition’s ultimate goal is to provide a confluent payment experience for brokers, carriers and factors. Asbury said having the two companies work together just makes sense.
He spoke with FreightWaves’ Timothy Dooner and Michael Vincent on the popular simulcasted podcast, WHAT THE TRUCK?!?
“This is going to materially advance the ability to create a seamless payment experience and enhanced service for our factoring customers, while also making things much better for brokers and carriers,” Asbury said.
He makes the case that an all-encompassing payment network will make the flow of invoice and payment data seamless, and ultimately result in cost reductions, risk mitigation and improved speed of service for carriers.
“Together, TriumphPay and HubTran will be uniquely positioned to provide the tools to the factoring industry that empower them to create meaningful process and technology improvements into their operations,” Asbury said.
He describes the initial response from HubTran’s broker customers as “ecstatic.” He added that factors are becoming increasingly more excited, too, as they read more into the details.
The HubTran/TriumphPay deal is awaiting regulatory approval and is expected to be finalized in Q2, as reported earlier by FreightWaves. Asbury advises customers to stay tuned for updates but affirms that things are “business as usual” for the time being.
However, Asbury doesn’t want the acquisition to overshadow the release of Lights-Out Processing.
HubTran’s latest product for 3PLs and brokers automatically indexes documents, extracts relevant data, and validates this information and documentation against load details and customer-specific billing requirements, the company said. Lights-Out Processing means just that — it processes invoices instantaneously, and automatically settles the load in the TMS without human intervention.
“This technology provides a completely hands-off, fully automated processing of invoices for freight forwarders, brokers and 3PLs,” Asbury said. In terms of incorporating TriumphPay’s scale and technology, he added, “Our broker customers will be able to do a more comprehensive job of validating … where payments are supposed to go.”
