Fleet management company KeepTruckin has fully integrated its driver workflow processes with transportation management system (TMS) provider Prophesy Dispatch to provide clients with seamless communication between the back office and truck drivers. Within the industry, dispatch communication has been mired with inconsistencies, as back offices struggle to locate drivers in real-time – making it harder to assign new dispatches efficiently.
“Efficient communication is the foundation of any successful fleet. In an industry where customer satisfaction and speed mean everything, it’s never been more important for organizations to streamline how they communicate across both internal and external teams,” said Kelly Hanson, senior manager of technology partnerships at KeepTruckin.
The lack of real-time information on drivers’ available hours of service (HOS) and current capacity complicates load assignment, rendering proactive planning moot. Fleet management often resorts to calling up every driver to individually gain insight around loads, taking up valuable man-hours that could be spent productively elsewhere.
At the other end of the spectrum, drivers on the road find it hard to be in constant touch with their management, as trucks move along highway stretches that lack stable signals for cell phone connectivity.
“When this happens, they are unable to communicate with dispatch via phone or text, let alone activate or complete dispatches sent to them,” said Hanson. “Inability to pass real-time updates back to a TMS puts a heavy burden on drivers’ shoulders. Without a centralized place to communicate with dispatch, load information can be lost, overlooked or incorrectly updated due to manual input.”
For the shippers, lack of consistent communication could keep them guessing on the whereabouts of their shipment. The inability of a fleet to provide an accurate estimated time of arrival (ETA) update to its shippers and prolonged waiting times across customer service helplines will lead to a dip in its reputation.
“With Prophesy Dispatch, we set out to address these communication headaches and simplify operations by bringing an integrated dispatch experience to our mutual customers,” said Hanson. “Using KeepTruckin’s driver workflow feature, drivers and dispatchers can communicate directly through KeepTruckin’s mobile app about Prophesy Dispatch loads. Any changes made in KeepTruckin’s mobile app by the driver will automatically update in the Prophesy Dispatch system for a single source of truth across dispatch data.”
By getting visibility into driver location and HOS information in real-time, fleets can share details of the dispatch with their customers, also managing exception handling with precision. Back offices can use custom forms and geofencing for automated check-in updates at each stop and expedite customer delivery and billing schedules.
“Customers have been long-time fans of Prophesy Dispatch from a back-office perspective. We’ve seen customers enjoy the customization and ease of use available in our Driver Workflow feature and our rich, real-time data. And our drivers love our mobile app – we started as an app built by drivers, for drivers. Marrying the two platforms together has been a strong request from our mutual customers, and we’re extremely excited to bring this to market,” said Hanson.
For KeepTruckin, many of its recent enhancements revolve around customer feedback, including offline capabilities, public sharing of live dispatches for shippers, and a holistic report of all dispatches from Prophesy Dispatch in the KeepTruckin dashboard.
“The recently added layer of visibility and communication with shippers or customers from a carrier perspective is a new way to do business,” said Hanson. “The ability to show live, real-time updates directly to any interested party associated with a load, with the same type of communication updates and ability that dispatch has with drivers, is what makes working with KeepTruckin’s driver workflow feature and partners like Prophesy Dispatch a game-changer for organizations.”