Scanbot SDK is highlighting customer success stories demonstrating the effectiveness of its software development kit (SDK) in freight and trucking. The SDK makes it easy to add scanning features to existing applications, including driver management and workflow applications.
Transportation and freight has long relied on hard-copy forms. Today, they are often manually scanned at fixed locations, which takes time away from drivers and places extra work on back-office staff to verify the documents. FreightTech solutions promise to remove this bottleneck and increase driver productivity: Carriers, telematics companies and workflow providers are increasingly integrating mobile scanning into their applications.
Scanbot SDK recently spoke with FreightWaves and highlighted two customer case studies that illustrate the time and cost savings their Document Scanning SDK unlocks. It offers fast, accurate scanning of documents ranging from bills of lading to driver-specific documents like expense receipts.
Handling the bill of lading (BOL), in particular, is a big pain point for carriers. A BOL can consist of multiple pages and associated receipts, depending on the load. Some shippers also attach additional documents, e.g., empty and loaded scale tickets or in-and-out times from a check-in location (like a guard shack or shipping office). Some arrangements create yet further specific documents, such as the dummy bill of lading for a “blind shipment” where the consignee isn’t to learn where the original shipment came from.
Managing all these hard-copy documents efficiently – including the need to upload them in an accurate and timely manner – is an ever-present challenge for fleets.
To this end, Scanbot SDK provides both an intuitive document scanner and bar code scanning functionalities.
Scanning bills of lading with in-house mobile apps
Lynden, an Alaska-based freight company, was looking for a better way to manage vital shipping documents. Originally, its drivers had to physically drop off their collected freight documents at the end of their shift. Lynden sought an SDK its drivers could use to scan these documents, as well as to scan the 2D bar codes on their trucks to access their task schedules. The solution also had to be fully compatible with its existing Android mobile app.
Lynden partnered with Scanbot SDK to integrate document scanning capabilities into the company’s driver app. The company’s team finished integrating the SDK in just one week.
In Lynden’s new workflow, drivers efficiently load their daily tasks just by scanning the trucks’ bar codes. They can now also complete each task immediately after a pickup or delivery by uploading the required documents and freight images.
The improved workflow not only spares drivers the additional trip to the office, it also enables the billing team to start processing documents as they come in. This saves valuable time for everyone involved and improves overall productivity.
All in all, the implementation of the Scanbot SDK enabled real-time access to tasks, instant document delivery on the go and immediate billing thanks to digital document transmission.
Scanning documents for truck drivers on the road
Motive adopted the Scanbot Document Scanner SDK in 2019. The company’s previous approach had made it unnecessarily difficult for drivers to upload high-quality document photos. The camera software not only performed poorly in low lighting, but also lacked user guidance, blur detection and smart cropping features. This forced drivers to spend time retaking photos, and even so back-office staff struggled with poor-quality document images.
“Document photos were often so bad that the back office couldn’t read them, making it hard to audit and manage for record-keeping,” a manager at Motive said. “The Scanbot SDK helps ensure that we get quality document scans each time.”
The old workflow had drivers submit a document photo to the back office. Staff then reviewed the input data and image. If the image was low quality, the driver was asked to recapture the document. This usually resulted in a slightly better photo, allowing staff to audit the document and submit it to record-keeping.
Motive took one month to integrate the Document Scanner SDK into its native Android and iOS apps. Now, drivers scan their freight documents with the Scanbot SDK, which ensures crisp, readable copies. Back-office staff can audit these document scans without issues and submit them for record-keeping.
Today, several major freight logistics companies use the Scanbot SDK to enhance their document workflows. In addition to Lynden and Motive, notable adopters include ArcBest, Bison Transport and Averitt.
To learn more about Scanbot SDK’s scanning and data capture solutions, visit scanbot.io.
