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When truckers roll into a warehouse, they might find that they must pay $150 to get their trailers unloaded. If they don’t want to front that expense themselves, they would typically call dispatch to be issued a fleet check. In the meantime, they sit around trying to facilitate a financial transaction they’re not really a party to.
They need a faster, easier way to keep their employers in the loop, and employers need a faster, easier way to pay. And the mobile devices most truckers carry can be a part of the solution.
That’s one use case for RoadSync Advance, a new broker and carrier payment management platform that was rolled out by RoadSync Thursday (March 17). The new solution makes it easier and faster for brokers and carriers to pay accessorial, lumper and other over-the-road fees via SMS.
“What RoadSync Advance does is allows brokers and carriers to preauthorize and track truck driver expenses inside and outside of the RoadSync vendor network,” RoadSync CEO Robin Gregg told PYMNTS. “So, it’s really connecting both sides of the financial transaction and providing full visibility to the carrier and broker market.”
Becoming Drivers’ Employer or Broker of Choice
Efficiency is always important in the trucking market, but it’s especially important at a time when demands on the supply chain are high and driver capacity is strained. Today, brokers and carriers are looking not only for ways to make their drivers efficient, but also ways to become drivers’ employer or broker of choice.
“Making sure those funds are readily available while still providing control and visibility, which is what the carriers and brokers need, is an important tool for driver satisfaction,” Gregg said.
Mobile platforms can provide that visibility — and offer an alternative to the fleet checks that the industry relies on for discretionary non-fuel expenses. In addition to unloading, those include late fees, towing, repair and maintenance.
Truckers have limited hours that they can drive each week, so saving them the time that they would have spent waiting around for somebody to pay something for them enables them to spend more time driving.
“If you’re saving them 15 minutes a day or 30 minutes a day, that’s more time they can drive, and the more mileage they’re able to put in, the more they get paid,” Gregg said. “So that’s important for a trucker.”
Providing Convenience for Truckers, Visibility for Employers
RoadSync Advance joins other offerings that enable vendors in the trucking sector. The company added it in response to feedback from the employers of truckers — full-time employers, brokers and others — that wanted better visibility into truckers’ expenses.
While providing truckers with that convenience, it also provides employers with the ability to set parameters and gain visibility into the transactions.
“The relationship between a trucker and their employer can be transactional — he could be working for a broker, and that’s the first time that they’ve worked together,” Gregg said. “So, when you’re advancing funds to that trucker for things like fuel, a warehouse unloading fee, a repair or whatever it might be, you may not know as much about him as you would an ongoing employee.”
