Transportation industry picks up technology innovation

The latest technology is impacting how every business sector operates. While this makes sense when you think of an office or start-up businesses, it may seem difficult to imagine how a sector like freight transportation is being affected.

According to a recent article from Transport Topics, not only is the landscape improving operations through the use of technology, it is actually lagging behind when it comes to tech applications.

"The freight transportation industry is still catching up with technology," Matt Ziegler, the president of ZMac Transportation Solutions, told the news source. "Even though we've made huge strides in the past 10 years, we're still way behind the rest of the business world."

Ziegler has been working at multiple industry conferences and by serving on an advisory board for a technology company, where he shares information with his peers. It also opened up an avenue for him to start hearing more about what industry professionals want out of their technology solutions.

When it comes to the transportation landscape, he noticed a few specific needs. The first is a need for an improved pricing mechanism for the niche segment. The second is for a software program for calculation of commission based compensation.

This led him to create several applications that are designed to answer these challenges and improve company operations.

Additional software on the market

These programs by Ziegler are only a few of the programs on the market. A recent article from IT Business Net profiled McLeod Software, a company that recently introduced three new applications into the transportation industry marketplace. These include:

• Pricing and bid management - This takes a step toward helping customers drive greater efficiency and productivity in dealing with the stream of shipper bids.
• Dedicated billing operations - Greatly simplifies the process of creating customized invoices for dedicated fleet customers, where the variety of customers is great.
• PowerBroker LTL - New module that brings a complete set of LTL brokerage capabilities into the system. This provided ratings, quotes and ordering through a system.

Reliable Runners offers eZrunner

Not to be left out, Reliable Runners has also been getting in on the action with its eZrunner™ ordering platform. The system is an online order entry, tracking and reporting tool that provides both shared and individual user address books, real-time pickup and delivery confirmations, comprehensive security levels and reporting.

In the transportation and logistics landscape, the latest technology is having just as big of an impact on operations as it is in an office around the country. By partnering with a third party logistics solution provider like Reliable Runners that understands how tech has changed things, any organization will be able to embrace the digital age, while improving proficiency and profitability.