St. Augustine, FL. Sylectus, a business unit of Omnitracs Canada, Inc., recently announced the launch of its iPhone-based Sylectus Mobile application. The announcement was made just ahead of the company’s 2014 User Conference, being held here February 7 to February 9.
The iPhone application was developed to enable automated tracking of drivers and loads in near real-time. It offers new image capture and indexing capabilities, allowing drivers to take pictures of key trip documents and import and index them directly to the order. The iPhone application also integrates with Omnitracs’ Driver Workflow application, which allows carriers to automate workflow for a more fluid, intuitive experience.
“With the new Sylectus Mobile application for iPhone, our customers now have the flexibility to choose the platform—Android or iPhone—on which they run their business operations,” said Stu Sutton, president and CEO of Sylectus. “The iPhone application, which augments the Android-based version of the fleet management app, underscores Sylectus’ continued dedication to delivering powerful, productivity-enhancing solutions to help our customers streamline communication with drivers and improve overall business efficiency.”
According to the company, Sylectus is the first TMS provider of its kind to deliver a smartphone solution that integrates directly with its product, automating driver-dispatcher communication and load tracking, and automatically providing real-time updates directly to shippers. The image capture and indexing features also remove the need for paper records and help eliminate errors caused by manual entry.
During his opening remarks at the conference, Sutton observed that 2013 was a productive year for the company. In addition to the launch of the new mobile application, Sylectus released a signature-capture function and made over $200K in capital improvements. Sylectus now has 807 members on the Alliance Network and sends out nearly 2 million e-mails per day.
The company also rolled out a Trust Survey in 2013, designed to give Sylectus Alliance Network members a standardized way to rank the performance of partner carriers in terms of resource sharing, dispatch, trip monitoring and payment handling.
Sylectus customers at the conference had lots to say about the value of Sylectus for their operations. Spencer Squier, president of All State Express, Inc., for example, was among a group of customers who took time to share their experiences with industry editors, including Fleet Owner. “We would have to triple the number of workers we have to keep up without Sylectus,” he said. “The integration with Omnitracs [then Qualcomm] made it even better. When paying for premium service, customers won’t wait. It is our single-most valuable [technology] tool.”
“The automation level is superb,” he added. “Customers love it. Information comes right to them; they don’t have to make a call. We depend on good communication. That is how we survive.”
Craig Aimers, general manager for Preferred Carrier Logistics, LLC, noted that, “The network helps us keep trucks moving. No driver wants to go someplace and sit. The more you interact [with other carriers in the network] the more you can keep trucks moving.” He also credited Sylectus with helping the company minimize deadheading.
Chuck King, COO for Bolt Holdings, parent company of Bolt Express and Strike Logistics, described the expedited business as the freight version of an ambulance and said he appreciated the ability to find additional capacity that Sylectus helps to provide in this capacity-tight time.
Michael Winslett, president and CEO of DTH Expeditors, Inc., has been a long-time customer (since about 2002). He noted that Sylectus even came in early on and developed an air freight version of the system for DTH, still in use.
As the use of mobile devices and applications in the transportation industry grows, Sylectus will continue to fulfill the needs of its customers by delivering more productivity-enhancing applications and features to improve overall business efficiency and driver satisfaction, Sutton told customers this morning. Among projects on the list for the coming months: the ability to capture detention-verification signatures and load images, as well as do ETA analysis.
