Previously in this series: ELD headaches: Solving the dropped bluetooth connection issue
Eagle Express owner Leander Richmond’s Omnitracs onboard dedicated-type ELDs have delivered his eight-truck operation a capability that could solve a particular problem — increasingly “ridiculous” proof-of-delivery expectations among brokerages. Some brokers have attempted to make it a contract stipulation that the carrier will be required to send proof of delivery within an hour of offload, he says, or lose all claim to payment for that load.
Sound outrageous? Let’s just say he doesn’t sign those contracts. Nonetheless, managing incoming requests for POD paperwork from brokers has gotten out of hand, though Eagle Express typically invoices within a week. (Hear more from Richmond on this issue via the Overdrive Radio podcast you’ll find at this link and embedded below.)
What Richmond’s begun doing is geofencing customer locations. The Omnitracs system is “able to send an email to the broker when the load comes in and breaks the plane going in and going out,” Richmond says.
“My thinking is they can’t argue about the time we got there and the time we left” — and it could tamp down on some of the POD expectations. “If I have to take three calls a day” looking for PODs, that “does take time.” A more automated invoicing process with POD could well be the result one day.
