ConnectedDock, a new Android app that enables fleets to streamline dock operations, minimize shipping errors and reduce lost revenue associated with incorrect weights, dimensions, and OS&D, is now available for users of the TruckMate TMS solution from TMW Systems. 

Designed for use with the new generation of affordable commercial-grade, Android-based handheld scanners, the ConnectedDock app can streamline several key processes – unloading, data collection, loading, through trips/partial unloads, freight receiving, and OS&D documentation – performed by dock employees. Unlike conventional solutions, the app features advanced logic and an enhanced user interface ideally suited to the extreme pace of the dock environment.

By accelerating and automating data collection, ConnectedDock enables users to more frequently re-weigh and re-dimension shipments and prompt billing adjustments in the back office. Carriers can establish rules to require or skip re-weighs/re-dimensions on specific customers’ shipments, by type of freight and/or other criteria. The app also dramatically reduces the time needed to document overs, shorts, and damaged shipments, and includes an integrated camera to associate images and related data with the appropriate freight bill.

ConnectedDock helps minimize cases of misdirected freight by issuing an error message when the user tries to load the wrong trailer. A timesaving “predictive cross-docking” capability automatically directs the worker to the appropriate destination dock when he or she unloads each shipment. The app also offers an innovative “Quick Unload” feature that allows the user to scan, unload and hold freight at the dock to quickly free up a door for an incoming load. The held freight can then be validated and moved to the appropriate locations when time permits.

Fleet managers also can use the new app to aggregate and analyze performance data and identify opportunities to further improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The app’s intuitive user interface helps minimize employee training time “because it is consistent with the experience many employees already enjoy with their smartphones,” Wangler added. “As a result, they are far more likely to leverage the app’s full functionality to increase efficiency and improve bottom-line performance.”

To learn more about the ConnectedDock app for TruckMate, please contact your TMW representative or call (800) 401-6682.