September 13, 2024 by Sarah
How the integration of a document scanner improves the document workflow in freight and trucking
There are several freight documents involved when it comes to freight logistics. For the longest time, the transportation and freight sector has heavily relied on hard-copy forms and especially the drivers have to handle several freight documents. Therefore, the need to include document scanning functionalities in driver apps to submit transportation documents is crucial to facilitate the whole document management and follow-up processes.
Before elaborating how the integration of a document scanner can improve the document workflow, we will have a look at two very common freight documents and the challenges of their handling for drivers.
BOL and POD
The Proof of Delivery (POD) is a document that confirms a shipment has been delivered and received by the customer. This ensures accountability and completion of service, as the receiver signs after the delivery.
A Bill of Lading (BOL) is a legal contract between the shipper, carrier and consignee. It details the type, quantity, and destination of goods, serving as both a receipt and a shipment agreement.
The BOL sometimes comes with additional documents, e.g. scale tickets or check-in records showing in-and-out times from locations like shipping offices.
BOL and POD are crucial in freight and trucking for tracking, accountability, and legal protection from liability during the whole shipping process.
Challenges in the document workflow in freight transportation
When handling documents like multiple-page bills of lading, proofs of delivery or other driver-specific documents, it always represents a challenge for drivers to submit the documents to the back office while still on the go.
Since the document handling is still paper based on a large part, there is the risk of losing these documents during the freight process. This is problematic as BOLs and PODs need to be verified to process invoicing in the back end, which ultimately leads to delayed payments.
Another challenge is the document submission to the back office. The physical documents need to be manually scanned by the driver. If there is no driver app with integrated scanner, drivers work with their own device, which means that in case of low-end devices, the scan result can also be of low quality. Moreover, truck drivers tend to scan documents against their steering wheel, which can be a great challenge to scan.
This scenario is even more intensified if the physical documents get damaged during the process, including heavy wrinkles or severe cracks.
Moreover, truck drivers often find themselves in remote areas, where internet connection is not stable or not existing at all. This makes it harder to submit the scanned documents to the back office for processing.
How the integration of document scanning in driver apps improves the document submission workflow
With the above-mentioned challenges in mind, it is important to equip truck drivers with a scanner that helps scan the paperwork quickly and efficiently. Today, many US trucking companies already provide a mobile app for truck drivers. One main feature of these trucking apps besides load management is document scanning to scan and submit freight transportation documents. There are many scanning software providers in the market, which is why it is crucial to focus on the drivers’ needs when choosing the right one. Moreover, there is also the possibility to build a driver app in-house.
With the Docutain Document Scanner SDK high-quality scanning can be integrated in driver apps in just minutes and it offers features that support the use case of drivers in freight and trucking:
![Scan a Bill of Lading with Docutain Document Scanner SDK in seconds]()
- Automatic document detection
When the smartphone is held over the document, the Docutain Scanner automatically recognizes the document thanks to edge detection and instantly captures the scan.
- High-quality scan output
Even in low-light conditions or with low-end devices, the Docutain Scanner ensures a high-quality scan output thanks to years of scan training.
- Perspective correction
Even from a skewed angle, a scan can be captured. Afterwards, Docutain automatically corrects and straightens the scan. Moreover, it also crops the scan so that only the relevant document is shown, and unnecessary background is removed.
- Filter already applied
Thanks to image filters, the quality of the scan is always high. Even when the paper document is wrinkled or has shadows, the Docutain Scanner can eliminate these disturbances automatically.
- Automatic PDF creation
The scan will automatically be formatted as PDF for further processing. Other file export formats (JPG, TIFF) are also available if needed.
- No internet connection required
As drivers are often traveling in remote areas, it is crucial that scanning can also take place without internet connection. The Docutain SDK works 100% offline and locally on the device, which also ensures failure safety.
- Text recognition to extract relevant information for prefilling or individual purposed
Besides the scanning, the Docutain Scanner can be enhanced with OCR text recognition to identify and extract relevant information from the scanned document. This can be helpful for further processing or prefilling information in forms.
The Docutain SDK is the right choice for truck drivers
Join telematics companies, carriers, trucking companies and TMS providers in freight and trucking who already integrated the Docutain Document Scanner into their truck driver applications to improve driver productivity and real-time communication.
There is no better testament than feedback from existing clients, who successfully streamlined their document management.
Read the Success Story of SIMA – a Zucchetti company and the Success Story of AISS d.o.o, who integrated the Docutain Document Scanner SDK in their TMS apps, to accelerate the document transmission for drivers in real-time.
Besides the Scanner SDK, we also offer a Docutain Barcode Scanner SDK to scan 1D and 2D barcodes. This can be used e.g. for electronic BOLs, which help drivers and fleet managers to go paperless and expedite billing.
Integrate our Docutain SDK
Integrate high-quality Document Scanning into your own apps for Android, iOS, Windows or Cross-Platform for Xamarin, .NET MAUI, React Native, Flutter, Cordova, Capacitor & Ionic. Learn more about the Docutain Document Scanner SDK and contact us anytime via SDK@Docutain.com.
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