AscendTMS and Trucker Tools roll out integration capabilities offering

A pairing between Trucker Tools, a Reston, Va.-based provider of trip planning, shipment visibility and freight matching solutions, and transportation management system (TMS) provider Ascend TMS was announced by the companies this week.

Through this partnership, Ascend said it is integrating Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity platform in order to enable brokers, 3PLs, and shippers with the ability to see live and available truck capacity in real time multiple days before trucks are empty.

As previously reported, the Smart Capacity platform provides brokers with predictive freight matching tools and real-time, trusted visibility into when and where trucks are available. Trucker Tools’ officials said that a major benefit for drivers and fleets that use the Trucker Tools mobile app, which provides various “driver-centric” tools, information, and resources, for other services is that they do not need to switch apps to connect with loads when using Smart Capacity, adding that the offerings powerful algorithms and workflow tools help brokers find, rank and match the best carrier with a load, reduce manual tasks and eliminate multiple phone calls to find and secure a truck. And they added that Smart Capacity’s predictive tools provide brokers with accurate visibility into future truck capacity availability, providing an important advance-planning capability benefits for brokers and carriers.

A Trucker Tools official explained that this is an interesting combination, with a new generation cloud-based TMS platform for carriers, brokers, and 3PLs meshing with a freight matching and automated load tracking provider, where the Trucker Tools functionality will be embedded in the AscendTMS platform.

And he added that this represents another example of how new technology players are leading digital disruption, and also bringing innovative new tech-based solutions, into the trucking and brokerage market.

“I’ve been in this industry for a long time, and it’s rare that a truly fantastic solution like Smart Capacity comes along,” said Tim Higham, president and CEO of InMotion Global, in a statement. “Most new technology providers just don’t understand how this industry works – but Trucker Tools does. Their Smart Capacity solution is a rare gem that really works – and now it’s seamlessly integrated to the world’s most widely used TMS solution, AscendTMS.”

And Prasad Gollapalli, founder and chief executive of Trucker Tools, said in a statement that by partnering with AscendTMS and embedding Trucker Tools Smart Capacity functionality in its platform, AscendTMS users gain powerful, easy-to-use predictive freight-matching, load tracking and carrier relationship management tools without any additional integration or the need to download another software package.

“Users stay in the same functional screen on AscendTMS without having to toggle to another application,” he said. “We are bringing Smart Capacity’s tools to them, in a platform on which they already work, not asking them to download yet another app.”

What’s more, Gollapalli explained that brokers on Ascend TMS also gain access to a critical mass of capacity through Trucker Tools’ growing community of 600,000 owner-operators and “micro-carriers” (fleets with 10 trucks or less) who since 2013 have downloaded and utilize the Trucker Tools Mobile Driver App on their smart-phone or tablet.