Michelle Mulligan of Berry and Smith Trucking of Penticton checks out a document scanner-printer inside the cab of a company truck Monday. The newly-developed device from Microdea Inc. could eliminate delays over paperwork for truckers on the road.
Time is money -- especially in a competitive trucking industry.
Officials at Penticton-based Berry and Smith Trucking Ltd. hope a newly innovated in-cab document scanner will save their drivers hours otherwise spent waiting for paperwork.
Dorothy Van Koughnett, comptroller for Berry and Smith, said Monday the system allows the company office to transmit cargo manifests, billing orders and other documents directly to drivers on the road.
“You‘re always trying to get ways of better communicating with your drivers,” she said. “We want our drivers to be driving, not caught up in paperwork.”
Van Koughnett said unlike traditional office scanners/printers, the truck models have to be rugged enough to withstand the rigours of the road.
The first two of five prototypes were installed into Berry and Smith trucks Monday. Eventually more than 120 of their trucks will be equipped with the devices.
Van Koughnett said although Berry and Smith and other firms have been utilizing an onboard computer link with their trucks for the past few years, this marks the first time in North America that a trucking firm will be able to send and receive documents from its drivers.
The new system will also help truckers cross the Canada-U.S. border more easily, and even provide engine data, if required.
Colin Ruskin, vice-president of business development for Microdea Inc., said the Toronto-area company has developed the scanner in direct response to suggestions from its customers.
Ruskin noted the system also provides for quicker billing for the trucking company – as well as the shipper and consignee, which will receive immediate written confirmation that their goods have arrived. Top of Page
