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I was driving the long haul home down the 101 freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area last week and couldn’t help but notice how many big rigs there were on the highway that evening. It got me to thinking, how do all the transportation companies with fleets of trucks across the country manage their paper documents?

In a 2009 Manufacturing Insight White Paper, IDC reported that approximately 80 percent of logistics and transportation functions within the supply chain use paper forms, and only 28 percent of the data is entered either with a digital scanning process or through the use of a digital pen. In short, the trucking industry runs on paper documents. Drivers out on the road cannot load a truck, deliver a payload, or fill their fuel tank without filling out a form. Whether it is waybills, customs declarations, delivery notes, contracts, maintenance records, log books, correspondence or mileage reports the industry is flooded with paper. 

Can you think of an industry that could be more ready to streamline their document management processes with imaging and data capture technologies?

Capture technology can efficiently extract data from the various forms and accompanying documents that truck drivers carry and transmit, ultimately increasing the efficiency of paperwork processing.  By automating conversion to searchable electronic forms, trucking companies can easily cross-reference data with related documents, smooth integration with accounting systems, eliminate manual data entry tasks, increase data accuracy, and enhance financial reporting capabilities.  

Additionally, with cloud computing, the trucker that is en route from California to Maine can access accounts via the Internet and enter relevant captured information. With a wireless connections as close as the nearest truck stop, rest area, or cell phone, truckers can access and upload their online documents, records and reports more easily than ever before.

Imagine the impact this would have on any organization that depends on the delivery of a physical product.  Whether we are talking about groceries, flat panel televisions or livestock, costs could be significantly reduced via the deployment of a relatively inexpensive solution to the logistics and transportation industry.

If we look beyond the transportation and delivery function, these same technologies could be spread to many different processes.  So I invite you to take a step back and look at your organization. What processes can you improve with data capture solutions?