FourKites has launched updates to its ELD Control Center to enhance communication between trucking companies and their broker and shipper customers.

Brokers and shippers can now define business rules to schedule email alerts to customizable groups of recipients, such as dock personnel or customers, who need status updates, such as arrival alerts of trucks. The system now also includes a big data analytics module to generate on-time performance at pickup and delivery locations and five new ELD partnerships to expand the ELD ecosystem to more than 35 providers.

The system makes use of Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) already installed in commercial trucks

“We’re the first and only company in the country that has created integrations with every major ELD provider,” said CEO Matt Elenjickal. “We’ve done the heavy lifting for those shippers and brokers who want to tap into the ELD network that consists of more than 35 providers in North America and take advantage of the most cutting-edge innovations in load tracking.”

FourKites ELD Control Center has shown a minimum of 20 percent ROI for its users, according to Elenjickal.

Earlier this months the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced a final ELD mandate that will require ELDs in over three-million commercial trucks by December 2017. The FMCSA estimates that 26 lives and 562 injuries will be prevented and more than $1 billion will be saved every year.

FourKites ELD Control Center allows shippers and carriers to reduce, and sometimes eliminate, their spend on EDI technology used to transmit ELD location data. Carriers can use FourKites to automatically send tracking data to shippers, brokers and 3PLs, without having to spend any extra money on data transfers.

Carriers incur no charges sending ELD data with FourKites. FourKites tracking data will enhance supply chain visibility and logistics operations by providing the location, status, and ETA of every truck on the road.

Shippers can use this information to proactively manage delays, adjust inventory and personnel, and, best of all, eliminate phone calls to dispatchers since they will have real-time load tracking information at their fingertips and ready to share with customers. The system recalculates ETA every 15 minutes using real‐time data, from traffic to weather conditions.