Fast BOL submission with the Scanbot Document Scanner SDK

ArcBest

Company Logo

The ArcBest subsidiary ABF Freight offers an industry-leading LTL network.

Industry

Transportation

Company Size

14,000+ employees

Use Case

In-house mobile application for the transmission of Bills of Lading

Availability

iOS & Android

Development Platform

Xamarin

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Goal

ArcBest wants to enable its drivers on the road to conveniently forward digital copies of documents like Bills of Lading to the headquarters.

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Challenge

To make the physical transfer of documents by drivers obsolete, ArcBest needs a mobile scanning solution that easily integrates with its internal app, produces top-notch results, and operates offline to enable usage on the road, even in rural areas.

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Solution

With the Scanbot SDK, ArcBest Technologies was able to create a digital workflow for transferring documents, significantly reducing processing time and eliminating the effort invested into the physical delivery to the headquarters.

Benefits of the Scanbot SDK

Scanbot SDK Offline usage

Offline-operation, perfectly suited for work on the road.

 

Barcode Accuracy

Precise document scanning functionalities that are easy to use.

 

Document Detection

Real-time accessibility of accurate data.

 

After integrating Scanbot SDK into ABF’s proprietary pickup & delivery app, the quality of the images has greatly improved. This will provide ABF access to valuable information about the customer’s shipments hours earlier than the prior procedure by allowing the billing process to start shortly after the freight is picked up.

Lee Easley

Director Information Technology @ ArcBest Technologies

How ArcBest Technologies cut document transmission time by up to 9 hours with the Scanbot SDK

The ArcBest subsidiary ABF Freight offers an industry-leading LTL network. ABF Freight city drivers pick up numerous shipments from a range of customers every day. This means a large number of Bills of Lading (BOLs), which must be submitted to headquarters daily to manage pickups correctly. An outdated transmission process required the drivers to travel to headquarters to physically submit the paper BOLs. This slowed workflows significantly – a major hurdle for planning outbound loads.

To streamline document transmission, ArcBest Technologies sought a Document Scanner SDK that they could easily integrate into their internal iOS and Android applications, which are based on Xamarin.

To support companies in a wide range of industries, Scanbot offers adaptable document scanning functionalities that are easy to use, produce perfect results, and guarantee maximum data privacy. In years of working with companies from different industries, our experts have gained deep insights into best practices and requirements for streamlining document transmission. Developers can efficiently integrate the component – and customize the UI to match corporate design – within just one working week.

By integrating Scanbot’s document scanning features, ArcBest Technologies accelerated its document transmission workflow significantly. Flawless, on-the-go BOL scans save its drivers and back-office staff time and effort.

BOL submission process: Prior and after integrating the Scanbot Document Scanner SDK

BOL submission process prior to integrating the Scanbot Document Scanner SDK

  1. A driver picks up freight from a shipper and receives a paper Bill of Lading.
  2. After finishing all pickups of the day, the driver delivers all BOLs to the service center.
  3. Here, the hardcopy BOLs are digitized with a hardware scanner.
  4. Finally, the scans are sent to the data input personnel for further processing.

This legacy process involved a significant delay between freight pick-up and BOL submission – wasting precious time. An easy-to-use scanning solution that drivers can use on the go solves this pain point efficiently.

Scanbot’s solution

With its user guidance feature, image-enhancing filters, automatic rotation, and cropping, the Scanbot SDK is the ideal foundation for streamlined mobile document scanning. It was a perfect match for ArcBest Technologies’ specific requirements.

BOL transmission after the integration of Scanbot’s Document Scanner SDK

  1. A driver picks up freight from a shipper and receives a paper BOL.
  2. Now, they can immediately scan the BOL with the in-house app that includes the Scanbot document scanning functionality. The backend software can now process the scanning result straight away.
  3. The results are then presented to the data processing personnel.

Now, document submission takes just a few seconds and incorporates the drivers into a seamless digital workflow. Accurate scan results enable essential data to be available to other applications much sooner. As such, they are fundamental to ArcBest’s efforts to provide best-in-class service.

By integrating the Scanbot Document Scanner SDK, ArcBest Technologies was able to:

  • Shorten document submission times by 4-9 hours.
  • Enable its drivers to create flawless digital copies of BOLs on the go.
  • Make freight shipping information available in real-time.

Scanbot SDK’s Mission & Vision

Originally, Scanbot wanted to scan everything: from simple barcodes to freight bills, medical certificates, and invoices – and now it can! There are endless ways this can make things easier for businesses and their customers. Our easy-to-integrate software simplifies workflows in document management, customer onboarding, sales, or HR.

Now, Scanbot applies cutting-edge computer vision algorithms and machine learning models to understand each individual document type. This opens up new usage scenarios, such as automated document workflows, and creates even more opportunities to connect and work with data in real-time.

Besides, Scanbot highly values the security of its users’ sensitive data. The Scanbot SDK works exclusively with on-device intelligence, which keeps documents safe from any external or man-in-the-middle attacks. No data is ever stored on Scanbot’s server or any other third-party server – this satisfies the highest data protection standards.

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Talk to one of our solutions experts to discover how we can solve your mobile data capture requirements.