BlackBerry announced a strategic partnership with McLeod Software to deliver enterprise software solutions to the transportation and logistics industry.

As part of the agreement, BlackBerry Radar, which provides monitoring and asset tracking for trailers, intermodal containers, chassis, equipment, and railcars will be integrated directly into McLeod's Loadmaster trucking dispatch management system, to support McLeod customers with real-time information on the status of their assets.

According to a statement by Blackberry, the insights provided to customers will improve asset utilization, reduce empty miles, and optimize personnel productivity. Specifically, the solution can reduce wasted time for drivers searching for trailers, and operations personnel doing manual yard checks. The integration also introduces notifications when trailers become loaded or empty, or if the trailer doors are opened in unauthorized locations.

"McLeod is pleased to welcome BlackBerry Radar to our certified integration partner network utilizing our latest Mobile Communications API platform," said Ahmed Ebrahim, VP Partner Alliances at McLeod Software in the statement. "Integrated BlackBerry data will enable our customers to be better at load planning, and enable operations teams to see their trailer status and location while they are booking load assignments, all directly within the McLeod platform."

"The real time insights that we get from the custom reports and dashboard that BlackBerry Radar provides have considerably improved our preventative maintenance intervals, load visibility, asset utilization, and customer service," added Brad Durham, director of maintenance at Swing Transport. "Feedback from the team on the McLeod Software integration has been equally positive with our operations team no longer having to jump back and forth between systems, especially when things are busy. We're confident that we'll see additional efficiencies as we continue to make improvements to our overall technological infrastructure."

BlackBerry Radar is an asset monitoring solution for trailers, chassis, and containers that provides near real-time information around location, cargo status, trip events, mileage, and door open/close status through an on-line dashboard. Data is transmitted and stored securely on a cloud platform.