A new level of competition has emerged in the burgeoning business of truckload paperwork imaging and delivery.

Comdata Corp., Brentwood, Tenn., and Pegasus TransTech, Tampa, Fla., have announced they will offer Transflo Express Scanning Services at truckstop fuel desks. With the swipe of a Comdata fuel card, drivers will be able to have papers scanned and the images made available to headquarters electronically.
According to Pegasus Chairman Bob Helms, the process will advance the billing cycle and carrier cash flow by at least one day and possibly as many as five.
Comdata initially will offer the new service at some 750 of the 2,500 truckstops currently using Comdata's Trendar point-of-sale systems and its existing communication network. Trained truckstop cashiers will scan the trip documents. The images will be transmitted to Pegasus data centers, where they will be immediately available for electronic retrieval, billing and driver settlements.
Fleets with existing imaging systems may import the documents directly into their imaging and workflow systems. Others can store documents on Pegasus servers, a service Pegasus calls its ASP (Application Service Provider) Image Warehouse.
Helms said new scanning technology allows a scan in 3 seconds. An entire transaction will take less than 1 minute and will not cause backups at fuel desks, he said.
To use the new service, participating fleets will sign an authorization agreement, Helms said. Initially at least, drivers will need to swipe a Comdata card, but the service will be billed to the carrier.
Transflo Express also provides carriers with a document backup other services don't, Helms said. The driver will retain all original copies; they will not be handled by the postal service or other outside delivery companies, he explained.
According to the Comdata/Pegasus announcement, the new service will compete with "the current process of using terminal drops or overnight delivery services." That appears to describe the services of TMI, also of Brentwood, Tenn.
One such service, called TripPak Express, picks up truckload paperwork at truckstop drop boxes and delivers them to carrier home offices. TripPak Express can also deliver to a second TMI service called TripPak Online, which scans and stores the documents. Carriers receive electronic copies for processing.
TMI counts truckload giants Swift Transportation and MS Carriers among its customers and recently announced a number of new truckload accounts.
The agreement between Comdata and Pegasus comes less than two months after Helms was named Pegasus Chairman. Helms came to the job from TruckersB2B, which he had headed for one year. Before that, Helms was President of Transcommunications Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn., where he helped launch CabCard products for drivers, including in-cab driver e-mail for fleets equipped with Qualcomm satellite communications. Helms worked for Qualcomm earlier in his career.