Separate offerings in load-matching have been announced by DAT Services and Prophesy Software.

DAT Services of Beaverton, OR, the nation's leading load-matching service, has introduced a new load-matching service called DAT Partners, which will employ a VPN (virtual private network) to provide client specific load information much more quickly than otherwise possible.
According to DAT marketing VP Ross Summers, DAT Partners will be delivered directly to client computer screens and will be updated as soon as loads or equipment become available. The VPN delivery system employs the Internet, but only in part, Summers explained.
Through a DAT-supplied telephone line, each client is connected directly an Internet POP (point of presence) and all information is kept secure at every step of the transmission process. The main advantage of DAT Partners, said Summers, is speed.
DAT Partners will cost $80 a month, including the phone connection to the client's modem. However it does not include the actual load-matching service. DAT provides a number of packages depending on client needs. Total cost of the new, speedy notification service will depend on the package selected.
Meanwhile, Prophesy Transportation Software, Bloomfield, CT, introduced a new version of its Prophesy Dispatch & Accounting software that integrates load-matching capability.
According to company president and CEO Edward J. Forman, Prophesy clients will be able to access load-matching directly on their primary computer screens, within their day-to-day operating software. The updated Prophesy software will integrate load-matching information from the services to which the customer subscribes. Forman cited DAT Services as one example.
Customers can use their Prophesy software to add a new level of sifting information to any load-matching service, eliminating certain carriers or brokers by location or other criteria, for example, or selecting preferred partners on the same type of criteria. The software can also deal with information from more than one source, he said.
Forman said the new Prophesy benefit will eliminate the need for dispatchers, for example, to read through pages of available loads or go to a separate computer to scroll through loads.