CINCINNATI -- Qualcomm and CAMS Software announced Sunday that the two companies are integrating data from Qualcomm's on-board systems into CAMS' outbound and backhaul-management systems for private fleets.
CAMS is a leading provider of back-office transportation management systems to the grocery and retail distribution market.

At the National Private Truck Council meeting here, Norm Ellis, vice president of sales, services and marketing of Qualcomm Enterprise Services, explained that unlike the macros that drivers using previous generations of Qualcomm technology have used, this system automates many tasks -- and sends data back to the home office that will make it easier for fleets to optimize their operations.

Rather than relying on drivers to write reports and back-office personnel to manually key in the information, combining trip and resource information eliminates these tasks and enables fleet managers to better allocate resources, enable more profitable backhaul operations and more accurately track driver actions for activity-based pay.

The inclusion of Qualcomm's Circle of Service Workflow information automates functions, such as load assignments, event triggers and work process forms, helping to lower operational costs, reduce errors made by manual entry and improve on-time fulfillment across entire fleets. Information from Circle of Service Workflow feeds into CAMS' transportation management system to enable improved operations, such as salvage consolidation, and asset utilization, which allows fleets to consolidate store returns on a single trailer serving a geographic area, freeing other trailers for for-profit backhaul operations, thus, yielding a higher potential profit.

In addition, integrating workflow information with CAMS software systems enables fleet managers to track delivery and recovery of reusable items, such as totes and pallets, by store location. For example, a customer using the integrated system could now use verifiable data to track missing, reusable items back to specific stores, which could greatly improve recovery rates and have a significant effect on costs.

"This kind of seamless integration, which delivers actionable information in a timely manner, signals new possibilities for private fleets as it enables customers to compound the value of their technology investments," Ellis said.

www.qualcomm.com/qes