ORLANDO -- Omnitracs is making it easier to add temporary capacity to your fleet with its new Virtual Load View application.

Introduced during the American Trucking Associations' annual Management Conference and Exhibition, Virtual Load View delivers position and message data from authorized Omnitracs Mobile Computing Platform-equipped vehicles to approved third parties. This offers better visibility into vehicles’ arrivals, departures and load status.

Designed to help fleets and third-party logistics providers, Virtual Load View delivers one consolidated view of a fleet’s proprietary, brokered or subcontracted loads, eliminating the need to call contracted or third-party drivers regarding load status and location. 

“Today, more and more fleets are looking to increase capacity without purchasing additional vehicles and hiring more drivers," said Vikas Jain, vice president of product management and Software-as-a-Service at Omnitracs. "Rather than turn away good business, many have created a brokering business for freight, but have found it presents new management challenges."

As Norm Ellis, vice president of transportation and logistics sales, services and marketing, explained in an interview at the Omnitracs booth in Orlando, "Any MCP product on a truck can be added on an ad hoc basis."

For instance, he said, say you have 100 trucks but 105 loads. Instead of turning down those five loads, you contract with a small fleet or owner-operator. Virtual Load View allows you to track that load as if it were on one of your own trucks -- but as soon as the load is delivered, the added truck is disconnected.

Virtual Load View automatically updates positions, load status, and delivery confirmations in real real time. By integrating this automated data into back-office systems, fleets can make more timely decisions and reduce time and resources spent manually recording position, status and message information. The application also compares actual versus planned routes, stops and load activity duration to allow fleets to further evaluate performance and enforce consistent high-quality delivery standards.

Virtual Load View will be available for purchase in Fall 2013. 

As announced on Aug. 23, 2013, a definitive agreement was entered into to sell Omnitracs to Vista Equity Partners, a U.S. based private equity firm. Closing of the acquisition is expected during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, subject to the terms and conditions of the definitive agreement.