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Since its launch on June 20, 2014, Transflo Mobile+ has simplified the lives of millions of professional truck drivers by putting all their essential on-the-road tasks into a single, easy-to-use application. From document scanning and Hours of Service to navigation, load management, and more, Transflo Mobile+ has helped keep drivers safe by reducing app switching and keeping focus where it belongs: on the road.
Depending on your perspective, 10 years – an entire decade – can be a really, really long time. In the tech space, however, entire industries are born and collapse in even less time.
For apps and services to stand the test of time, they need to solve real problems in the marketplace, be laser-focused on the user, and constantly be innovating to stay competitive. With Transflo Mobile+ marking its 10-year anniversary in the supply chain mobile technology space, it’s safe to say the odds have been beaten.
Since its launch on June 20, 2014, Transflo Mobile+ has simplified the lives of millions of professional truck drivers by putting all their essential on-the-road tasks into a single, easy-to-use application. From document scanning and Hours of Service to navigation, load management, and more, Transflo Mobile+ has helped keep drivers safe by reducing app switching and keeping focus where it belongs: on the road.
With over 3.2 million downloads across the iOS and Android app stores, Transflo Mobile+ has proven to be a timesaving and profit-driving asset, both in and out of the cab, for thousands of carriers across North America. Mobile+ has been a driving contributor to annual Transflo averages of nearly 1 billion scanned documents, 65 million+ loads processed, and well over $100 billion in freight spend.
To celebrate 10 years of in-cab transportation innovation, let’s dive into the history of Transflo Mobile+, explore origins, major milestones, and where the app is going in its second decade.
In 1991, Transflo entered the transportation technology space as Pegasus Imaging (later: Pegasus TransTech) with a focus on document management systems and truck stop document scanning solutions. While it would take another six years for the Transflo brand to be introduced, that delay was practically nothing for an industry chronically stuck on an endless supply of paper, manually processing every analog page and task.
Modern (and mobile) computing, full digitization, and advanced processing technology would come to most of the transportation industry later than other sectors of the economy. To help with that initial wave of supply chain modernization, Transflo Mobile was launched in 2011 as a scanning application, dedicated solely to capturing trip documents.
In 2014, after developing the app further and acquiring document shipping and scanning service TripPak, Transflo Mobile rebranded to Transflo Mobile+ to better reflect its burgeoning additional capabilities.
In 2014, after incremental app developments, and the acquisition of TripPak, Transflo Mobile finally earned its “+” badge. Transflo Mobile+ was born, and this new branding better reflected its growing capabilities and marketplace value as the everything app for truck drivers.
Between bill of ladings, proof of deliveries, invoices, and fuel and toll receipts – the trucking industry is so paper-dependent, it’s no wonder it was slow to adopt new technologies. With a critical focus on document scanning, Transflo Mobile+ carved out a clear path of innovation by solving a specific problem for drivers and carriers: document digitization.
Before the widespread adoption of smartphones, clunky and expensive in-cab computer systems were used for dispatch and communications with carriers. Transflo Mobile+ consolidated two-way communications, load workflows, and document scanning and processing all into a single app on a single device. This modernization of communication standards delivered dramatic efficiency gains to carriers and brokers. Drivers were able to spend less time processing paperwork and more time with their families.
“Communication is communication, whether it’s on a $3,000 in-cab computer, or whether it’s on a phone, and we knew it was inevitable that we were going to strip the utility out of the in-cab unit related to communication and put it on the phone,” said Frank Adelman, Transflo CEO and President from 2013 to 2022. “The economics just weren’t even close.”
Transflo Mobile+ saw its first major update in October 2014, rolling out safety tools, enhanced communication features, and improved load management capabilities. By the time Mobile+ turned a year old, it had already reached version 1.5, boasting fully customizable workflows, improved messaging, and carrier-specific communications.
In its early years (as it is today), Transflo Mobile+ was a powerful app that helped millions of drivers and carriers streamline and simplify day-to-day workflows, but it truly became a one-stop shop for professional truck drivers when it integrated essential telematics and other critical services used across the industry.
A crucial date in this process was Sept. 29, 2016, when Transflo entered the telematics market more than a year in advance of the electronic logging device (ELD) government mandate in December 2017. This telematics solution integrated directly inside Transflo Mobile+, meaning that drivers could easily log hours without switching apps or distracted driving. With the new ELD hardware paired with Transflo Mobile+, fleet managers could gain insights on truck maintenance, driving behavior, location status, and more.
In March 2018, Transflo announced Mobile+ integration with Drivewyze, enabling drivers to bypass hundreds of weigh stations across North America and receive vital in-cab safety alerts. By this time, Mobile+ had surpassed 1 million downloads across iOS and Android app stores. Also in 2018, Transflo announced a partnership with CoPilot Truck, integrating truck-friendly routing, navigation, scheduling, and loads compatibility.
Although users didn’t know it at the time, 2018 was a massive year for Transflo Mobile+ behind the scenes. Despite a significant user base, the app was still missing out on a majority of the 4.1 million professional truck drivers in North America. That year, a UI designer – and Transflo’s current Director of Product Experience, John Karl – was brought onboard to to redesign Transflo Mobile+.
“It took about three months to completely redesign Mobile+, from the top down. I did a small amount of competitive analysis with existing apps, but it was important to me that I approached the project with fresh eyes,” said Karl.
In those three months, Karl developed five different prototypes to present to the executive team in the first half of 2018. When walking the executives through his designs, Karl got only as far as the second concept before the company had found the new look – and guiding philosophy – for the future of Transflo Mobile+. Not long after, the company ran an ad in Transport Topics to showcase the new prototype – a revolutionary design language complete with the core “dial” elements that exist to this day.
By late 2019, the redesigned Transflo Mobile+ launched, setting the stage for tremendous growth in the following years.
Since the redesign, Transflo Mobile+ has continued to add new features that build on the app’s core philosophy as a “mobile operating system for professional truck drivers.” Recent additions include:
In the coming months and years, the product team behind Transflo Mobile+ will continue to focus on customer input to refine the user experience, enhance functionality, and emphasize user-friendly, “outside the box” design. For more information on how Transflo Mobile+ can streamline and simplify your drivers’ workday, contact us here.
