Here at Truckcom we pride ourselves on simple elegant solutions to problems.

Today the light coming through the skylight was too bright for Rob!!!

Truckcom have had a close advertising relationship with Truck and Track magazine and their editor Barbara Ryan for several years now and this year we again placed an advert on her stand at the Multi-modal show. We again used our Seven Lincs “poster boys” on an eye-catching panel right in the middle of the stand. We were happy to attend on the Wednesday and to meet several of our customers there for a chat and hopefully to attract some new customers too.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our dynamic team using a range of leading edge technologies including:

• .NET Framework, C#, VB .NET, ASP .NET
• WPF, WCF and Silverlight
• Mobile App development (Android, IOS and Windows Phone)
• MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server Database Systems

We are also looking for the following qualities:

• Good communication skills and the ability to work as part of a team and deal with customer queries and technical sales and support
• The initiative and the confidence to tackle problems on your own

We’re interested in graduates with a 2.1 or 1st class degree in computer science or a comparable engineering or scientific qualification. They will have a knowledge of at least one of the technologies above, but most importantly a passion for programming and a willingness to learn new skills. At least a year’s experience in a commercial environment is preferred but proficient graduates would be considered. The role will be as part of a small and enthusiastic development team working on mobile and office applications.

Truckcom is a highly innovative company that has now been trading for more than 10 years and is growing rapidly. We provide a powerful HGV fleet management system based on smartphones and we pride ourselves on the continually evolving nature of Truckcom and the quality of service that we provide to our customers.

Our employee benefits include 28 days holiday + bank holidays, generous contributory pension scheme, employee health insurance and free parking. We pride ourselves on the friendly and supportive nature of our work environment.

The role will be based near Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, 5 minutes from the M11 and 10 minutes from Stansted Airport and fast rail links to London. Own transport is essential due to our location.

The Salary for this post will be £25K – £45K depending on qualifications and experience.  If you are interested in this position or know anyone who is please contact us.

Recently we’ve made an improvement to Truckcom that helps operators to track individual items of a consignment from collection through to delivery.

The labels which can be printed directly from TruckcomST now include QR codes, and Truckcom mobile now allows drivers to scan these codes, at collection and delivery. The driver can’t complete the collection or delivery until they’ve scanned all the items, which gives you the assurance that all items were collected and delivered.

In Truckcom mobile, the way the driver does this is using a new option named “Labels” in the POD menu (see below).  Using this option, before completing the collection or delivery, the driver can scan QR codes from each label in the consignment using Truckcom Mobile.  We have kept the process simple, focusing on creating a fast and efficient way to further track items.

The image below shows the complete process within Truckcom Mobile

To generate the labels, TruckcomST users simply right click on a Job and select “Print Labels”. It’s as easy as that.

Below are examples of the labels that are generated in TruckcomST.

For any questions or more information please feel free to contact Truckcom support on 0800 644 4821.

One of our larger customers, the Green Group, has achieved a unique position among all of our users. One of its Directors, Nick Hoyes, in the picture, easily breaks all previous records for the largest ever screen that has been used to plan vehicles in Truckcom!

The Green Group is a large operation, more than 100 vehicles, so as you can imagine the planning process is a major task. Before he used Truckcom, Nick used to use a large spreadsheet for his planning. This was the only approach that would work, back then, with the scale and pace of the Green Group’s planning challenge. When the company became interested in Truckcom, Nick threw down the gauntlet: Can Truckcom provide a planning facility that can replace his spreadsheet?  It needed not to just meet Nick’s requirements, but also directly connect him with all the other activities the company does – for instance pricing and invoicing, and also of course also the link with our smartphone app.

Now Nick’s planning screen, which is a new screen layout in Truckcom that we developed in careful consultation with him, sits right in the middle of all of these activities. We’re very grateful to Nick for breaking records in the Truckcom world – and we wish the Green Group the very best as they continue their expansion.

Simarco are an award-winning distribution company who provide a range of Logistic services in mainland UK and Europe. Set up in 1997 they have 250 employees and 70 vehicles in the UK with three hubs in Witham, Stoke and Burton Upon Trent.

Prior to using Truckcom Simarco had been using a PDA based system. “The old system was cumbersome and confusing for the drivers to use” says Nina Hart, Simarco’s Transport Director. “We knew we needed to upgrade to a more modern system and we were immediately impressed with Truckcom’s Smartphone based solution”.

Simarco evaluated Truckcom during a free trial period, and found that drivers far preferred the Smartphone based approach. “Internally there was a concern about how the drivers would adapt to the new software however they all have their own smartphones so the transition for them was very quick and easy” says Nina.

Knowing that Truckcom was well established with other companies helped their decision. “The fact that Truckcom is a mature system rather than something new on the market was a big tick for us”.

Nina goes on to say “Vehicle checks are an added benefit. They save admin time and were not available on the old system. Another saving is the tracking, which is available via the Truckcom App and replaces the older kit that is at the end of its contract. Truckcom is an efficient one stop shop that enables us to make the operation run as efficiently as possible”.

Simarco have already rolled out Truckcom at their Witham site and are about to start introducing it in Stoke. The hope is to eventually make use of Truckcom’s multi language facility when rolling out the system in Europe. As this work is carried out via single haulier trailer deliveries as opposed to using agents Truckcom will help them with job planning and sending work to drivers delivering part loads.

Nina has been very pleased with the implementation of Truckcom so far. She says “The fact that with Truckcom you deal with a technical decision maker throughout has been a big plus. You know you will get what you ask for, which makes the whole process a lot smoother”.

We’d like to offer all of our customers our very best wishes over the Christmas holidays.

Our offices will be closed from 16:00 on Friday 23^rd December until 08:00 on Tuesday 3^rd January 2016.

We will be providing emergency daytime support cover during this period via an engineer on call arrangement. Please note that support will only be available for a technical emergency which is stopping several users from using Truckcom. If you encounter such an emergency during this period, please call +44 7989 449085 for assistance.

Well – it’s finally happened.

BlackBerry announces it will make no more new phones

This means that now, pretty much every single smartphone on the market – anything running Android (Samsung, HTC, Sony etc.), any iPhone, and any Nokia/Microsoft Lumia, will all run Truckcom mobile.

I’m amazed BlackBerry hung on as long as it did. The writing has been on the wall for some years now. Good news for the rest of the industry, though – it means we can now consolidate on the popular platforms. And in an age where increasingly, a smartphone the driver already has will be the one they use for Truckcom, this consolidation is really helpful for us.

We’re delighted to welcome Seven Lincs to our customer community.

Seven Lincs Limited was formed in 2005 to provide a comprehensive range of container transport and logistics services to the ever growing supply chain industry. The business has enjoyed continued growth since its inception and following the acquisition of H J Calver in 2006 it now runs over 150 dedicated vehicles covering all areas of the UK with an annual turnover of £20 million.

With its head office located in a prime location on the Port of Felixstowe, Seven Lincs also have vehicles based in Kettering, London, the North East, North West, Southampton, and the Midlands, ensuring a substantial representation at all major UK ports. The company also has relationships with a number of leading rail operators, allowing it to offer rail space to help maximise utilisation and cost efficiency.

Seven Lincs adopted Truckcom in June 2016. Tom Dunnett, General Manager, says “We inherited the TOPS system which had been used for the last 10 years. With the direction that our business and the container industry in general were taking change was needed in order to drive the business forward. We needed a more upmarket system which could cope with the day to day running of our business. We chose Truckcom because of its user friendly nature and for its flexibility in enabling us to get exactly what we wanted in order to firstly cope with customer demand and secondly streamline our operation”

Tom continues: “With Truckcom, Seven Lincs has moved into a paperless era where defects, PODs and Timesheets are now collated directly into our system without the need to manually scan them in. Truckcom is an indispensable part of our business now and the transition from our old system was seamless. Our customers have also enjoyed our decision to change as the driver is connected directly to the customer in terms of vehicle tracking and live updates, and POD’s are made available minutes after the driver has completed his delivery or collection. The drivers have all praised the system due to the easy-to-use Truckcom app and the removal of Timesheets, Defect Books, and delivery notes – all the information given to us via the customer is transmitted directly into the palm of the driver’s hand.”

Read more of our case studies here

Truckcom has taken on several large new customers recently and in order to maintain the level of service that our users have come to expect of us we have taken on two new developers to join our team. Adam Conroy joined us in April and Rob Francis in August. Both are highly qualified technically but also really friendly and happy to help with all your queries.

Both are enjoying the variety of work that that Truckcom offers and are already making important contributions to the quality of our product and level of customer service that we pride ourselves on here at Truckcom.

“As a mobile developer here, I am presented with a range of different challenges on a daily basis, which I enjoy, and I get a great sense of achievement when overcoming them. I am continually learning new things that not only keep the job interesting, but helps to further broaden my knowledge”

Rob Francis

“Having regular contact with users – responding to fix issues or to implement requests and suggestions – gives me a sense of engagement in the service we provide that is very satisfying and means the work is fast paced and interesting”

Adam Conroy