FAQs: Answers to All Your Questions About DDC Sync

Motor carriers are constantly seeking ways to boost efficiency. DDC Sync connects every segment of freight operations, enabling motor carriers to streamline cross-dock operations, reduce human error, accelerate cash flow, cut hours from their linehaul, increase driver retention, and grow margins.

What does DDC Sync do?

DDC Sync enables carriers to become more efficient while increasing internal and external transparency. As an app-based solution, DDC Sync transmits bills of lading (BOL) data in near time, providing carriers with critical information in a time-sensitive manner. Carriers can now achieve more effective load and route planning and cut costs on the road, all while building a close-knit driver community.

What are the advantages of DDC Sync?

One of the most loved benefits of DDC Sync among motor carriers is that it allows clients to obtain critical data instantly. On average, freight document data is received and ready to use approximately six hours quicker with DDC Sync than traditional capture methods. By gaining back six hours of work time, carriers can optimize load planning, proactively plan warehouses, and prevent unnecessary labor costs.  

To promote effective driver utilization and adoption, we provide a daily feedback loop service that enables carrier management to monitor driver performance. This helps prevent bad habits, ensures high image quality, reduces image rejection, and saves time. Additionally, our intuitive user interface and portal data visualization dashboards have received overwhelmingly positive feedback for their ease of use.

Is DDC Sync limited to the shipping and logistics industries?

There is no limit to where DDC Sync can be used. It can benefit a range of different industries. The current version of DDC Sync focuses on capturing freight data, but the technology can work with any document type.

Can DDC Sync be tailored to the needs of each client?

Yes, DDC Sync can be tailored to a client's specific needs. It can operate as a standalone application, and its features are a la carte, meaning you can mix and match the feature sets to tailor the solution to your requirements. With DDC Sync, we can seamlessly integrate with existing systems that allow the ability to automatically switch from existing dispatch systems or to provide each feature as a dev kit that could be natively embedded into existing applications.

My company already uses another driver app. Why should we use DDC Sync?

On average, across carriers who already use other apps in-cab, DDC Sync provides a six-hour gain in visibility and access to freight data per shipment. This is due to the data being captured, processed, and immediately transferred to the DDC Sync portal for leadership, operations management, and terminal administrative staff use. 

Additionally, the image quality and user interface of DDC Sync have been compared against other freight document capture apps in the market. Per feedback by leading motor carriers, these aspects, among others of DDC Sync, have greatly surpassed the performance of other apps. The two main differentiators are the quality of the DDC Sync capture technology and the low rejection rate. 

The "rejection rate" refers to images that drivers submit that cannot be processed by back office staff. The low rejection rate is achieved with a visual check for the driver to confirm image quality combined with an OCR engine embedded in the application, which ensures in real-time (without cell signal) that the characters in the bill are legible.

How does a driver use DDC Sync to scan a freight document? 

Our innovative capture technology and intuitive mobile app make capturing freight document data easy.  DDC Sync does not allow the user to capture an image by pressing a button. Instead, the driver will snap a photo of the freight document by aligning it with the augmented reality border on the capture page. The app is intuitive as it will teach the drivers to take a consistently good quality image by snapping a photo when it is ready and only once the borders align. The image is then cropped, de-skewed, and rotated. The driver can visually check the image before submission and make changes if required. Finally, the image is put through the local OCR tool to ensure the characters are legible, and this is checked against a set competency score, which will reject the image and make the driver re-take it if it falls below this threshold.

What are the minimum specifications for acceptable use of DDC Sync?

• Operating System: Android Only
• Version: Android 11 operating system or above
• Camera: 12MP recommended
• Camera Requirements: Dual pixel PDAF
• RAM: 4GB or above
• Storage: 64GB or above
• Security and OS Updates: Minimum Android 4.4.4 recommended 6.0.1
• Processors: Intel Atom® Processor Z2520 1.2 GHz, or faster processor
• Memory and Storage: Minimum of 512 MB, 2 GB is recommended, with a minimum of 1GB of storage
• Camera: Minimum 12.2 MP, recommended dual-pixel, auto-focus with dual-pixel phase detection &  optical + electronic image stabilization
• Wireless and Location (Optional): Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, Bluetooth® 5.0 + LE,  A2DP (HD codecs: AptX, AptX HD, LDAC, AAC) 7, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou

Why is DDC Sync only compatible with Android devices? 

DDC Sync was initially launched in the LTL trucking vertical. Based on our extensive experience and knowledge, Android was the primary device used within this sector. In addition, each feature set is also available as development tool kits that could be embedded in existing applications. We offer these in two options, Java and Java React, depending on software and hardware requirements. 

What happens if a driver has poor cellular reception?

DDC Sync will automatically attempt to resubmit the scanned freight document once cellular reception improves. Until a scanned document has been successfully submitted, it is listed as "Pending." There is nothing else a driver needs to do in this situation. 

Why does DDC Sync not work while a driver is actively driving?

DDC Sync is restricted when a truck is in motion for safety reasons. If a driver tries to use DDC Sync when in motion, they will receive a message encouraging them to try again once the truck is stopped. 

What is the daily feedback loop feature? 

The Daily Feedback Loop is a complimentary feature for the first three months of any DDC Sync roll-out.  Each morning, the DDC back-office team generates a report detailing the previous day’s driver performance using DDC Sync. This report highlights image rejections, enabling managers to promptly pinpoint issues and address them with drivers.  By receiving these reports early in the morning, carrier management and/or dispatchers can engage with drivers about any concerns before they begin scanning freight documents via DDC Sync for the day.

What is the DDC Sync portal?

The portal is an integral part of DDC Sync. It gives terminal staff and senior management access to an overview of their driver's location, automated reports, images of freight documents, and other visualized data reports that can be used to plan more efficiently and effectively.