Sylectus to Focus Software on Flatbed Shippers’ Needs

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Transportation software company Sylectus, which primarily serves the expedited and truckload markets, said it is turning its attention to the flatbed sector.

Sylectus is changing its focus because its trucking customers are getting requests from shippers, Sylectus President Stuart Sutton said at the company’s annual conference here earlier this month.

Sutton said adding flatbed haulers to the mix in the near future will diversify the company’s network, called the Sylectus Alliance.

Sylectus, whose U.S. headquarters are in Woodhaven, Mich., operated stand-alone for nine years until Qualcomm Enterprise Services purchased the company last year. The acquisition blended Sylectus software with the hardware wireless and in-cab transportation products of QES.

The network allows trucking companies to connect with each other online to “virtually” offer additional trucks. This connection creates an online load board, ideal for generating backhauls or business in little-used lanes, Sutton said.

Load boards have proliferated in recent years, such as those offered by Transcore Freight Solutions and others. But Sylectus’ product is more than a load board, said T.J. Totaj, president of T&T Express Inc., a Romulus, Mich., express carrier.

It’s geared toward only trucking companies, not shippers or brokers, and its main aim is to encourage carriers to use each other’s equipment in a partnership, Totaj said. “Competition will always be there, but we have to work together. This program puts the trust back in people and opens up a lot of doors.”

Sutton said that, over the past year, the Sylectus Alliance has grown to 4,480 trucks from about 3,540. It started about 10 years ago with only nine carriers in the expedited market, Sutton said.

The alliance works because truckers are willing to work with their rivals, and they don’t fear a loss of business, he said.

“You don’t want to use your competitor, but you have to service your customer, especially in expedited. We’re the last call before you’re putting a plane in the air,” said John Elliott II, president of Taylor, Mich., expedited carrier Load One LLC, who attended the conference.

Dan Boaz, president of AirFreight.com, an expedited truck carrier based in Charlotte, N.C., said that since joining the Sylectus Alliance 18 months ago, his business, which used to be 80% air freight and 20% ground, has flipped.

“All of a sudden, we had all this available real-time capacity,” he said.

He explained that, instead of flying freight east of the Rockies, AirFreight.com uses its partner carriers and driver teams deliver the freight on par with planes.

“If you’re getting the call early in the morning, the trucks start rolling then, while flights don’t take off until night,” he said.

He said the alliance fit the expedited market well because it added capacity. This capacity was needed in October 2007, he said, when air cargo transporter Kitty Hawk Inc. went out of business.

Sylectus notched its first Mexican truck carriers in late 2011, allowing the virtual fleet to stretch across North America.

“You can now broker a load from somebody in Mexico, and you can track that truck in real time anywhere across North America,” Sutton said. Shippers do not have access to any data.

To join Sylectus, a carrier must have between five and 400 trucks. The company said it turns away applicants for various reasons. For example, independent drivers who quit companies are prohibited from joining for six months, said John Dobrowolsky, Sylectus’ director of business growth.