EFA
The group application and vertical specialist for the logistics business: it receives the papers and the numbers of the operation and returns what is missing, what it costs and what the next decision is, with the back-office work done — records, compliance, documentation and reconciliation. It is not a message that answers questions: it is a specialised system, built inside the group, with its own scope and its own written limits.
Five problems of the trade, and what the system does with each one.
These problems are not invented for this page: they are real and they are listed here the way they are suffered, not the way they are sold.
Nobody knows whether the month earned
Load is moved all week and at closing there is no number that says what is left. The system builds the cost per mile, the real income by route, by client and by vehicle, and returns the difference against what was paid.
Papers expire and the file is incomplete
A licence, an insurance, a review or a permit expires and the vehicle stands still or a load cannot be invoiced. The system keeps the calendar with an alert before the due date, not after.
Work done and never charged
Detentions, waiting time, extras and claims that nobody charged because nobody put the file together with evidence. The system builds the file and the calculation of what it is worth in money.
Documentation that holds the payment back
If the proof of delivery or the bill of lading is missing, the invoice stands still. The system reviews the package load by load and says exactly which document is missing before the client has to ask again.
Decisions taken without a number
Taking a load, setting a minimum price, renewing a vehicle or hiring: the day decides by feel. The system puts the number in front of the decision; the decision remains the owner’s.
The one who drives, the one who owns the truck, the one who operates and the one who runs a fleet.
The same system serves the four of them, but it does not speak to them the same way or give them the same number: the driver needs the checklist, the owner needs to know whether the unit earns, the operator needs the back office and the fleet needs the board.
Owner-operator with one truck
The one who drives and also invoices, quotes and sorts out papers. It gives them the back-office work done without hiring anybody and without buying software they do not understand.
Operator with two to five vehicles
They have already grown and the control is still in their head. The system keeps the record per vehicle and per driver and returns the monthly report in one page.
Small fleet, two to twenty vehicles
There is a payroll, insurance, maintenance and compliance to keep. The system organises the whole fleet in one board: what expires, what is pending, what each unit earns and what it costs.
Dispatch and coordination
Whoever assigns the work and chases documentation. The system chases what is missing, builds the route sheets and warns of the delay before the client calls to complain.
Said to your face: there are no active accounts, no loads of our own and no application delivered today. The list above is who the system is designed to serve, not a list of clients.
Papers and numbers, nothing else — and only what the owner hands over.
The system does not spy on anybody and it does not enter anybody’s account: what it receives is what the carrier or the owner authorises in writing, and the file says who authorised what and when.
Papers of the operation
- Rate confirmation, bill of lading and proof of delivery with signature and photograph.
- Invoice of the carrier or of the owner, with its accessories broken down.
- Compliance package of each platform or broker: authority, insurance, tax form and signed agreement.
- Policies and certificates of insurance with their expiry date, and the driver file: licence, background check and driving record of the last twelve months.
Numbers and records
- Loaded miles and empty miles, with the origin and the destination of each trip.
- Fuel, tolls, extras and the receipt of every expense, photographed at the moment it happens.
- Waiting hours, detentions and delays with the place, the hour and the responsible party.
- Income agreed against income paid, and the service board of the contractor: completion, accuracy, punctuality and rating.
- State of each vehicle: mileage, preventive maintenance and the repairs that were made.
What the system does not do with the information: it does not sell it, it does not publish it and it does not show it to a third party. What belongs to the client is shown only to the client.
Seven decisions of the day, with the number in front of each one.
The system prepares the number and the file; the decision and the signature are the owner’s. No program decides any of these, and no program signs anything.
| Is this load worth taking? | The minimum rate with empty miles, fuel, insurance and commission included, so it can be compared against what is being offered before saying yes. |
|---|---|
| Which vehicle goes out? | Availability, pending maintenance and the cost per mile of each unit, so that the cheapest is not always sent and the most expensive is not always left at home. |
| Does this client leave money? | Real income by route, by client and by vehicle, against what was paid, with the difference marked and not hidden in a total. |
| Who gets paid first? | Ageing of balances and the calendar of due dates, with the alert before the date and not the day after. |
| Which document is missing to get paid? | The exact list per load: what already arrived, what is pending and who has to send it. |
| Can the vehicle be renewed or the driver hired? | The complete file of the unit or of the driver, with what is missing, what has expired and what has to be signed — before anyone signs anything. |
| Is that detention claimed? | The file with the evidence, the hour, the place, the cost and what is going to be demanded, ready to be reviewed and signed. |
What makes each of these numbers trustworthy: it is calculated with the formula in sight, with the source and the date, and every measurement can be reviewed line by line. Where a number cannot be built, the system says so instead of filling the gap with an estimate.
Operational, financial and administrative work, separated so that nobody mixes them up.
The system organises the freight business in the three fronts in which it is really organised. Each task carries what it needs to be done and what comes out of it, because a task without a result is not work, it is noise.
Operational work
- Route sheets with windows, buffers and rest stops that comply with the hours of service.
- Tracking of the load and warning of the delay before the client calls to complain, not after.
- Loading checklist and log of every dispatch, with the place, the hour and the person responsible.
- Incidents, detentions and claims, each one with its file, its evidence and the calculation of what it is worth.
Needs from the client: the route data and the documents of each trip.
Financial work
- Cost per mile of each unit, with the formula in sight: fuel, maintenance, insurance, tyres and financing.
- Real income by route, by client and by vehicle, and the difference against what was actually paid.
- Reconciliation of deliveries against payments, with the missing payment marked and prepared to be claimed.
- Book of the freight, ledger of each trip and the closing package with indexed receipts for the accountant.
- Budget, due dates and alert of a negative cash flow before it happens, not when it already happened.
Needs from the client: the bank statement, the expenses and the rate of each load.
Administrative work
- File per driver and per vehicle, with every paper complete, current and dated.
- Compliance matrix for each platform or broker, with the calendar of renewals and the alert before the date.
- Insurance and certificates with their expiry date, and the file of a claim with its evidence.
- Federal registrations, authority status and the papers each platform demands before letting a carrier in.
- Preventive maintenance and the training of the people who drive, with the record of what each one has and what is missing.
Needs from the client: the papers of each vehicle and of each driver, and the requirements of each platform.
Of all this, only one function runs today: market intelligence. Constant evolution.
The phone is the tool of the road: it is where the paper is photographed and the number is seen.
Three taps and a photograph: that is the whole job for the person who is driving. Everything that follows happens without them having to look at a screen again.
What the phone will do
- Photograph the bill of lading and the proof of delivery at the moment of loading and of unloading, and attach them to the load on their own.
- Record fuel, tolls and waiting time with the photograph of the receipt and the place where it happened.
- Receive the warning of a document that is about to expire, with enough time to renew it.
- See the number of the day: loaded miles, empty miles, income per mile and what is still pending.
- Follow the checklist before leaving: load secured, papers in order, hours of service available.
- Answer from the driver’s own language, in short and clear words, without making them read a manual.
Constant evolution.
The first thing that will be built is what saves the most time with the least risk, and that is decided with numbers, not with enthusiasm.
The board of the operation, for the one who has to see the whole picture, not one load.
From the platform the owner or the manager sees, in one screen, what is pending, what is late, what is expiring and what the month is leaving. Everything can be exported, because the file belongs to the owner and not to the system.
What the platform will show
- Board of the operation: loads in progress, loads with a missing document, loads ready to invoice and loads already paid.
- File per load, per vehicle and per driver, with what is complete, what has expired and what is missing, and who is responsible for each thing.
- Compliance matrix for each platform and each broker, with a traffic light of expiries and the list of what has to be renewed.
- Reconciliation and book of the freight, with the difference of every trip marked and prepared to be claimed.
- Reports by period, by client, by vehicle and by driver, and the monthly report of one page that says whether it earned.
- Export with manifest and integrity check, so that the file is delivered whole and it can be proved that it was not altered.
- Record of who did what and when, so that two people working on the same load do not step on each other.
Constant evolution.
What exists today is the knowledge, the method and a published page that answers.
Driver, owner, operator and fleet: four different weeks, one system.
What helps one does not help another. This is what each one receives, said without inventing anything: the driver receives less paperwork, the owner receives the number of his truck, the operator receives the back office and the fleet receives the board.
To the driver
Fewer papers in the cab, nothing forgotten and no surprises: the checklist before leaving, the reminder of the document that expires and the photograph that replaces the folder of envelopes.
To the owner of the truck
The answer to the only question that matters to them: does this truck earn or cost? With the cost per mile in sight, the income really paid and the maintenance that is coming.
To the operator
The back office without hiring anybody: documentation chased, invoices prepared, balances reconciled and the file ready for the accountant and for the platform that asks for it.
To the fleet
One board for all the units: what each one earns, what is expiring, what is in the workshop and which driver is missing which paper. The fleet stops depending on one person’s memory.
Twenty-four functions measured one by one, and only one working.
The system is built to be exacting.
The message that will never be heard from this system: that it dispatches your load. It is not dispatched, no load is moved and no money is moved. What it does is read, calculate, prepare, chase documents, verify and warn.
| Functions of the list | 24 |
|---|---|
| Standing today | 1 |
| Capabilities with proof | 13 |
| Loads moved by the system | 0 |
| Active accounts | 0 |
| Application delivered to a client | 0 |
| Verified price | 0 |
Seven things the system will not say to anybody, not even to sell.
This list is the one that protects the credibility of the work. A system that lies once about what it can do is not worth anything afterwards: the door it closes is the one that matters.
In short: what EFA can do today is read, calculate, prepare, chase documents, verify and warn, without spending a dollar. What it cannot do is anything that depends on an account, an authority, an insurance or a signature — and all of that is the owner’s.
The same thing, said again with its numbers.
Every claim on this page can be verified function by function, and the page also says who answers for each part.
The fiche of the programme
What was actually done, what is missing and who answers, written field by field. Open the fiche
The institution that teaches
The knowledge of freight is part of what the institution of the group teaches about money, business and compliance: what is taught and what is done with it are two different things, and both are written. ASCENDA