How do you do transflow straight from the truck?!?
You need a scanner that is connected to your computer, the "Transflo NOW!" scanning software (it's the same software the truck stops have), and Internet access.
My co-driver told me it had to be transflowed.
Well, Transflo or Trip Pack scanned, either one will work. I so rarely scan at a truck stop anymore that I've forgotten which ones have which, but I think the TA's all have Trip Pack and most of the others do Transflo. At most TA's and most Petro's, the scanner is sitting out where you do the scanning yourself. At the Pilots, Loves and most others you just hand the clerk the paperwork and they do it.
Flying J had Trip Pack, but it's not the type that we use, so you can't scan at the J's, except for the handful of independent "associates" where they not only do the scanning, but also take Comdata cards. The one in Williams, IA is like that.
I told him once when i first started that I thought it could be faxed to a number somewhere, and didn't have to be transflowed, but he says it must be transflowed. We've driven 100 miles at times just to transflow something.
When they started doing this at Panther, you could fax or e-mail the paperwork directly to Panther (settlements@), but that's no longer really an option far as I know. I seem to recall them saying that all scanning must be done at the truck stops on in-cab now. If you do by e-mailing it to them, they still have to print it out and then manually scan it into the Transflo or Trip Pack system, when they get around to it, and when that happens you are putting your paperwork (and thus your pay) in the hands of Panther office personnel with better things to do. Don't do it.
(Hey, I jut found the PRO Cover Scanning Sheet on the Driver Web, buried deep in the old messages from 05/16/07, but it's just a plain scan, not the e-fillable form that you now have. They should move that thing to the Forms sections of the References page instead of leaving it buried amongst old messages.)
Can you just fax it? or scan it to a computer and email it? If so, what's the scoop on how do you do that?
On the Driver Web,
Reference section, under the Document subsection, at the top there is a Misc, where you will find the "In-Cab Transflo Scanning Documents" from 7/28/08. In that message is a link to the PDF file for the installation and operating instruction for the Scanflo software.
Download the software (3.83MB) from here:
https://transflonow.pegasustranstech.com/install/transflonowsetup.exe
Works only with Windows 2000 and XP with the latest Service Packs, and with Vista.
Install it, go through the setup. It's pretty straightforward, but the instructions from the
Reference will walk you through it.
When you first install it you need to "register" it by filling in the Fleet ID (which is PTWT) and your e-mail address so it can send you notifications of when the scanned "batch" has been processed into the system.
When you "Select Scanner" it's best to use the WIA option rather than the TWAIN option if you are given a choice. If you have a document that's very light and won't scan properly, you can go to the "Select Scanner" option and check the box to use the scanners own interface so that you can change the light/dark of the scanning process. That comes in handy when scanning a pink copy that always comes out way too dark and smudged, as well as for the 4th copies of way too light dot matrix printed BOL's and stuff.
I have a cheap but pretty decent all-in-one printer/scanner/copier in the truck (HP Photosmart C5180). It's excellent for scanning the paperwork, and for printing out the things I need as I need them rather than messing with a snotload of coversheet, PARS, ViaSafe, whatever. It's also good for scanning in receipts.
I've had it happen twice now where I've been loaded with questionable freight, possibly damaged, and I've taken a picture of it, transferred the memory card from the camera to the computer and printed the photo out right there for the shipper and/or cons to have a copy.
There have been several times when I'm at a delivery and an extra copy of something is needed, and either the walk for them is too far to the office, or the office is closed and there's no copier avalable, so I hop in the truck, place it on the scanning bed, do a one-button copy and within seconds a copy gets printed out.
