CloudTrade Steps Into Freight Invoicing Market

Electronic invoicing and data capture company CloudTrade is rolling out a new solution designed for the logistics and freight industry, the company revealed this week.

In an announcement on Thursday (Feb. 14), CloudTrade said it is launching CloudTrade Logistics, which integrates invoice processing and digital data exchange for industry players that include third-party logistics companies, business process outsourcing firms and freight payment providers.

“CloudTrade‘s patent-protected software uses unique, rules-based technology, with backward tracking search, to interpret, validate and extrapolate semantic meaning from complex documents, of any type,” explained CloudTrade Logistics Vice President Roger Hatfield in a statement. “So, whether it’s freight invoices, sales and purchase orders or advanced shipping notices, CloudTrade processes them automatically. Any of these documents can be used to integrate key supply chain data for improved landed costs analysis and reporting analytics.”

Hatfield added that the solution leverages companies’ existing back-office technologies, allowing buyers or receivers to get freight invoices in their preferred format. The CloudTrade platform automatically extracts the necessary data and integrates the information into an existing transportation management system, payment platform and other back-office portals.

Invoices are tax- and VAT-compliant, the company noted.

“Due to the nature of machine-generated PDFs, a format that almost all supplier systems can produce, freight invoices in the PDF format can easily be mapped into a KML or EDI file, ensuring accuracy of the data,” explained Logistics Alliance Network President Cecil Bryan in another statement. “With this approach and CloudTrade’s patented technology, a carrier no longer has any barriers to sending digital data, which means the onboarding process is very quick and efficient.”

The freight market is being targeted by technology innovators looking to address a range of friction points associated with the complex, fragmented nature of the industry.

Earlier this year, Uber Freight rolled out a way for truckers and carriers to rate cargo facilities to boost transparency and help truckers choose which loads they transport.