Trimble acquires shipment-visibility provider 10-4 Systems

Supply chain technology provider Trimble Inc. said today it has acquired the shipment tracking software provider 10-4 Systems Inc., another example of logistics providers investing in load visibility solutions.

Buying 10-4 expands Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble's portfolio of transportation management systems (TMS) products by adding 10-4's cloud-based solution for small carriers to Trimble's catalog of transportation technology for large enterprises, Trimble said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Following the deal, Trimble will add 10-4 to its Transportation Segment, and retain 10-4's current president and CEO, Travis Rhyan, as executive vice president and general manager.

Boulder, Colo.-based 10-4 provides multimodal shipment visibility solutions for shippers, transportation providers, and third-party logistics providers (3PLs). The company's technology provides real-time updates that alert shippers and carriers when their shipments are running late. That information is valuable to shippers and consignees because it provides visibility at the individual shipment level, allowing shippers and carriers to increase efficiency, boost compliance, and reduce transportation costs, Trimble said.

"This acquisition will advance our mission to transform the way the world moves freight by providing innovative transactional, visibility, decision-support and optimization solutions that benefit participants at every level of the supply chain," David W. Wangler, president of Trimble Transportation Enterprise, said in a statement. "With the addition of 10-4 Systems, Trimble will significantly enhance its ability to help the transportation industry optimize demand and capacity management and improve utilization of long-haul trucking assets."

News of the deal follows the acquisition of one of 10-4's rivals in the visibility segment, Cleveland-based MacroPoint LLC, by logistics software provider Descartes Systems Group Inc. for $107 million. That move allowed Descartes to expand its footprint in the fast-growing truckload visibility market by absorbing MacroPoint's business-to-business, location-based truck tracking services, the Canadian company said.

10-4 has grown rapidly since spinning off from its parent company GlobalTranz Enterprises Inc. in 2016. In a few months, the firm landed nearly $14 million in venture funding, named Jack Holmes, the retired former president of UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload (LTL) unit of UPS Inc., to its board, and announced software integrations with high-profile TMS providers such as Oracle Corp. and McLeod Software Corp.