Transportation payment platforms advance in 2022 with new tech, funding

Transportation payment platform provider Comdata Inc. today launched a system to digitize and automate payment receipts for lumpers, the freight handlers who unload trailers for truck drivers.

According to Comdata, its new lumper payment tool streamlines a time-consuming manual process that has frustrated fleets, drivers, merchants, and shippers for decades by enabling warehouse locations now to digitally accept any of Comdata’s payment methods, without driver interaction. Brentwood, Tennessee-based Comdata is a unit of Atlanta-based Fleetcor Technologies, a business payments company.

The platform is the latest advance in a string of new financial products developed for logistics applications, following the Minneapolis-based workforce payments platform Branch, which March 9 announced it had raised $75 million in a “series C” venture capital round. The company said it would use the capital infusion to further its momentum in the trucking, logistics, last-mile delivery, and restaurant sector, and expand to other new verticals. Branch offers expense management cards for large enterprises such as trucking and logistics companies, allowing fleet operators to provide cards to their drivers along with granular level expense controls to track spending on frequent business purchases such as fuel.

In another recent example, Dallas-based TriumphPay on March 3 announced it had recently completed a beta test of its system for enabling seamless payment transactions for carriers, brokers, shippers, and factors. The company, which is a division of TBK Bank SSB, said it had completed a series of transactions between two payors (a freight broker or shipper) and five payees (a carrier or its factoring company). According to TriumphPay, its open payments network will help truck drivers be paid faster and more securely than the current 30-day pay cycle bogging down the freight industry.

Those moves also followed the January news that supply chain tech startup BasicBlock Inc. had raised $78 million in backing for its platform supporting financing options for the trucking industry. The Nebraska company offers freight factoring, a process which pays truck drivers quickly for their loads and later claims the amount due on the bill of lading invoice as a third-party collector.

“The trucking industry is moving forward and embracing digital transformation,” Eric Dowdell, president of Comdata’s North American Trucking division, said in a release. “Our goal is to provide our customers with the most secure, reliable, and efficient mobile payment capabilities that get drivers back on the road faster. Our solution minimizes the headaches and delays associated with legacy, manually processed lumper payments. A greater experience overall promotes driver retention and greater profitability in the long-term.”