Logistics Tech Firm Portpro Unveils Smartphone App

PortPro, which provides technology used in the drayage industry, announced a new mobile app the company says will let clients run businesses using the company’s technology but without the need to work through web interfaces. Drayage is the highly specialized work of moving containers among ships, rail cars and trucks.

The app will first be available in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, according to PortPro.

“Running a business in the drayage industry today is harder than ever,” Michael Mecca, chief executive of PortPro, said in a prepared statement. “There are numerous variables that make it really difficult to operate, like demurrage, per diem, port congestion and equipment shortages — which, most of the time, are out of the trucker’s control. Additionally, drayage truckers have to source and manage their work, which is challenging in itself.”

“Demurrage” charges are fees assessed by ship owners when cargo has not been loaded or unloaded according to schedule.

“This is not another digital freight broker’s mobile application for truck drivers,” Mecca added. “This is the first centralized mobile app allowing carriers to manage their own existing business outside of PortPro’s network, while opening doors to potential new business within PortPro’s network.”

The mobile app’s features, according to the company, included: easy communication with customers; load creation; location tracking; tracking of container information; synchronization with accounting platforms such as Quickbooks; and maintenance management.

PortPro’s announcement included a comment from Luis Molina, which the company described as a “driver activist” in the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports. “A tool like this is long overdue,” the company quoted him as having said. “DrayOS Mobile will put small carriers in a position to operate like some of the big carriers, help us run independently, and enable growth of our businesses.”