1,000 Calls: “Original Paperwork Required”
The keys to going digital in a hard copy culture.
Editor’s note: At Vector we spend our days talking to trucking companies steering through a fast-changing industry. This story is part of a series, ‘1,000 Calls,’ where our team breaks down lessons learned along the way. This week: how to handle an all-too-common objection concerning “original paperwork required”.
So your customer requires the original, physical copy of their receipt — even though it would be much more expedient, accurate and cost effective to submit a digital copy of the receipt.
Welcome to the conundrum of the logistics industry today, where digitizing operations and automating busy work still hasn’t happened at many companies and paper copies or manual procedures still reign supreme.
Most other industries, from medical care to retail sales, have switched to electronic transactions and digital receipts. In trucking, paper is largely still tolerated, perhaps encouraged by a culture of self-sufficiency and ingrained operating procedures.
The case for digital document exchange is especially compelling here, where physical distances add to slow downs in processing times, multiple stakeholders are involved, and large volumes of paperwork can cog the wheels.
What follows are pointers on how to revisit the conversation with your paper-adherent customer about switching to accepting digital paperwork. The gains from going digital are just too significant to ignore, and the objections we hear appear surmountable. Efficiency is critical in the trucking business, and can make the difference between profit and flatlining.
Objection 1: “We require original copies of paperwork because we are concerned with legibility and print quality”.
Technology has advanced! LoadDocs produces the digital equivalent of original documents. The LoadDocs mobile app automatically adjusts your device’s camera to successfully capture and produce high resolution images of text.
Using an ordinary smartphone (yes, older models, too) the app captures even the faintest carbon copy print and creates a perfect digital version of that document. LoadDocs’ in-app guidance also walks the user through taking a perfect capture; for instance, an orange glow highlights the document to ensure all four corners are captured. If something obscures the document, text appears prompting the user to readjust the camera.
Objection 2: “We require originals because that is what our factoring company requires.”
Parties may have financial incentives to want to delay payments, so it is important to get to the bottom of this “requirement.” There is no legal reason why the factoring company would require original copies if all parties have consented to doing business digitally.
Electronic documents and signatures carry the same weight and legal significance as traditional paper documents. (Get a primer on the relevant laws here, from digital signature provider Docusign)
Beyond that, LoadDocs is a secure document capture system backed up on secure web servers (AWS). Documents are geotagged, recording the location and timing of document scans, which helps verify the authenticity of the capture.
Objection 3: “We require original copies of paperwork because we use various carriers, and need to create one unified system; not everyone uses LoadDocs”
No problem. While your fleet and back office use LoadDocs daily, the recipients of proofs of delivery (PODs) and other paperwork do not need to pay to receive or view the documents.
For those who do want to learn more about going digital, LoadDocs is a free app that anyone can download from the app store.
Objection 4: “We have always required original copies. It’s just the way of doing business around here and it works.”
Many shippers actually do have digital document exchange set up with some of their carriers, and you can request to switch to digital as well if you show that you use a quality software like LoadDocs to capture and submit those digital documents.
Even if physical paperwork is your historic standard operating procedure, digitizing the document process will speed up processes and free up administrative time.
Curious about the details of going digital? We’d love to hear from you if your customers are still hard-copy diehards! We facilitate these conversations on a daily basis. Ultimately, even if your customers insist on keeping with physical paperwork, it may make sense for your internal processes to go digital.
