Technology

FourKites launches ‘app-less’ cellphone tracking for brokers

March 16, 2016

FourKites announced that its cellphone tracking service for brokers (currently the CarrierLink app) has been extended to work without an app on the driver's phone. FourKites can now track both flip phones and smartphones – virtually any cell phone, with or without GPS.The app-less cellphone tracking service acquires permission through IVR (interactive voice response) and can be used with any type of cellphone. According to the company, a broker supplies FourKites with a driver’s phone number for a specific load, which launches an automated call to that phone. The driver grants permission to track by saying "yes" or by pressing the number “1” from their dial pad.Mathew Elenjickal, CEO of FourKites, said app-less cellphone tracking offers location updates to brokers every hour for only $1 per load tracked and every 30 minutes for $1.75 per load tracked."We see app-less tracking as a breakthrough for brokers in two ways," Elenjickal said. "First, it simplifies load assignment for both the broker and the driver. The driver doesn't have to download an app on his or her phone. All they have to do is respond to a phone request. Second, it costs brokers only a dollar per load, far less than competing services offering less frequent location updates."Elenjickal explained that app-less cellphone tracking locates phones by cell tower triangulation and thus can track cellphones not equipped with GPS. The CarrierLink app installed on a driver's smartphone continues to work with the phone's GPS and will remain free for brokers.Real-time location information is fed into the FourKites platform to predict ETAs, provide delay alerts, and arrival and departure times at stops using circular and polygon geo-fences.