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Is a Subscription-Based Service Right for You?

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Since it was founded in 2011, the meal-kit company HelloFresh has grown substantially. Among some of the earliest companies in the industry, HelloFresh is now the largest meal-kit provider in the United States. According to 2020 fourth-quarter reports, HelloFresh now serves approximately 5.3 million customers worldwide. With just a few clicks or taps, customers can easily plan their meals for a few dollars each week using a flexible subscription-based service.

HelloFresh is just one of many companies in the subscription-based service industry - a growing collection of online and cloud-based services designed to make the often tedious aspects of our everyday lives easier.

How Small Carriers Can Benefit from a Subscription-Based Service

You may be wondering: What does something like HelloFresh have to do with transportation, and how does a subscription-based service address the needs of a small carrier?

Firstly, choosing to use a subscription-based service can help a small carrier save a significant amount of time, money and effort in its day-to-day operations. Many smaller-sized companies don’t have all the resources they need in place to either implement or update an on-site system. As a result, this can strain their fleet - from a maintenance standpoint.

When looking at a small carrier’s daily operations from this perspective, the benefits of a subscription-based service become clear:

  • You’ll have full visibility of your fleet’s daily operations. Similar to how a cooking recipe lists all the steps required to successfully prepare a delicious meal, Trimble’s subscription-based services will allow you to see all the steps you need to take to achieve the most successful results in your business. With an Innovative Access or Innovative Access Plus solution, your transportation data will be organized and analyzed, giving you important insight into your operations, and helping you pinpoint the areas where you might need to improve.


  • Your loads will be streamlined. Meal kit services like HelloFresh allow customers to save recipes on their accounts via the Favorites tab. This makes it much easier for customers to find the meals they like most, so they can order them later. Comparable to this unique feature, Trimble’s Innovative Access, and Innovative Access Plus solutions allow you to save information on your most common loads via Master Orders. Based on the Master Order number entered, the information will auto-populate. As a result, you won’t have to waste time trying to find information, or repeatedly type it in manually.


  • Your technology can grow with you. Another perk to a subscription-based service like HelloFresh is that customers can add meals to their plans at any time. In other words, they can easily upgrade their subscription plan, should their needs change. Trimble’s Innovative Access and Innovative Access Plus solutions offer the same kind of flexibility.


    As your business grows, you may find that you need to juggle more responsibilities such as creating budgets, keeping track of license and permit information, and managing risks to keep your drivers safe while they’re out on the road. With the two solution bundles that Trimble offers - Innovative Access and Innovative Access Plus - you won’t need to worry about changing your TMS entirely. You can simply upgrade from Innovative Access to Innovative Access Plus, which offers all the same modules and some key additions to help you handle these responsibilities (and more) with ease.


  • It’s easier to maintain your system. With a fully on-premise system, the software technology that you and the other members of your fleet rely on is at risk of becoming outdated almost as soon as it’s installed. What’s more is that maintaining an on-premise system requires a great deal of planning, costing you a significant amount of time, money, and manpower. This ultimately hinders your ability to focus on creating and developing activities that could add more value to your business.

    Choosing to implement a subscription-based service into your business takes care of this issue because it’s not on-premise. Many subscription-based services are located online instead and are integrated into a cloud-based system. Subscription-based services may also offer mobile applications, meaning that any important updates or system notifications will be delivered directly to all of your connected devices in a more timely manner. With the option to use the Innovative Access and Innovative Access Plus mobile apps, you can have both convenience, and 24/7 access to all the functions you need and use. 

Improve How Your Fleet Operates

While you may be comfortable with the system you already have on-site, choosing to continue using it could inhibit your business’s potential growth. With an on-premise system, your fleet’s technology risks falling behind that of your competitors. A cloud-based subscription service for fleet maintenance can provide you with access to the best and most up-to-date software, giving you the competitive edge you need to always stay one step ahead. 

When you switch to a cloud-based system for fleet maintenance, you’ll also have more time to focus on value-adding activities, like building and maintaining relationships - especially with your customers. With a cloud-based system, the time you spend investing in your technology’s upkeep is reduced significantly, which creates more room for you to focus on things like growing your business, improving your operational efficiency, and providing the best experience to your customers. 

The benefits of a subscription-based service are plain to see, and there’s no better time than now to look into upgrading your system. Contact us at Trimble Transportation to learn more about how our Innovative Access and Innovative Access Plus solutions could work for your small carrier fleet.