EAGAN, Minn., Feb. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) Magazine, a leading trucking industry magazine and e-newsletter publishing freight transport business news, has named Transport America, a subsidiary of TransForce Inc. (TSX:TFI), the 2016 Innovator of the Year. Each month CCJ highlights a transportation fleet that is positively impacting the trucking industry with forward-thinking practices or technology. From those candidates, they choose the company with the most revolutionizing practice and award them Innovator of The Year.

Transport America has been recognized for its Weather Alerts project, a truck-specific weather alert application that overlays truck route data with weather information from the National Weather Service to systematically identify trucks within its fleet that are headed towards severe weather such as winter storms, blizzards, high winds, and more.

The award was presented Thursday, February 4th, 2016, at the CCJ Innovators Summit in Duck Key, FL.Tom Benusa, Transport America's Chief Information Officer accepted the award on behalf of the company.

The application provides Fleet Leaders (driver dispatchers) and drivers real-time truck-specific alerts that include pertinent weather information along their scheduled route. This allows drivers to plan their trips accordingly, ensure they are safe, and minimize the impact of weather as much as possible. The system also alerts Transport America's customer service department about loads that have not yet been picked up and the estimated number of miles a load will be traveling in a warning area. With this information, Transport America can communicate with its shippers about changing the date or time of their pickup or rerouting their load.

Before this program was available, employees in operations were in charge of manually monitoring the weather and sending macro messages to drivers. This type of communication was time consuming, not location-specific to trucks and loads, and didn't allow for transparency with the shipper.

"We are very excited and honored to receive the CCJ 2016 Innovator of the Year Award. The Weather Alerts project was a great collaborative project that helps keep our drivers safe and our customer service engagement high. Our entire organization is committed to continuing to innovate and improve the quality of life for our drivers and the quality of service for our customers," shares Tom Benusa.

The weather alert tool has had a positive impact on Transport America's business by allowing the company to keep drivers out of harm's way and minimize utilization loss. President of Transport America, Keith Klein, adds, "Having a tool that impacts the daily efficiency of both our driver's earning power and our customer's satisfaction is an highly valued investment in our company. This application sets us apart and supports our position in the industry as 'The trucking company that's changing trucking'."

About Transport America
Transport America, a subsidiary of TransForce Inc. (TSX: TFI), is a leading provider of truckload transportation and logistics services throughout much of the US, Mexico and Canada.  Transport America has been in business since 1984 and is headquartered in Eagan, MN.  The company's broad portfolio of services, which includes Solo and Team over-the-road, Dedicated, Regional, Intermodal and Brokerage, executed by talented professionals with state-of-the-art technology, caters to Fortune 1000 shippers who value Transport America's customer service focus. For more information, please visit www.transportamerica.com.

About TransForce Inc.
TransForce Inc. is a North American leader in the transportation and logistics industry, operating across Canada and the United States through its subsidiaries. TransForce creates value for shareholders by identifying strategic acquisitions and managing a growing network of wholly-owned operating subsidiaries. Under the TransForce umbrella, companies benefit from financial and operational resources to build their businesses and increase their efficiency. TransForce companies service the following segments:

• Package and Courier;
• Less-Than-Truckload;
• Truckload;
• Logistics.

TransForce Inc. is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: TFI) and the OTCQX marketplace in the U.S. (OTCQX: TFIFF).
For more information, visit http://www.transforcecompany.com.

For further information: 
Transport America
Megan Gaffney
Director of Marketing
(651) 604-8788
megan.gaffney@transportamerica.com

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SOURCE Transport America