FourKites announced that the U.S. Patent Office had awarded the Company a patent for its Smart Forecasted Arrival (SFA). FourKites is a global real-time supply chain visibility platform. The Smart Forecasted Arrival is software that provides tracking and monitoring services, even in transport modes that do not have transit location data.

As reported by FreightWaves, Matthew Elenjickal, the founder and CEO of FourKites, reiterated that the reception of the patent depicted how much the Company had made strides in the real-time visibility market. He added that FourKites was well ahead of other companies on the market. He attributed the claims to the fact that FourKites had been implementing their technology since 2015, unlike most companies that began in 2019.

Most tracking and monitoring technologies are designed based on electronic logging devices, location transmitting devices, and asset assignment and compliance data, which is not always accurate. On the other hand, SFA uses artificial neural networking and machine learning to determine the estimated location of freight based on the data within its network. The accuracy level of SFA stands at 85% while providing ETAs on 97% of loads that are not tracked.

Elenjickal noted that shippers prefer achieving 100% tracking by use of ELDs. He, however, acknowledged that it's not possible to track each shipment on the specific lanes. Elenjickal said that FourKites has thousands of shipments on the lane that runs on the Company's platform, resulting in the strong network possessed by the Company.

SFA's database covers 70 billion miles across 275,000 different stops. The database produces a billion ETAs annually. FourKites' ability is vast as the Company can work on all the use cases and at the same time process ETAs for supply chain situations where the device does not provide location signals. Such scenarios include facilities and places where the cellular signal on the drivers' cellphone is not available.

Elenjickal and the entire FourKites team learned that using a well-analyzed approach created a tracking and monitoring product that was very novel and of its kind. Therefore, filing for a patent was very important to gain a reputable image amongst their customers. Elenjickal was confident that their Company provides the technology they say they do.