Relay Payments snags its latest partner: Platform Science

Relay Payments, which has touted its expanding network of fuel retailers that accept its services as well as maintenance outlets, has brought on Platform Science as a new channel for its customers to pay merchants for a variety of services.

Platform Science is a fast-growing technology offering that integrates a wide variety of information streams coming off a truck, including ELDs and other telematics.

Emily Neuman, executive vice president at Relay, told FreightWaves the outward most visible sign of how it would wed the two companies would be the ability of a truck driver to use the Platform Science-driven platform in the cab to make payments for fuel or other services.

The basic system for Relay Payments is that if a truck driver pulls into a fuel station or maintenance outlet that has agreed to accept payment from Relay, the user will be supplied a code through the Relay Payments app that will serve as something akin to a digital permission slip that allows the driver to pay for fuel, maintenance or other services like lumpers.

Having Relay Payments’ systems integrated into an ELD or TMS is not new, Neuman said. The number of TMS systems that have partnered with Relay Payments is more than 80, she said. That figure for ELDs is more than 300.

“The unique thing about Platform Science is that if you’re a driver using them, instead of maybe pulling out your own personal mobile phone that has Relay on it, your Platform Science tablet with our integration can also have the app on it,” Neuman said.

“The driver can already be signed into the Relay app through the single signon that Platform Science has as part of their product.”

Codes instead of a swipe In this era of fighting fraud, which at present seems to be the issue that is drawing a huge amount of focus, what the company calls the Relay Code is at the heart of its anti-fraud offerings and was featured in both the prepared statement released by the companies and by Neuman.

The digital code provided to Relay Payments users eliminates the need for a card swipe at a fuel dispenser, which has long been one of the biggest areas for fraudsters trying to cash in.

In that sense, there is not much difference between what Relay has done with customers using its services via a phone-based mobile app and what will occur with Platform Science. But putting multiple services on one platform, which is what Platform Science attempts to do, is a core part of the agreement between the two companies.

“Relay is focused on removing friction from the driver experience while giving fleets greater visibility and control over their operations,” Ryan Droege, CEO of Relay Payments, said in the prepared statement.

“By integrating directly with Platform Science, we’re making it easier than ever for fleets to deploy secure, modern payment solutions that drivers actually want to use.” Platform Science is a single signon platform, a step in reducing that friction that Droege mentioned.

First-party fraud Relay Pulse is an anti-fraud feature of the company’s offering, which Neuman said “prevents against first-party fraud.” That is the sort of theft that is coming from inside the house, when a driver or some other employee in the fuel procurement part of a trucking company uses that position to steal fuel or cash.

Skimming credit card information at a pump would be considered an example of third-party fraud, Neuman said. Relay Pulse is part of the integration with Platform Science, Neuman said.

The data coming off the truck using Platform Science can include such information as how much of the fuel tank is unfilled and is the driver sticking to company restrictions on those sorts of measurements, which are also tied into the fraud fight.

“With Relay Pulse, we’re checking additional data points that that Platform Science is giving us to determine whether that driver really should have a fuel code unlocked,” Neuman said. And by doing it with Platform Science, the anti-fraud tools are getting used with a company that is servicing the large fleets that Relay Payments has long targeted, she said.

Given that signing up an ELD or TMS customer is not breaking new ground for Relay, the question was asked: why tout the Platform Science deal when others didn’t get that sort of treatment?

Needed to grow merchant base One aspect, Neuman said, is that the growth of the network of merchants accepting Relay Payments, like the clean sweep of the biggest travel centers (Love’s, TA, Circle K and Pilot), can then open the door to have Relay “be able to handle fleets of all sizes.”

The next step needed after growing the merchant network, Neuman said, was “we had to go and build out our integrations.” Lumper payments were one of the first big markets for Relay, she said, and that helped give a starting point to further integrate with services like Platform Science and other TMS and ELD systems.

In the prepared statement, the companies quoted Harman Cheema, the CEO of Cheema FreightlInes LLC which has been using