A device, system and method for portable data scanning and transmission are provided. The device is a portable appliance including resources for interoperating with a scanner to scan images of paper based documents, and a memory for storing the images without the need for a personal computer. The portable appliance is also interoperable with a mobile communication means to transfer the images to a remote computer. The portable appliance may include a computer program operable to enable processing of the images, including control routines for enabling data collection, storage and transfer to the remote computer. The invention can be implemented as an in-cab scanning system operable with existing in-cab communication systems.