Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1004801
48 commercial carrier journal | july 2018 TECHNOLOGY: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE the number of drivers that attain their monthly bonus goes up," Wallace says. "By having visibility to our drivers on this level, we can see if an individual driver is on track for a below-average pay perfor- mance period, analyze why that is and correct it before the driver is frustrated and quits to go to another carrier." Step 2: Closing the loop Besides using business intelligence to present information in a consolidated view, transportation companies are using the technology to close the loop on exceptions. Among the many exceptions Trans-System is managing effectively are incomplete customer orders, deten- tion events and mismatched refriger- ated temperature settings. For these and other alerts, a "message broker" ensures that users see and act on timely information. If a driver is detained at a customer, the message broker sends a custom- er service representative a "pop-up message" to ask if the customer is going to be billed, and if so, for what amount. If the customer service representative is offline, the message broker alerts a designated manager so any action is not delayed. e application notifies management if quick action isn't taken on alerts such as time-sensitive temperature warn- ings when refrigerated settings do not match customer orders. e cost savings from the automated alerting system keep paying dividends. e company's refrigerated carrier, TW Transport, has reduced cargo claims by 75 percent by responding proactively to exceptions, Staheli says. Driver satisfaction is another area where transportation companies can use new technologies to create a better workflow. DriverEngagement is an online platform focused on driver retention. Its functions are similar to those of customer relationship management applications such as Salesforce.com, says Colin Ruskin, the company's chief executive. e cloud-based DriverEngagement platform tracks information about drivers to gauge their sentiment toward their carriers. It identifies drivers with a high turnover risk, Ruskin says. DriverEngagement uses a mobile app to share news from the carrier and provide drivers with an open line of communications and feedback. If a driver uses the app to message a fleet about a detention event at a shipper, the soware tracks the complaint and the response actions taken by management. Fleets can use the soware to estab- lish processes for exceptions, or friction points, and track the actions taken, such as contacting a shipper to improve turn- around times, Ruskin says. e platform also can integrate with various third-party systems such as onboard computing devices to auto- matically capture driver feedback from emails and texts. DriverEngagement includes a rewards program that allows fleets to upload a spreadsheet with points for drivers in various categories. e rewards program "is not automated yet, but it definitely could be" through third-party soware integrations, Ruskin says. Step 3: Getting predictive With many fleets using various in-cab Internet of ings devices to capture data and transmit it to servers in the cloud, business intelligence is trans- forming into machine learning and artificial intelligence. Beyond reporting exceptions and vi- sualizing data, new developments make it possible to predict future events and change the outcome. Fleet maintenance is one area where predictive intelli- gence has gained a foothold. Noregon offers JPro, a standalone in-shop diagnostics and repair system, and TripVision, a real-time asset management system. e latter applies predictive intelligence to vehicle and engine data captured by third-party telematics systems. TripVision use a color-coded system to illustrate the severity of a vehicle's collective faults. Users can examine which of their vehicles are in the or- ange or yellow zones and prevent those vehicles from entering a red zone, the most severe indicator. If a vehicle registers a SPN 111 code, TripVision would recommend the driver stop immediately and add coolant. Assuming other faults are not present, following the advice could upgrade the vehicle's severity level to green, the least severe indicator, says Dave Covington, chief technology officer for Noregon. Predictive intelligence also is helping DriverEngagement tracks the sentiment of drivers toward their carriers to identify those at risk of leaving. Navajo Express uses BlueTree's telematics platform to manage its tractor and trailer assets from a single database.