Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/588093
42 commercial carrier journal | october 2015 technology • Omnitracs, a provider of fleet manage- ment systems, announced a new Profes- sional Services suite that it describes as a compilation of its tools, resources and services aimed at serving fleets better. • Transportation Data Source, a provider of motor carrier information services, released TDS Carrier OnBoarding, a product designed to provide freight brokers an automated evaluation and approval process for third-party carriers by gathering, validating and maintain - ing accurate motor carrier qualification information using its database as well as surveys and private-branded onboarding websites. The service is designed for quick configuration to existing systems. • FetchDesk launched a cloud-based platform designed to streamline communications between shippers, brokers and carriers. The company said its mobile-friendly software allows shippers to identify and self-broker qualified and accredited trucks and gives carriers the ability to secure backhaul freight up to eight days in advance. • DAT Solutions announced a new online analytics service designed to provide ac - cess to truck and load data for 149 key market areas in North America with the highest concentrations of inbound and outbound freight. A Tableau Web portal displays a set of trucking freight data visualizations with the option to import data into back-office systems. • Stay Metrics, providers of a driver-centric engagement platform and research used by motor carriers to improve their driver retention efforts, announced an "a la carte" menu of services, allowing fleets to select packages based on analytics and feed - back or recognition and loyalty, or both. • Orbcomm, a provider of machine-to-ma- chine and Internet of Things technologies, launched Orbcomm Enterprise Connect, a high-speed failover service for wireless devices and applications that leverages 4G LTE to provide WAN connectivity that can be used as a backup to existing broad - band connections. • MiX Telematics, a provider of fleet and mobile asset management systems, added a driver engagement platform to its MiX Fleet Manager and MiX SafeDrive applications. Driver scoring is the first online module available through MyMiX, which is designed to provide drivers with key information about their performance. InBrief specifically for transportation. This new "vertical analytics" platform can be used to predict certain behaviors within the industry using structured data from TMW's product databases and third-par- ty systems. It also will use unstructured data from external sources such as driver messages and social media. A community of data taken directly from customers also will be included for industry benchmarking purposes. At present, the community data is collected using surveys, but TMW is working to- ward automating an anonymous capture method of key operating metrics from participating customers. "We want to build a community where you can safely contribute and benefit from the data generated by all of its members," Wangler said. This will provide "deep insight" into what the overall market is experiencing in terms of both the key performance indicators and key operating indicators that drive them, he said. Generating a return Large carriers are most likely to be in- terested in the new business intelligence offerings, but TMW says the new products can be used by carriers of all sizes. USA Truck uses several optimization and business intelligence tools from TMW Systems. The 2,000-truck carrier has worked with TMW's Value Engineering team to implement the products to reduce its operational costs. For the past few months, the company has used Data Warehouse Explorer with Visual Analytics, an application that pres- ents metrics in custom dashboards and worksheets called "storyboards." "The metrics on the storyboard allow (executives) to see everything that is important in a very succinct method," said Chris Rhoades, chief information officer of the Van Buren, Ark.-based fleet. The business intelligence tools have helped USA Truck invest its time and resources to optimize results, Rhoades said. While small carriers could benefit from the same technology, the return on in- vestment can be difficult to quantify, said Chuck Radke, operations manager for H&M Trucking, a 200-truck dry van and bulk carrier based in Omaha, Neb. "How is a small carrier going to be able to afford to grab all this data and support it, both the infrastructure and the human side of it, to be able to spread it amongst the change phase?" Radke asked. "When you only have 150 to 200 trucks, you can't make drastic decisions for the ROI. It takes so much longer." Small carriers don't have the manpower to assign a new full- or part-time position for big data analysis, he said. "You can't afford to run the analytics constantly because you take away from the focus of the business." Radke suggested another reason why small carriers will take longer to adapt the new technology: At that level, the owner and executives are involved in the sales process, and customers and lanes are more than numbers. "The overall judging of which lanes are profitable still takes human input," he said. "Big companies rely on num- bers, and then they have to give business back. Once I com- mit to something, we are committed to it." AArON HuFF is Senior Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail ahuff@ccjmagazine.com or call 385-225-9472. Van Buren, Ark.-based USA Truck uses several optimization and business in- telligence tools from TMW Systems. The 2,000-truck carrier has worked with TMW's Value Engineering team to implement the products to reduce its operational costs.