The trucking industry is in this weird limbo between legacy systems and cloud-based platforms, but many are beginning that transition.
Three of the industry’s largest carriers – Ruan, Swift and Prime (CCJ Top 250, No. 27, 4 and 16, respectively) made that move in the past year. Representatives from each of those companies shared their experiences at the annual Geotab Connect conference last week in Orlando.
Many fleets struggle with moving from older systems with little to no data to suddenly having data coming from all directions and having to learn how to make it actionable in their operation, said Geotab Head of Transportation Business Development Emily Williams.
Brianne Madura, assistant director of IT at Prime, said the amount of data upon making the switch was overwhelming. The company started with a small pilot of 15 trucks and quickly moved to 300 trucks to get the data at scale – altogether lasting about 16 months before officially deploying Geotab. She said Geotab has at least doubled the amount of data Prime gets because it goes beyond receiving data just from the truck to receiving data on drivers, too.
“It's been a journey for sure,” Madura said. “We've learned a lot in the process. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and the data we're looking for, what we actually need and don't need, and what makes us better.”
She said the industry is changing quickly, and Prime was “missing the boat” because of delays in data.
“When you’re not getting real-time updates, 10 to 15 minutes is a long time in transportation to not get information,” she said.
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The next phase is learning how to surface from the data what’s most important and using it to initiate improvements across departments. Though she isn’t the biggest proponent of artificial intelligence, she said it has its place, and using it to find actionable insights within the new large dataset Prime has garnered from Geotab is where it’s at.
Data for safety
Jules Miller, vice president of safety at Swift, said her company has built homegrown programs to manage its plethora of data and has recently begun to dig into the world of AI to facilitate a more holistic picture of the driver to improve safety.
She said Swift tracks its KPIs very closely. That includes things like ELD data, camera data and CSA scores, but it also goes beyond safety-specific metrics to others that can shed light on safety practices, like fuel efficiency and productivity.
“We know a driver that maybe is not the best in fuel efficiency probably isn’t proactively managing their speed and following distance,” Miller said.
And those KPIs led to another KPI that isn’t always at the forefront of Swift’s goals, but one that definitely steered it toward the switch from on-premises tech to SaaS: retention.
Miller said drivers who don’t perform well in areas that ultimately affect safety typically don’t qualify for incentives and bonuses, affecting their paychecks and resulting in turnover.
“We were at a point where we were having to let too many drivers go for improper use of hours of service, personal conveyance and violations in conjunction with accidents and stuff like that. So a huge KPI for us, too, is just driver retention,” Miller said. “It has been super important for us to pull all of that data in one place so that we can, not just use the stick to coach people, but also have the carrot there so we can recognize when somebody does well and then use that to motivate them to improve on the rest.”
Embracing the data
Getting buy-in on new technology can be a pain point in implementation, especially when it comes to drivers.
Emily Dikeman, senior business analyst at Ruan Transportation, said Ruan approached everyone at the company – from IT, compliance and operations to maintenance and safety. Some even tested Geotab on their personal vehicles first.
“But what’s most important is putting it in the hands of the driver to get feedback early and often (so) we're able to help and adjust quickly and pivot,” she said. “The biggest thing is just being willing to admit that something's not working well and finding a better way as soon as possible so that you can still have success and make an impact for the next round.”
Dikeman’s motto is “fail fast and fail forward,” she said.
Ruan changes training on the technology monthly based on feedback from the previous month. Swift also openly requests feedback from drivers and operations personnel. Communication is critical, Miller added. Swift installed its first handful of test trucks two years ago and began communicating with drivers then. The company just rolled out Geotab to its entire fleet two months ago.
“When you give them a seat at the table, they feel like they've had a part in making that decision, and they're going to be much more invested,” she said.
And getting drivers invested in the technology is vital because it’s the driver’s data.
Madura said some of the most high-impact use cases for the data is the driver’s location and hours of service, but also being able to track specific driving habits and circumstances like time of day they’re driving, landscape they’re driving in and type of freight they’re hauling.
“You can get down to the very specifics and find out what is helpful and not helpful for that very specific person and help them grow,” she said. “A happy driver is a safe driver.”
But data is only a key, Miller said.
“Data is super impactful and super important, not a magic wand though,” she said. “You can use data, obviously, to tell you where your problems are – maybe even why you have that problem – but … you have to solve the problem.”
