Gone are the days when a trucker settles down to an uninterrupted 700-mile haul on a full tank of diesel, with country music blaring from the radio and an occasional CB radio conversation.
IP-enabled trucking now gives headquarters almost on-the-spot visibility into the ride -- and this is paying dividends for logistics providers, their customers, and their drivers.
Technological adoption is spurred, in part, by government mandates. Ordered by regulators to demonstrate progress in their green initiatives, companies need tools to monitor and manage sustainability. Environmental changes can be slow to impact internal operations, but organizations often draw from reports on reduced carbon footprints from their transportation providers to beef up their own report cards -- and, thereby, earn passing grades.
The Long Haul
Truckers, once connected solely by CB radios, are now wirelessly hooked in to corporate offices, which monitor their vehicles, routes, performance, and loads.
Trucking companies like Pitt Ohio understand the importance of sustainability for itself and its customers.
"We measure our carbon footprint, and have established target goals for improvement," said Geoff Muessig, Pitt Ohio's chief marketing officer and executive vice president, told me. "This carbon footprint is comprised of 12 percent infrastructure carbon and 88 percent rolling stock [trucking] carbon, so the focus over the past five years has been on improving the fuel efficiency of our fleet."
Pitt Ohio and other logistics providers use IP-enabled tracking and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to monitor the performance of trucking fleets, to improve safety, and to maintain the quality of the goods they are transporting.
For example, major carriers now use route mapping to determine the most fuel- and time-efficient routes for deliveries, and then use GPS over Internet technology to track the progress of trucks on routes, whether deliveries are on time, and even the rate of each truck's fuel consumption. Transporters such as United Parcel Service (UPS) use IoT trackers that are hard-wired into delivery trucks. Companies also use IoT sensors to monitor the performance of brakes, engines, and other parts to determine which drivers are doing the best job with respect to safety, speed, and fuel efficiency.
Auto part suppliers in particular are trying to reduce their brick-and-mortar distribution center footprints and the amount of stock they carry by using in-field truck fleets with "moving inventories." If a truck covering a certain territory does not have a particular part for a customer, it can quickly communicate via mobile IP to another truck in the fleet that has the part on board -- and it is then quickly dispatched to fill the order. These IP-connected trucks also process orders in real time to create a centralized inventory database that is never out of date.
For their part, food and beverage companies are tracking highly perishable produce, from the time it is picked in the field to the time it is stocked on grocery shelves. Each lot is tagged and monitored, enabling producers to trace back food sourcing in the event of contamination and recall. When the produce is trucked, food freshness is further enhanced with the assistance of IoT sensors on the truck that monitor refrigeration, humidity, and other factors to ensure that the goods being transported are at optimal environmental conditions to prevent or retard spoilage. Using mobile IP-enabled communications, these trucks can quickly change routes if necessary. In other words, a truck bound for Atlanta with a load of tomatoes from California can be redirected en route to Washington, D.C., if an unforeseen spike in demand occurs there.
Trucking is fast becoming a highly sophisticated logistics operation with the help of IP-based technologies that monitor and track everything -- from truck and driver performance to route execution and the health of goods. This comes at a time when rail is taking over many of the old long haul routes because trains are cheaper and more fuel efficient, and there is a shortage of truck drivers because fewer people are opting for a lifestyle that keeps them on the road and away from home. IP communications help combat the isolation -- while new IoT sensor technology makes positive inroads into on-the-road safety and customer satisfaction when the goods arrive fresh, secure, and on time.
— Mary E. Shacklett is president of Transworld Data
I never really thought about the trucking industry getting competition from rail. It makes all the sense in the world, just something that never entered this head. Kudos to the trucking companies for using IP technology to deliver a better product. Anything that helps get the item to it's destination quicker is key.
To compensate, many truck cos. are starting to run shorter "tag team" routes--where a driver drives 250 miles one way (and back) in a day. Then, another "relay" driver does the aame thing as the route continues.
Yes, I've heard that, too, Mary. And we know that even hard-hit USPS' package delivery service is doing well in an era of online ordering. With the driver shortage, is it that truck companies need to hire more drivers or that fewer people want to become truckers?
I would suspect trucking firms' use of tech will certainly help their bottom line in the near and far term. I wonder though how it affects the paychecks of the drivers.
With the second by second monitoring possible, and the ability to compare driver to driver rather easily, it would be easy to put some stiff demands on drivers to improve the company bottom line.
I've heard from a few drivers who are now complaining about the low actual wages earned considering the 'down' time encountered in loading and unloading, and waiting time. What seems like a good per mile earning is eaten away by the time not driving.
Now, if tech can improve the wait times, maybe drivers will benefit, but it doesn't seem to be helping from the drivers who are speaking out.
Could this lead to more cost savings if the proposed carbon sale comes into effect? Ceratinly there has tobe greaterrewards other than just rewarding safe drivers.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
The average yearly tuition cost for brick-and-mortar colleges and universities in the US today is more than $20,000, an expense that has increased 1,120 percent since 1978. By comparison, students of all ages can often earn an online education for one fourth of this annual cost -- and more businesses are starting to acknowledge online degrees.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
If you listen to the hype, clouds are everywhere. But if you look at the data, it turns out most customers say they still wouldn't use cloud computing for mission-critical apps or data. What's holding them back? Fritz investigates.
The city of San Francisco is on the leading edge of using the Internet to provide government transparency. It is providing WiFi for its have-nots, and its DataSF.org initiative is putting the city's valuable data back in the hands of its citizens, with innovative results.
How do you recognize an Internet bubble when you see one? Saunders explains how all bubbles have four symptoms in common – and takes a swipe at Google and Twitter into the bargain.
New tools like laptops, tablets, smartphone, and wireless connectivity let us work from San Diego to Katmandu, and anywhere in between. But time management remains a problem.
Many enterprises view high-speed broadband connections as ubiquitous. Yet in about 20 percent of the country, businesses and their employees do not have access to even DSL connections. This shortcoming diminishes enterprises' ability to support their employees.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
Email This
