Truckload Authority - Winter 2014/15

Sponsored by SKYBITz
SKYBITz.com | 888.698.1733
Mobile
Revolution
By Aprille Hanson
“Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of
those moments when we are influencing the future.”
— Steve Jobs
On October 13, 1983, a man named Bob Barnet, a
former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications,
placed the first commercial cell phone call to the
grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. At 10 inches long
and weighing about 28 ounces it was hardly the definition
of mobile by today’s standards, but it was a fitting
example of how far we’ve come. Little did we know it
was only the beginning.
Today, a phone call is almost the least important
function of a phone.
Smart technologies, from phones to tablets, have
become not only staples in everyday life, but in
business. It is more than technological advancement
— it’s a mobile revolution and it will change the
trucking industry.
YOU CAN KEEP THE DIME
One could say the mobile revolution has been
stirring ever since Barnet made that first call. Jon Van
Winkle, vice president for product management at XRS
Corporation, recently acquired by Omnitracs, said it’s
been “brewing for five to six years” in terms of fleet
management solutions.
“You’re talking about tablets and devices that do
work out of the cab, communicate to the driver over
the road,” said Van Winkle, adding that XRS, which
provides fleet management solutions and compliance
software that run on smartphones, tablets and rugged
handhelds, has been “at the forefront of the so-called
revolution or moving in that direction. It’s taken awhile
to get traction, for data rates to come down.”
According to a Business Insider report released
this year, U.S. consumers are now spending one-fifth
of their media consumption on a mobile device, five
times more than in 2009. In terms of how it’s changing
business, people spend just as much time on a mobile
device online than with a laptop or desktop.
“I see in our own business people showing up to
meetings with a tablet; I see that increasingly rather
than people toting around a laptop,” Van Winkle
said. “I think if you look at fleet managers who are
also part of our customer base, they’re looking to do
things moving around their warehouse, rather than
toting around a laptop. If you look at the driver’s
side, guys in-cab would rather have a smartphone or
tablet.”
From a business standpoint, XRS said its applications,
fed directly into a smart device with little to no
start-up costs, are going to generate more savings
for businesses.
“It’s a little more modern cloud-based solution …
In our case we use a very small gray box, with a single
cable on top of the dashboard,” Van Winkle said, adding
that hardware costs are included in a subscription.
“Fleets do have to buy a smartphone or tablet.”
But this is the direction it’s heading. Smart devices
“open up a whole new world,” he said.
DIALING IN
Andrew Pearson, president of Qualex Asia Limited,
is a technology expert, noted columnist and author of
several books including 2010’s “The Mobile Revolution.”
His latest book, “Going Mobile: Going Social,”
details how businesses of all kinds can benefit from
mobile and social media technology.
And according to Pearson, the mobile revolution is
here to stay.
“It’s going to simplify and automate trucking executives’
lives in a way they can’t quite fathom just yet. By
harnessing the power of the mobile platform, mobile
users can make phone calls, send a tweet or fire off a
text,” Pearson said. “Using mobile technology allows
businesses to really understand how their marketing
budget is being spent and how effective it really is. Mobile
makes it easy to send out marketing offers as well
as keep the communication channels open for drivers,
administrative personnel, clients and potential clients.”
He developed a Matrix of Mobile Solutions, a
graph that breaks down various professions according
to their mobility strengths. For transportation, its
strengths include such things as Augmented Reality.
Trucking can use this to create virtual manuals to help
a mechanic or driver understand a problem with a
vehicle.
“This gives the trucker or mechanic a hands-on
view and, if the mobile device is connected to a Wi-Fi
and/or a mobile network, the trucker could be getting
real-time assistance from a mechanic who, through the
use of the mobile device’s camera, could be seeing the
actual problem first-hand rather than hearing about it
through another; objectivity rather than subjectivity,”
Pearson explained.
Other advantages include blogging, micro-blogging
and apps that keep drivers and companies up-to-date
on everything from road conditions to stopping locations
and simple concepts such as a QR code.
“These can be used to track items along the trucker’s
route. They are standardized. They are also good for
marketing so trucking companies that are looking to
advertise in one way or another, say for new truckers
or a pair of truckers, a quick QR Code scan can link an
interested party to a website that has downloadable
information,” Pearson said.
One that’s lesser known in the trucking industry is
an OTT (over-the-top) application that provides a product
over the Internet, bypassing traditional distribution,
Pearson explained.
For example, he said after a recent meeting in China
instead of the traditional call or hail of a cab, an app
called WeChat was used.
“My Chinese host asked if I wanted him to order me
a cab. When I confirmed that I did, he pulled out his
phone, opened the WeChat application, fired up the
‘Taxi’ service and within 30 seconds over 30 taxis had
been notified of the request. He showed off the pretipping
service the app had that allowed one to offer
any taxi drivers a tip of between 5, 10 or 15 Reminbi
to motivate them to accept the fare,” Pearson said.
“There’s no reason why something similar couldn’t be
done for truckers. Perhaps there’s a case in which a
sick trucker’s shift needs to be covered. A database of
all of the companies or freelance truckers in the neighborhood
could send out a blanket notification about
the shift that needs to be covered. Incentives could be
added, if need be. This would alleviate the need for HR
to call around, trying to get the shift covered.”
One way that smart devices are changing trucking is
with geofencing capabilities, a software program that
can define geographical boundaries.
“Basically, geofencing programs allow an administrator
to set up triggers — usually SMS push notifications
or e-mail alerts — so when a device crosses a ‘geofence’
and enters (or exits) a set boundary, a user is notified,”
Pearson said. The most basic example for the trucking
industry is that when a trucker changes his route, his dispatcher
would receive an alert, Pearson explained.
“Mobile sensors and mobile geolocation tracking
can do everything from tracking drivers, vehicles and
product shipments down to 20 feet,” Pearson said.
“Mobile devices will create highly detailed roadmaps
that can be used to analyze the best routes to take in a
multitude of conditions.”
This brings into perspective the possibility of
an electronic logging device (ELD) one day being
controlled with a smart device rather than an additional
piece of hardware.
“That would make sense. And apps are actually very
cheap to build. Because it’s so cheap to become an
app developer, there are literally millions of developers
worldwide who could develop something like this,”
Pearson said. “The beauty of the mobile ecosystem is
even though there are, literally, tens of thousands of
different iterations of mobile devices, they all work on
a backbone of solid infrastructure that simplifies the
development and implementation process.”
PHONE A FRIEND
Mercer Transportation, out of Louisville, Kentucky,
is 100 percent owner-operator and delivers 250,000
loads annually.
And their drivers are almost entirely mobile, setting
the industry standard for the future, according to
Operations Manager Dale Corum.
30 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2014-15