Independent owner-operator Debbie Desiderato was the recipient of a Truck Driver Appreciation Week award that will not only improve her life on the road, but also the bottom line for her business.
Desiderato was picked as the winner of digital broker Transfix’s TransFIX My Rig sweepstakes, the prize for which was a cab makeover for her 2017 Western Star 4900EX that she drives in her Walkabout Transport operation. She typically hauls dry van freight coast-to-coast from her Virginia home base to California. When she’s home, she runs logs out of the woods to timber mills. Transfix Chief Commercial Officer Sophie Dabbs said the company set out early this year to come up with something big to celebrate truck drivers as part of NTDAW due to the work truckers put in over the past 18 months during the pandemic. “We brainstormed for a really long time on what we wanted to do to celebrate our drivers,” Dabbs said. “They are so important to the running of our whole world, in particular our country, because we all live here and we’ve had so much trouble over the past 18 months or so with COVID. One of the things we were really critically thinking about was how do we infuse some fun into this?” The end result was a partnership with Jason Cameron, the host of CBS’s Secret Celebrity Renovation to offer a cab makeover sweepstakes for owner-operators. Desiderato said she entered the contest on a whim, not really expecting to win. However, when she received the call from Transfix that she had won, she immediately started making plans to have her truck home and ready to be handed over to Cameron for the makeover. “I dropped everything [when I heard I won],” she said. “I was up in Long Island because I also live in Long Island, as well. I live in two places, plus on the road… I was headed to Long Island with a load of wine barrels, and I dropped those off, and I knew I had to get back down to Virginia. I raced back down here empty, dropped my dry van trailer off, took care of some things, and bobtailed up to New Jersey… I was willing to drop everything for this.” Hear more Debbie Desiderato's sleeper renovation on this week's 10-44 webisode in the video above. Desiderato purchased the truck used in March and said she hasn’t had time to do much in the sleeper since then to make it her own. When she handed the truck off to Cameron, her main requests were a place to put her guitar – which usually just sat on the bed while she drove and fell into the floor quite often – and a larger freezer to have more space to keep food so she wouldn’t have to eat fast food from truck stops as much. After a quick turnaround for Cameron – he only had the truck for about five days – the sleeper transformation was more than Desiderato ever imagined. The first thing she noticed was a feature wall that spanned the back wall of the sleeper with the Australian flag as the backdrop, a nod to her heritage. On that feature wall was also her guitar, secured tightly on the wall so it doesn’t fall in transit. Desiderato’s refrigerator/freezer combo also got an upgrade from a dorm-sized unit that is normally found in trucks to a full-size unit. Cameron also upgraded the cabinets in the truck. Desiderato said that while she loves the new look of her sleeper, the upgrade goes beyond just aesthetics. “For starters, that freezer – before I leave, I’ll do a bunch of cooking, freeze everything and put everything in that freezer,” she said. “I’ll bet you I can put two weeks worth of food in there. At least one decent meal a day. That’s going to help so much. It’s going to help my health, weight, and it’s going to save me time… and it’s going to save a whole lot of aggravation trying to find food, and it’s going to save a whole lot of money, as well. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the price of fast food is through the roof.” Want to see more of the upgrades to Desiderato's sleeper? Check out the video above. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD
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Shifting the driver paradigm: Winning with equipment, technology and culture Join us in person at the the 2021 CCJ Solutions Summit, Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, in Chandler, Arizona. CCJ Summit assembles fleet executives, thought leaders, industry analysts and leading suppliers to explore ways equipment, technology and corporate culture can shift the driver paradigm and overcome your No. 1 challenge: Cultivating a qualified workforce. Don’t miss your chance to collaborate and socialize in-person with your peers at the picturesque Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass. Motor carriers are seeing an unexpected trend: Drivers are working less despite getting record pay increases. A CCJ survey conducted the first week of September found that 83% of fleets increased driver pay at least once in 2021, but 29% have seen driver availability decrease in the busy summer months. The percentage of fleets who saw a decrease in driver availability was even higher (57%) among those who operate more than 500 trucks. Only 14% saw an increase in driver availability. Robert Low, president and founder of Prime, Inc. (CCJ Top 250, No. 15), said the company has been successful in keeping trucks seated with drivers compared to prior years, but “our available number is diminishing.” “Our drivers are converting increased earnings to time off,” he said at the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) annual conference, Sept. 28, in Las Vegas. [Related: Two fleets named TCA's Best Fleets to Drive For] Average driver availability for Prime during the workweek used to hover around 82%. Lately the metric has been as low as 73%, he said. This change means that about 10% of capacity has left the system, which is impacting mileage and load counts, he noted. Low made the comments on stage during an executive panel at the TCA conference, but he also commended the fact that drivers are earning more than ever before. “They should be proud of their earnings,” he said. Mark Seymour, president and CEO of Kriska Transportation, agreed with Low’s assessment that higher pay might be curtailing productivity. Kriska is a 350-truck fleet based in Prescott, Ontario, Canada, with cross-border operations. “I think there’s lots of truth in the fact that the more we pay our drivers doesn’t mean they are going to work harder,” he said. “It means they are likely going to work less to make the same so they can have more work-life balance.” Holding capacity tightDriver availability is not the only pressure point on the transportation system. The panel agreed that carriers will struggle to add capacity in the foreseeable future due to equipment shortages, regulations, and other challenges. “My advice is to make the best use of things you have to work with now,” Seymour said. “Don’t think you are going to get more of it. Just make the best use of it.” Shortages of materials have backlogged new truck orders and caused used truck prices to soar. Small fleets and owner-operators are buying used trucks at premium prices from larger fleets and Low believes that some owner-operators who are getting into the business today by purchasing equipment at higher prices will have difficulty sustaining their businesses when the market turns. Kevin Knight, executive chairman of the board for Knight-Swift Transportation, the nation’s largest truckload carrier (No. 4), does not foresee the driver shortage easing. He said the company is going to great lengths to make drivers’ jobs better. “Our drivers are valued within our walls more than they have ever been,” he said. Knight credited the driver shortage for getting rates to where they should be, and cautioned fleets to seek higher returns on their capital rather than add more capacity to grow. With motor carriers struggling to expand the driver pool, the prospects of self-driving trucks are growing brighter. The CCJ survey found 7% of fleets have grown their interest in autonomous trucks in the past year. Three percent are less interested, and 41% said their interest has not changed. As self-driving trucks continue to gain steam, however, “we have to know that our drivers are counting on us to make sure that whatever the future looks like, their importance is equal to or greater than it is today,” Knight said. Autonomous trucks will not reduce demand for drivers anytime soon, Knight believes. He sees the business model for autonomous trucks requiring more drivers — a driver at each end of a linehaul — to make pickups and deliveries. “[Autonomous trucks] are not going to save as much money as expected,” he said. “A driver will be in the cab for at least the next 15 to 20 years.” Knight pointed out that intermodal trucking already operates like an autonomous linehaul system. “We as leaders have a responsibility to look out for our drivers,” he said. “I think as an industry we do a pretty good job. We just can’t fall asleep at the wheel. I think the driver importance will become greater, not less, over time.” Talking politicsThe executives were asked to weigh in on some heated political topics by moderator Dave Heller, TCA vice president of government affairs, and questions from the audience. The topics centered on labor laws, the vaccine mandate from the Biden administration and the legalization of marijuana. Knight expects the trucking industry to see more regulation under Democrat leadership but noted that not all regulation is harmful. The truckload sector was concerned about electronic logging devices (ELDs), for example, but “for the first time we had capabilities of measuring what drivers’ hours are worth,” he said. “I don’t think the average wage of drivers would be approaching what is today if ELDs hadn’t come into play.” Knight recommended trucking industry associations, like the TCA, stay neutral with their political affiliation to get things done in Washington. Low responded to a question about the future of the owner-operator model amid court cases and laws that present existential challenges. Prime operates one of the largest contractor fleets in the country. This business model puts “skin in game” for drivers by carrying more risk to reap more rewards as entrepreneurs, he said. “That’s powerful.” The owner-operator model is “essential to the American Dream,” said Low. Like many carriers, Prime pays owner-operators a percentage of gross revenue for loads to be “perfectly aligned in that way with our drivers. They are cheering for us and we’re cheering for them.” Related: Are owner-operators a legal landmine for fleets? Low said he needs to speak with lawmakers and wants drivers to explain why they like being owner-operators. “It riles me up to think about doing away with this model, which has been so powerful and essential to success in this industry,” he said. The legalization of marijuana has contributed to the driver shortage. Nearly 100,000 drivers have been taken off the road for positive drug tests for marijuana, opioids and other substances since January 2020. Knight said his company uses hair follicle testing for pre-employment screening and has been rewarded with safety results. “I don’t think there is any room for drugs on our highways,” he said. Marijuana complicates drug testing rules since it is largely moving toward being viewed like alcohol. “The fact of the matter is you don’t want somebody smoking marijuana and then getting in one of your trucks right after it takes place,” he said. “From my perspective, there is just no room for drug use in Class 8 trucks.” Enforcing the jab?Businesses with more than 100 employees are scrambling to understand what they will do if the Biden administration enforces a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Most of Springfield, Missouri-based Prime’s drivers are independent contractors and will not be under the mandate because they are self-employed. Low said resistance will come from driving and non-driving employees if the mandate is enforced. “In our part of the country, where we have terminals, people don’t like mandates very much,” he said. “I think we will lose the drivers. I think it is a bad thing for capacity.” Knight said the leaders of Knight-Swift are trying to be as transparent as possible with drivers by letting them know the company will not do anything “until we know for sure what we are supposed to do.” Knight sees a vaccine mandate as being too complicated to be enforceable. “When you hire an employee under a certain condition and then you change the rules it is a whole different complication,” he said. “We let our drivers know that ‘we are going to work through this in a very good way for you.’” https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021: Livestock HOS exemption extended in North DakotaNorth Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Sept. 22 issued an emergency declaration extending an hours of service waiver for truck drivers hauling livestock, hay and water supplies for livestock. The declaration is due to extreme drought conditions, which are considered the worst on record for the state. Due to the drought, “farmers, ranchers and livestock producers have inadequate amounts of essential hay and water supplies to sustain livestock herds,” and “ranchers and livestock producers have been forced to find supplemental feed and water supplies or have hauled livestock to areas where water and hay inventories are more plentiful,” the declaration states. The declaration provides relief from 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399; North Dakota Century Code § 39-32-02 pertaining to hours of service; and North Dakota Century Code Chapter 39-12 pertaining to weight, hauling width and height restrictions and fees for drivers of commercial motor vehicles transporting livestock, hay and water supplies for livestock on interstate highways and state roadways. The order is effective for 30 days beginning Sept. 22. LTL carrier wins four industry awardsMississauga, Ontario-based Polaris Transportation Group, CCJ’s 2020 Innovator of the Year, announced it recently won four awards – two from each side of the U.S.-Canada border. Polaris won the 2021 Mastio Quality Award in the category for Canadian LTL Carriers, which is awarded by research agency Mastio. Every two years, the agency evaluates U.S. and Canadian carriers by gathering customer feedback to determine if core client needs are being met. In this year’s evaluation by Mastio, in the Higher Performance/Superior Offering classification, Polaris came out no. 1 in several categories against key competitors in the LTL Canadian study. Polaris was also recognized by Inbound Logistics, a leading trade journal for the logistics industry, by being named to the publication’s 2021 Top 100 3PL Providers list. North of the border, the company was recognized by a leading Canadian industry journal, Inside Logistics, with its Shipper’s Choice Award for the 14th consecutive year and its Carrier of Choice Award for the 10th time. Finally, Trucking HR Canada named Polaris a 2021 Top Fleet Employer for the fourth year in a row to recognize the company’s efforts in providing employee professional development in a safe, inclusive workplace. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD A potential COVID vaccine mandate, near-daily record numbers of container ships staging off shore at ports around the U.S., and soaring spot market rates that aren't drawing inbound drivers to those very same ports don't sound like ingredients for a very merry Christmas, but those are the realities heading into the season. This has been a challenging year for shippers as the number of loads to available drivers hovers at about a 6:1 ratio and skyrockets the closer you get to a port. Chris Preboth, vice president of Shipwell Logistics and a 15 year veteran of C.H. Robinson, said he expects the rest of 2021 to look a lot like it does now, "in fact, it's probably going to get a little worse." "We start to think about peak season and normal peak season where, if you look at just the history of trends over the last four or five years, that long haul load, the truck ratio starts to increase, especially out of the port areas and, specifically, LA and Long Beach," he said. There's currently a queue of more than 60 freighters floating off California's primary ports waiting to be unloaded and wiping out that backlog will be neither an easy nor a quick process. "To get those ships unloaded – just to get them unloaded at the port – there would have to be no more ships coming in for the next at least two months," Preboth said. Even when unloaded, the freight has got to go somewhere "and with the market already at a load to truck ratio, on average, north of six the last few weeks – and in those port areas, 10 to 20 load to truck ratios and vans – I don't see it getting any easier for our shipper community and our brokerage community over the next few months." With the holiday crush looming, Preboth said consumers can expect "significant delays" that will require a lot of flexibility on the part of shippers, carriers and end users. "You know [carriers are] going to ask for more money," he said. "And [fleets are] going to ask for more flexibility on when things can be picked up, and just as much visibility as possible and as many days lead time as possible." Demand has spiked so much over the last 18 months that Preboth is doubtful anything could happen on the supply side "that can shore this up in a short term. We can't go higher." "I've read a couple of times where the industry is somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 long haul for-hire drivers short, and it could be more now, but we can't just go hire that many drivers," he added. "And that doesn't even account for the warehousing and the office people that they're still short, too. So, we would have to see something hit demand pretty drastically for supply and demand to get a little bit closer together – to get back to what we would say is a normal load to truck ratio where things are moving pretty seamlessly." Vax mandate impact similar to a weather eventPresident Joe Biden earlier this month charged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with developing a rule, which would require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.Little progress has been made since the Sept. 9 announcement, but states and affected organizations have already lined up in opposition. Preboth doesn't foresee the potential mandate having a crippling impact on freight movement, or prompting a tidal wave of drivers to exit the industry. "We would see more drivers like we've seen the last 18 months," he said. "Because of spot rates and because of supply and demand, we've seen drivers go from those larger companies to a smaller company to, or to be an owner-operator to where they control their own destiny." Any potential impact could take upwards of two months to ripple through the entire supply chain, and the severity of it is difficult to predict. "From the very beginning, I think it's similar to like when ELDs started," Preboth said. "All of a sudden we were freaking out, 'Oh, it's going to be crazy. We're gonna lose so much.' And what we actually found out after a few weeks is, 'Hey, this actually isn't that bad. Things are still moving like they're supposed to.'" If President Biden's vaccine mandate were suddenly implemented, Preboth theorized its immediate impact would likely be similar to a hurricane or major weather event, "like in February when the freeze happened in Texas. Where it's not just in that one area, but the load to truck ratio of viable drivers, it would probably peak really quickly," he said. "After a few weeks, it would come back down. The thing about the supply chain is we have so much more visibility than we've had ever in our history. All companies and all brokerages are working to enhance their visibility and their visibility platforms. These physical tools that we have now allow us to be more agile, more nimble. "Does it mean we can fix things holistically in a week or two? No, but ... we're able to start to make an impact a little quicker than we were back in like 2014, '15, or even '17 and '18 when those impacts happen," he continued. "I remember in 2014 when Chicago was frozen. It impacted us for over a year. But [the Texas freeze] impact only lasted – the major impact – for a couple of weeks." About 77% of American adults are already at least partially vaccinated, leaving potentially more than 20% of the workforce exposed to upheaval in a push back of required jabs. However, Preboth sees widespread issues unlikely as COVID relief money, which has kept a large portion of the potential labor pool on the sidelines since last year, has ran its course. "There's people just saying, 'Hey, I can not work for six months and still get paid," he said. "They won't be able to do that. But how long does that shortage in general – of just people in the workforce – go on for, if [the vaccine mandate] does become something that they can actually enforce?" https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Torc Robotics and Daimler Truck are entering into the third year of their partnership focusing on the commercialization of a scalable Level 4 autonomous-capable truck. Torc is currently testing the Level 4 trucks on public roads in Virginia, New Mexico, and Texas, with continued route expansion in the works. Dr. Peter Vaughan Schmidt, head of Daimler Truck’s Autonomous Technology Group, noted that the development of a safe autonomous level 4 truck "remains a complex task and resembles a marathon, not a sprint." In its march toward driverless trucking, Torc CEO Michael Fleming said his company has honed in on one OEM truck platform (Freightliner's Cascadia), one business case (long-haul trucking), and one environment (U.S. interstate highways). "Commercializing self-driving trucks is a very complex endeavor and we are first solving the least complex use case, then expanding our product reach as the technical capabilities are proven," he said. "I am absolutely convinced that Torc will be the first company to a profitable scalable product in the autonomous truck space. We move to the next level of complexity when we have proven our program." Daimler and Torc formed a strategic alliance in August 2019 when Daimler invested in a majority share in Torc. Torc currently operates as an independent subsidiary and serves as the lead for autonomous system development, innovation, and testing with Daimler Truck’s internal self-driving truck efforts. In addition to testing in other regions, Torc manages a fully operational test facility in Albuquerque, N.M., running multiple routes and shifts each day. This past year, Torc expanded on-road testing in the Southwest into Texas. Additional routes are planned, strategically based on major freight haulage. This past year, Daimler also announced a strategic partnership with Luminar for collaborative development of long-range, hi-fidelity lidar for autonomous trucking and Torc selected AWS as Torc’s preferred cloud provider for data handling. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD After a long day on the road, the last thing any driver wants is to be falsely accused of risky driving by a fleet manager who’s leaning on telematics backed by murky artificial intelligence. Conversely, fleet managers, according to SmartWitness Vice President of Products Michael Bloom, don’t want to be saddled with a touchy telematics system that incorrectly flags their drivers and puts them in a dicey man versus machine moment that could lead to higher turnover. It’s a problem that Bloom said led SmartWitness to develop a more refined AI system dubbed Artificial Intelligence Driving Events (AIDE) that can more clearly distinguish between a credible driving event that requires intervention and one that doesn’t. Take, for instance, a cutthroat onramp in a bustling metro. Quick acceleration often needed to merge with traffic can come back to bite the driver. SmartWitness“In a typical driver behavior scorecard, that's going to count against that driver no matter what, and it's going to create an event,” Bloom explained. Drivers may also get dinged on harsh braking in heavy traffic where other drivers can get squirrely and suddenly pull in front of their truck during a hasty lane change. Roads through hills and mountains may also require additional braking that can lead to more unwarranted driver alerts and videos for fleet managers to review. “As a fleet manager, do I really want to sit and have to watch all of those videos? No, I don't want to do that,” Bloom said. “Number two, I'm not going to do that because I'm going to look at the first video and I'm going to see that it's not truly a harsh braking event that I need to be concerned about and then I'm going to lose faith in the efficacy of the product.” More discerning AIDistrust in a monitoring system can lead to non-use and the possibility of missing out on actual event that requires intervention, Bloom said. Cloud-based AIDE aims to build event credibility by more closely analyzing the traits of individual drivers within a real-world context where traffic happens and putting the pedal to the metal and hard braking is sometimes a necessity.“What our product does is filter out the non-events,” Bloom said. “There are literally thousands of different types of scenarios that we look at and filter out.” [Related: Lytx and HD Fleet unveil portable video event data recorder] The secret sauce in their algorithms is paying off. “What we saw in terms of efficacy in our beta testing was for about 150,000 events we saw a 10X reduction [in false positives],” Bloom said. “And because there's machine learning in the backend, what happens is the product starts to learn specifically in relation to a driver and understand what their normal driving patterns are.” AIDE can be incorporated in existing telematics systems and doesn’t require AI-enabled cameras. Bloom recommends that fleets take two approaches to cameras: equip some trucks with only road-facing cameras and others with both road and driver-facing cameras. He said he’s seen greater acceptance of driver-facing cameras, particularly among drivers who have been exonerated of wrongdoing thanks to additional video evidence that driver-facing cameras provide. Workhound CEO and co-founder Max Farrell, whose company regularly gauges driver preferences through anonymous feedback, said it’s important to involve drivers when considering driver-facing cameras. “They are generally very repelled by the idea and see it as a violation of trust and privacy,” said Farrell who’ll soon be offering a trends report on the topic. “Several do threaten to leave because companies announce implementing driver-facing cameras, or have had a bad incident involving a camera. “Our recommendation for companies pushing forward on these initiatives is to make sure to share the ‘why’ behind any new technology decision,” Farrell continued. “They need to coach how it helps the driver be safer and make more money.” https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021: ACT: Volumes, rates fell in August but remained strongThe latest release of ACT Research’s For-Hire Trucking Index, with August data, showed a drop in volumes and pricing, with a still-strong supply-demand balance. Tim Denoyer, vice president and senior analyst at ACT Research, said demand remains strong despite declining volumes, which is due in part to capacity limitations from ports to trucks to trailers to drivers. “With inventories rebuilding, strong U.S. consumer balance sheets, booming capital goods orders, and infrastructure stimulus in the pipeline, the fundamentals of the freight cycle remain positive,” Denoyer said. He added that the pricing environment is still tight, but ACT’s Pricing Index slipped in August, “likely reflecting a degree of capacity rebalancing.” “Though new equipment production is still challenged and freight demand remains strong, early signs of driver hiring improvements are beginning to change the recent recipe for record rate increases,” he said. ACT also saw some rebalancing of the supply-demand balance, with some easing of the tight freight market of the past 14 months. “Class 8 sales are constrained by parts shortages and tight inventories, so equipment capacity is lagging demand,” Denoyer noted. “With some structural driver issues likely to outlast the pandemic and a generally positive freight outlook, we do not expect the market to loosen quickly, but the rebalancing has begun.” Kodiak announces next-gen autonomous truckSelf-driving trucking company Kodiak Robotics announced Tuesday its fourth-generation autonomous truck. The trucks will feature Luminar’s Iris LiDAR, ZF Full Range Radar, Hesai 360-degree scanning LiDARs for side- and rear-view detection, Cummins X15 Series engines, Bridgestone smart-sensing tire technology and the NVIDIA Drive platform. The trucks will debut on-road starting in the fourth quarter of 2021, as Kodiak begins to take delivery of 15 new tractors. Kodiak’s fourth-generation truck features a modular and discreet sensor suite in just three locations: a slim profile “center pod” on the front roofline of the truck, and pods integrated into both side mirrors. This well-integrated and low-profile sensor placement vastly simplifies sensor installation and maintenance, and increases safety. Kodiak has placed an order for an additional 15 Paccar trucks that will be delivered over the next year. The trucks will more than double the company’s fleet size and help Kodiak expand its growing business delivering freight for commercial customers in Texas and beyond. Over the next couple years, the company plans to expand throughout the southern half of the United States into other freight-rich corridors. Maverick announces new sign-on bonusesMaverick Transportation (CCJ Top 250, No. 75) is announcing its third sign-on bonus for 2021. Effective Sunday, Oct. 3, all incoming student drivers holding a Class A CDL and 0-5 months of experience will receive a $2,000 sign-on bonus. Additionally, Maverick is also offering a $5,000 sign-on bonus for experienced drivers with 6-plus months of experience and a $3,000 sign-on bonus for certain dedicated securement job openings. Penske opens new Fort Worth facilityPenske Truck Leasing has constructed a new state-of-the-art facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Located at 1300 John Burgess Drive, it is the third full-service company location in the Fort Worth area. Penske now has a total of 16 locations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The new location offers consumer and commercial truck rental, full-service truck leasing and contract truck fleet maintenance. It is also outfitted with the company's proprietary fully digital and voice-directed preventive maintenance process and connected fleet solutions. The location is 23,470-square-feet and sits on 12.5 acres. It has five truck service bays, an automated wash bay and a full-service fuel island. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Trucking and logistics management service company Magnus Technologies announced a new enterprise SaaS-based transportation management system (TMS) for truckload carriers. Magnus said that analysis of existing TMS products in the truckload market shows pent-up demand for a scalable, enterprise SaaS-based platform that can replace outdated client-server architectures and meet complex and evolving business needs. “Motor carriers have been looking to grow and scale their businesses at a faster pace but are often limited by past investments in TMS systems with client-server architecture,” said Matt Cartwright, CEO of Magnus Technologies. “We are happy to introduce a cloud-native, enterprise-grade TMS with cutting-edge technology that is scalable to carriers of all sizes at an affordable price point.” Austin, Texas-based Magnus has 20 years of experience designing, developing, and delivering enterprise TMS software, beginning with a platform used by auto transporters and logistics companies. The new Magnus Technologies Platform offers truckload carriers extensive functionality and integrations with best-in-class software and services, the company announced. The Magnus platform is available through a monthly subscription with fluid pricing based on the number of active trucks in a fleet. The platform has the following components:
Magnus Technologies made the announcement at the Truckload Carriers Association Annual Convention, Sept. 25-28 in Las Vegas. Motorcity Systems and Eleos expand driver workflowMotorcity Systems, a provider of software and systems integration, has added new automated dispatch-driver communication and workflow features to the Eleos mobile platform via the company’s Relay system. The Relay system by Motorcity gives dispatchers visibility across different communications devices and platforms. It has integrations with numerous third-party ELD telematics, mobile communications platforms and devices, as well as new or legacy transportation management software (TMS) systems that fleets use. With Relay, fleets can organize drivers in groups to track conversations and the completion of digital forms on a visual timeline. Visual and audio cues alert dispatchers and drivers when new messages are received. Relay also has real-time chat, group messaging and a search engine, among other features. Eleos is a fully customizable, white-labeled workflow app used by motor carriers for in-cab and out-of-cab functions. The app unifies trip management for professional truck drivers through a single login and interface to access ELD data, trip planning, turn-by-turn navigation, document scanning and other features. “We built Relay to address the communication and messaging problems that motor carriers and drivers experience with traditional TMS and back office systems,” said Bob Stemple, co-founder and president of Motorcity Systems. “Relay removes the delay in message delivery seen in legacy systems and eliminates lost messages or texts by integrating these into one unified messaging platform — bridging the after-hours communication gap.” Motorcity Systems also supports the Drivewyze service through the Eleos workflow app. Drivewyze is the largest public-private weigh station bypass network in North America. “The Relay integration is the latest example of how Motorcity Systems is applying its technology and expertise to help Eleos customers get even more out of their technology and improve the driver experience,” said Wes Pollock, vice president of sales and strategic partnerships at Eleos. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Just as the ELD mandate led to an expansion of fleet telematics and mobility platforms, motor carriers have seen a new wave of products enter the market in response to the insurance crisis to better protect their companies from accident risks. Three of the latest developments from KeepTruckin, VideoProtects by J.J. Keller and CameraMatics show major improvements in computing power and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect a wide spectrum of risky driving behaviors at economical price points. KeepTruckin began selling its first generation camera about four years ago and has an install base of over 100,000 devices. The company now has 2,500 employees worldwide and recently raised $190 million with a market valuation of $2.3 billion. KeepTruckin has been developing its next-generation AI Dashcam for more than a year in collaboration with Ambarella, a company that is perhaps best known for developing the chipsets and video compression technology for GoPro cameras. The hardware from Ambarella has ultra-high 1440p HD video resolution and a wide field of view for more coverage. The camera’s storage holds up to 104 hours of video that can be retrieved on demand. The hardware has the computing power to support KeepTruckin’s computer vision algorithms that accurately detect and alert drivers to unsafe behaviors that include close following distance, cell phone use, fatigue and not using a seat belt. KeepTruckin now has an in-house safety team to analyze every video within seconds to determine the context and severity of risky behavior. Videos that do not represent actual risk are filtered out, and remaining video footage is prioritized based on risk level. Included in the AI Dashcam service is a DRIVE score that benchmarks each safety event against the entire KeepTruckin network of over 400,000 vehicles operated by more than 100,000 fleets. The DRIVE score pinpoints specific behaviors to coach and identifies safe driving behaviors. KeepTruckin told CCJ that hardware for its new AI Dashcam will be priced in the low $100s and with a monthly subscription of under $15. New video from J.J. KellerJ. J. Keller & Associates has a new VideoProtects video monitoring service available on the Geotab Marketplace, a place where fleets can go for an ecosystem of applications and add-ons for their Geotab ELD and telematics platform.VideoProtects is a software-as-a-service that connects fleets to VideoProtects on-board cameras and proprietary AI technology. The technology recognizes driver fatigue, tailgating, forward collision warnings and other risky driving behaviors. Additionally, it monitors “trigger” events such as harsh braking, harsh cornering and collisions detected by Geotab’s in-vehicle platform. When risky events occur, VideoProtects alerts drivers and sends video footage combined with event data to a fleet’s Geotab system for a “single source of truth,” said Mike Nalepka, general manager of VideoProtects by J.J. Keller. The user interface presents video and analytics in a workflow called “smart thumbnails” that identify areas of risk for managers to coach drivers, either in person or through a smartphone app. J.J. Keller is planning to make a video review service available to fleets that want it, Nalepka said. The thumbnails show a forward-facing and driver-facing view along with event triggers from Geotab. When reviewing the video events, users can send clips to drivers to review on their smartphone. Through integration with Geotab, drivers receive the messages when they are not driving. The scoring system ranks drivers on a scale of 100 over the last 30 calendar days. The video records at a 720 or 1080 high definition with 128 GB of storage, and an optional 256 GB, which holds between three and four weeks of driving video that can be retrieved at any time. The hardware is sold through Geotab resellers in the mid-$300 range. “J. J. Keller VideoProtects has assembled a world-class team of people to design a cost-effective but capable camera solution that focuses on ease of use and open access to cameras,” said Neil Cawse, CEO of Geotab. New entry from IrelandAn Ireland-based fleet telematics and safety technology supplier, CameraMatics, has recently expanded across the United States.CameraMatics was founded in 2016 and today has over 1,000 customers globally that operate tens of thousands of vehicles. CameraMatics has grown its customer subscription base 300% since January 2020. The CameraMatics platform includes connected camera technology, vision systems, AI, machine learning and telematics, combined with fleet safety modules. The platform has a mobile driver app with features that include a scorecard, accident reporting and equipment inspection reports. Drivers are alerted and can be coached through the app on behaviors such as speeding, tailgating, cell phone use, hard braking and fuel consumption. CameraMatics told CCJ it plans to add an ELD to the platform soon. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Being an owner-operator is an appealing career option for many drivers, but motor carriers that create opportunities through lease-purchase agreements face mounting legal challenges. Motor carriers were hoping for Trump Administration changes to the Federal Labor Standards Act to strengthen their defense. The changes were scheduled to take effect on March 8, 2021, but were quickly nullified when the Biden administration took over control of the Department of Labor. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives also passed a PRO Act earlier this year to amend the federal National Labor Relations Act with the same Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5) test used in California to determine contractor status. The AB-5 test has been the law in California since January 1. The PRO Act passed in the House but has not gone anywhere in the Senate yet. “I hope it sits there for a very long time,” said transportation attorney Mark Hunt, a partner at King & Ballow who head’s the firm’s independent contractor and distribution law section in Nashville, Tenn. Hunt presented on Monday, Sept. 27, at the Truckload Carriers Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas. As an attorney who defends carriers against class-action lawsuits, Hunt said that cases against motor carriers usually start with a disgruntled owner-operator getting a plaintiff attorney who then gets other drivers involved. Class-action lawsuits against motor carriers have reached large settlements, but most of the money goes towards paying the plaintiff attorney fees, he said. States have also been actively pursuing cases of employee misclassification. “Getting out of one of these lawsuits is hard and expensive to defend,” Hunt said. Hunt reviewed a number of settlements against motor carriers in the past few years, all of which have contributed to the current legal climate.
A — Workers have to be free from direction and control. The California Supreme Court broadened this to mean that a company only has to have a right to exercise control, regardless of whether or not they actually do control. B — Workers have to be doing something separate from what the company does. This test is virtually impossible for motor carriers to pass since drivers are in the same business of distribution, Hunt said. C — Workers must be engaged in an independently established trade and offer services to the public. This test is also impossible for most carriers to pass since their contractors do business exclusively with them, he noted. California codified the ABC test into law with the AB-5 rule. The California Trucking Association (CTA) promptly challenged the rule, claiming it pre-empted Federal Aviation Authorization that forbids states from enacting laws related to the price, route or service of any motor carrier. A federal district court in southern California granted CTA a preliminary injunction on Jan 16, 2020 that halted enforcement of the AB-5 rule. On April 28, 2021, a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of the district court’s decision, claiming the court abused its discretion by enjoining AB-5. CTA petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court by filing a Writ of Certiorari on Aug. 9. The Supreme Court does not have to take case, Hunt said, but “I hope they will grant a petition.” At a minimum, Hunt recommended fleets include language in their contracts that says owner-operators can turn down loads. Fleets should also make drivers responsible for all of their own repairs and fuel, and not require them to purchase or rent equipment from an affiliated leasing company. “It is always easier to prove independent contractor status when a driver has his own equipment and has his own authority,” he said. Additionally, he said that fleets should have separate onboarding and training programs for employee and contractor drivers. They should also have separate policy handbooks as well as different processes, procedures and paperwork. “You can’t treat them the same way,” he said. “There has to be distinctions.” https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD |
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