Isaac Introduces Analytics Platform and First AI Features
[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.]
DALLAS — In-cab technology supplier Isaac Instruments is rolling out a new analytics platform and its first set of features powered by artificial intelligence to help trucking companies derive more value from their data.
The company’s new Isaac Analytics product is designed to help fleets extract deeper insights from the information they are collecting on their operations so they can make better business decisions informed by data, not just gut feelings and rules of thumb.
At the same time, Isaac is preparing to introduce AI-enabled fleet management features to unlock further efficiency gains, starting with new fuel-economy metrics.
CEO Jacques DeLarochellière positioned AI implementation as an opportunity for fleets to improve management practices and gain a competitive advantage in the freight marketplace.
“AI will not replace people,” he said. “People using AI will replace people not using AI.”
The trucking telematics vendor introduced the new capabilities at its Horizon 2024 user conference, held Oct. 21-23.
CEO Jacques DeLarochelliere discusses @isaac_telemetry’s investments in artificial intelligence: “AI will not replace people. People using AI will replace people not using AI.” pic.twitter.com/MQNOR9J7v4 — Seth Clevenger (@SethClevenger) October 22, 2024
With Isaac Analytics, fleet customers will be able to dig into their operational data to identify opportunities to improve performance and save costs.
The cloud-based business intelligence platform provides detailed data and visualizations covering numerous metrics, including their Isaac Coach driver performance results, critical events such as hard braking, driving time, engine idling, hours-of-service violations, asset utilization and fuel economy.
Isaac Analytics, available starting in November, also automatically identifies key trends in the data to flag significant changes or highlight areas for improvement.
During a panel discussion, two fleet executives shared their experiences piloting an early version of the analytics platform.
“Previously you’d have to go into various data interfaces,” said Matthew Campbell, manager of transformational excellence and analytics at Challenger Motor Freight. “This tool is taking all the data points and consolidating, transforming, cleansing and bringing them into a one-stop shop. That alone is super powerful.”
From left: Tucker Freight Lines' Cody McClain, Challenger Motor Freight's Matthew Campbell and Isaac Instruments' J.S. Bouchard discuss how fleets can use data analytics to improve their operations at Isaac's 2024 user conference in Dallas. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Cody McClain, vice president of safety and human resources at Tucker Freight Lines, said the idle time metrics were “a big revelation” for his company. Understanding engine idling at a terminal level, for example, showed how well each location was implementing company initiatives.
Isaac also introduced its AI Lab initiative for customers that want to push the limits of data analytics by utilizing AI and machine learning.
The first AI Lab feature is Isaac Fuel Equivalent, which is designed to create fairer, more accurate fuel-efficiency assessments for both trucks and drivers.
Apart from driver and vehicle performance, many other factors also affect real-world fuel economy, including the weight of the load and the route’s geographic terrain.
Isaac Instruments Chief Product Officer J.S. Bouchard speaks to conference attendees. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Fuel Equivalent harnesses AI to adjust driver and vehicle fuel-efficiency metrics in a way that accounts for those many variables to provide an apples-to-apples comparison, said J.S. Bouchard, Isaac’s chief product officer.
“Using AI, we’re modifying the mpg — we’re adjusting miles per gallon — to account for the load, for the weight, for the driver, so we can compare truck-to-truck performance,” he said.
This information could give trucking companies a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different vehicles in their fleet, which could inform their equipment spec’ing and purchasing decisions or help them identify underperforming trucks that might have an underlying maintenance problem.
The driver-focused version of Fuel Equivalent could support driver coaching efforts and create more precise, fairer scoring for performance-based incentive programs.
Bouchard also previewed two other AI Lab projects — one that tracks hauled weight and road types and another that provides better visibility into network traffic speeds.
Isaac Instruments hardware on display at the company's user conference in Dallas. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Initially, Isaac will make AI Lab available to a limited group of fleet customers to help pave the way for broader rollouts in the future.
The new capabilities are the first product features to come out of Isaac’s in-house AI development team, which is harnessing the vast amount of data the company already gathers through its onboard technology.
“Data is rocket fuel for AI,” DeLarochellière said. “You need the right data.”
Thus far, Issac has invested about C$10 million into its AI development efforts, he said.
Isaac also is actively developing AI for other use cases, including a driver retention model that predicts which drivers are most likely to leave an organization, giving fleets an opportunity to meet with those drivers proactively to address any concerns before it’s too late.
Moving forward, the rise of AI only increases the importance of cybersecurity and data privacy, DeLarochellière said, adding that Isaac customers’ data is managed in the United States and Canada, not sent to servers in unfriendly countries.
“Our AI models are trained by our engineers here,” he said. “That’s important.”
Want more news? Listen to today's daily briefing above or go here for more info
The event, which was Isaac’s first user conference in the United States, took place a few weeks prior to a French language version of the program that will be held at the company’s headquarters in Saint-Bruno-De-Montarville, Quebec.
Isaac, founded 25 years ago, built a large base of fleet customers in Quebec and then extended its reach throughout Canada over the years before beginning a concerted push into the U.S. trucking market in 2020.
Since then, the company has onboarded more than 50 U.S.-based fleet operators, including Heartland Express, Quality Carriers and Leonard’s Express, which rank Nos. 36, 51 and 85, respectively, on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
DeLarochellière noted the roller coaster of disruptions and volatile freight market conditions that fleets have experienced during and after the pandemic.
“It was a tough four years, to be sure,” he said.
He emphasized Isaac’s stability and long-term commitment to serving the transportation industry in a technology market that has seen numerous mergers, acquisitions and business closures in recent times.
“Your partners have to be healthy for you to be healthy, and Isaac is healthy,” DeLarochellière said.
