Omnitracs Aims to Increase Collaboration Among Its Business Units
DALLAS — Omnitracs and its expanding collection of trucking technology businesses will move forward as “one team,” collaborating on product development to help trucking firms improve their operations, the company’s chief executive said.
“We’ve got a great group of organizations, of people, of technologies and solutions that are starting to interoperate together, and we want to be focused on transforming transportation with technology and insight in a rapidly-changing world,” CEO John Graham said here Feb. 9 at Omnitracs’ first user conference as a stand-alone company.
“I think we’re doing some of that today, but we want to do more of it as we work together across our corporation.”
Omnitracs was part of Qualcomm Inc. before Vista Equity Partners purchased the business for about $800 million in November 2013.
Less than 15 months later, the now-independent company has already completed two major acquisitions to broaden its offerings. It purchased routing software firm Roadnet Technologies in December 2013 and more recently acquired XRS Corp., a provider of fleet-management software for smart phones and tablets, at the end of October.
Prior to the spinoff, Omnitracs acquired fleet-management software company Sylectus and predictive analytics firm FleetRisk Advisors, which it recently renamed as Omnitracs Analytics.
Graham said joint development efforts involving the engineering and product management teams from different Omnitracs business units are under way and will be important for the company’s growth moving forward.
He also said Omnitracs’ expanded capabilities will enable it to supply technologies to fleets of all sizes and a variety of operation types, including longhaul and shorthaul, for-hire and private.
David Post, Omnitracs’ chief operating officer, outlined some of the company’s future development plans.
He said Omnitracs is looking at ways to provide drivers with greater productivity outside the cab for functions such as proof of delivery, photos and customer surveys.
It is also working to extend its analytics capabilities to help carriers predict the fuel usage for a particular trip and determine which drivers present a risk for severe accidents.
Post said Roadnet is improving its algorithms to take into account external factors such as weather, traffic and accidents and to enable fleets to provide precise delivery windows to their customers.
He also said Omnitracs envisions partnerships with truck manufacturers and first-tier suppliers to deliver deeper vehicle diagnostics.
“We believe there’s a future of vehicle prognostics where we can predict the probability of a fault occurring,” Post said. “What’s better than addressing a fault when it occurs? Addressing it before it occurs.”
Chief Technology Officer Dan Speicher shed some light on the company’s plans to help carriers enhance safety.
He said Omnitracs is investigating a hands-free interface for drivers to interact with the company’s in-cab software.
“Using voice recognition technology, we will keep the driver’s hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road while voice-based prompts can alert the driver of upcoming events on the journey ahead,” Speicher said.
To combat texting while driving, the company is also considering an application to report or interfere with personal cellphone usage while the vehicle is in motion.
Omnitracs is looking into building a database of dangerous roads or intersections so drivers can choose to avoid those areas, he added.
Another plan involves capturing video recordings before, during and after critical events that would be available for review.
Omnitracs' user conference is under way. I expect to hear a lot about their acquisitions of @Roadnet and @XRSCorp pic.twitter.com/kfWWh5VLcK — Seth Clevenger (@SethClevenger) February 9, 2015
