Platform Science to Acquire Trimble’s Fleet Telematics Units
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LAS VEGAS — Platform Science has agreed to acquire Trimble’s global fleet telematics business units as part of a new partnership between the transportation technology suppliers.
The deal will expand Platform Science’s in-cab commercial vehicle technology offerings by combining its existing connected truck platform with Trimble’s transportation telematics systems, including the Trimble Mobility business formerly known as PeopleNet.
Trimble will retain the rest of its transportation technology portfolio, which includes transportation management software, commercial truck routing and mapping software, freight procurement and visibility, data analytics and vehicle maintenance software.
As part of the agreement, Trimble will take a 32.5% stake in Platform Science and receive a seat on Platform Science’s board of directors.
A view of the exhibit hall at Trimble Insight. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
The companies anticipate that the transaction will close in the first half of 2025.
Trimble and Platform Science revealed the agreement in a Sept. 15 joint announcement heading into Trimble’s 2024 Insight Tech Conference, held Sept. 15-17.
“We believe combining our global transportation telematics portfolio with Platform Science’s will further advance fleet mobility and provide our customers with a broader portfolio of solutions to solve industry problems,” Trimble CEO Rob Painter said in the announcement.
The companies’ commercial vehicle telematics products provide capabilities ranging from vehicle and driver performance monitoring and in-cab communications to fleet safety and regulatory compliance, including electronic logging of drivers’ hours of service.
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San Diego-based Platform Science, founded in 2015, already has won the business of some of North America’s largest commercial trucking fleets with its Virtual Vehicle platform, which utilizes truck manufacturers’ built-in telematics systems rather than aftermarket installations. Prominent fleet customers include Schneider, Werner Enterprises, C.R. England and Covenant Logistics.
These companies rank Nos. 9, 16, 42 and 40, respectively, on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
Jack Kennedy, co-founder and CEO of Platform Science, described the partnership with Trimble as “the inflection point for a true platform approach to transportation technology.”
Perusing the expo hall at #TrimbleInsight2024 in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/S2U9SIgcx7 — Seth Clevenger (@SethClevenger) September 16, 2024
“Now, powered by OEM-native software services, we will deliver unprecedented choice,” Kennedy said. “We are confident choice will expand exponentially as existing providers and new developers now see the opportunity to reach vehicles everywhere with high-quality OEM data delivered in a consistent, reliable way.”
At Insight’s opening general session on Sept. 16, Painter said Trimble and Platform Science will work together to “transform the future of in-cab technology.”
Combining the companies’ telematics businesses will provide greater “scale, breadth and focus” by enabling more investment in product development and bringing complementary capabilities to customers through a business fully focused on the driver experience and optimizing workflows, he said.
Kennedy, who joined Painter on stage to discuss the deal, said the acquisition of Trimble’s telematics business will make it possible for Platform Science to scale up at a quicker pace.
“We are going to go really fast and far together,” he said. “This is the future, as we envisioned it, happening even faster than we thought.”
The agreement with Platform Science represents a shift in direction for Trimble, which took its first big step into the North American trucking technology sector with its acquisition of PeopleNet Communications Corp. in 2011.
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In the years that followed, Trimble went on to acquire several other major players in the transportation technology space, including transportation management software vendor TMW Systems in 2012, routing and mapping software firm ALK Technologies in 2013, freight visibility provider 10-4 Systems in 2017 and transportation management platform Transporeon in 2023.
When Platform Science takes majority ownership of Trimble’s truck telematics properties, Trimble’s transportation segment will become a more focused business centered on enterprise software, mapping, freight visibility and supply chain management.
“I think we’re in a moment where capital markets for this part of the business will reward more of a pure play,” Painter said.
While the former PeopleNet formed the core of Trimble’s fleet telematics business in North America, the company also acquired other transportation telematics firms over the years, including GeoTrac Systems in 2012 and Cadec Global in 2015, as well as telematics businesses in Europe and Brazil.
A Trimble transportation telematics system. (Trimble)
Trimble’s global telematics business units, which are part of the company’s Transportation & Logistics reporting segment, generated about $300 million in revenue and $30 million in operating profit during the previous 12 months, Trimble said.
Kennedy said Platform Science, since its beginning, has focused on making it easier for software developers to innovate and for end users to select and deploy the applications that best fit their needs on a common platform.
“We started with the goal of making it easy to build, integrate, choose and use,” he said.
Acquiring the Trimble telematics business will give Platform Science global scale and add complementary products in some categories, Kennedy said.
While he declined to outline exactly how the Trimble and Platform Science telematics businesses might come together post acquisition, Kennedy said customers “will get to keep using whatever they want to use in whatever fashion is most convenient for them.”
In the 13 years since Trimble acquired PeopleNet, the commercial truck telematics business has been transformed by advances in mobile technology and government regulation.
The federal electronic logging device mandate, which requires motor carriers to automatically record driver hours-of-service data with ELDs rather than paper logbooks, created a massive market for in-cab technology for carriers of all sizes when it was phased in starting in late 2017.
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