Tech Providers Set Focus on Safety, HOS Mandates
By Dan Leone, Staff Reporter
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Safety and compliance issues were in the spotlight for the trucking industry in 2010, and technology providers subsequently sharpened their focus on products and services aimed at helping fleets cope with increased government scrutiny.
PeopleNet CEO Ron Konezny summed up the mood for the year when, during his company’s annual user group conference this summer, he remarked that “Safety is like the new rock star.”
Trends began to emerge early in the year, well ahead of the phase-in of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s CSA rating system at the end of 2010.
FMCSA’s scoring methodology was released into the public domain, so third-party software shops were able to create unofficial “CSA Scorecards” for carriers. Such software gave carriers an off-the-shelf option for previewing their performance under the new safety regulations.
Carriers that had done the proper data mining — those equipped with onboard computers that constantly gather driver and vehicle data during revenue runs — found themselves on the receiving end of CSA software pitches as early as February.
Discussion of the CSA system loomed large at trucking industry conferences and user groups, with Qualcomm Inc.’s Vision meeting setting the pace in February.
Since the CSA program’s formal rollout, compliance-service providers have continued their push to help fleets decode the BASIC — Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories — system that underpins CSA.
Companies such as RAIR Inc. and J.J. Keller & Associates released suites of software products and services and hosted instructional CSA-themed webinars for customers and curious fleets alike throughout the year.
Vigillo Inc. and EBE Technologies also published CSA software. In addition, the major enterprise software providers to the trucking industry, TMW Systems and McLeod Software, took steps to integrate CSA-related data into their software products.
Issues surrounding electronic onboard recorders shared the spotlight with the CSA program this year.
In April, FMCSA codified the definition of an EOBR for the first time. The current generation of electroniclogging devices are officially known as “Automated Onboard Recording Devices,” and FMCSA-prescribed technical requirements for such systems are considerably less stringent than the specs to which federally sanctioned EOBRs must conform.
FMCSA’s initial technical requirements contained operational temperature guidelines and connectivity specifications that manufacturers and industry advocates deemed unachievable without substantial redesigns of existing EOBRs.
That prompted an industry coalition to lobby FMCSA to revise those technical specifications.
The major mobile communications vendors — Qualcomm Inc., PeopleNet, and Xata Corp. — all said they have seen an uptick in EOBR adoption as fleets moved to get ahead of the curve on new safety regulations.
J.J. Keller did not fail to notice that trend and went to market with its first-ever electronic logging product.
Aside from safety, some merger and acquisition activity affected the trucking technology sector in 2010.
Notably, map maker Rand McNally bought a minority stake in DriverTech LLC, a Salt Lake City mobile communications vendor.
Under the deal, DriverTech, which counts among its clients big truckload carriers such as U.S. Xpress Enterprises and Interstate Distributor Co., ceded functions like marketing and customer support to Rand McNally.
Also in 2010, McLeod Software, one of the two remaining enterprise/dispatch software specialists serving the trucking industry, bought Enterprise Information Solutions, a small Chicago-area developer that specialized in dispatch software for less-than-truckload carriers.
McLeod’s first dedicated LTL enterprise product is due out early next year. It represents McLeod’s first serious foray into the LTL software market — a segment already served by TMW Systems.
