Weather Co., Riskpulse Team to Alert Truck Drivers to Road Conditions
The Weather Co., which owns Weather.com and the popular Weather Underground, launched a service May 15 that targets the trucking industry and interstate truck drivers.
“Operations Dashboard for Ground Transportation” will inform carriers about road hazards such as rain, wind, fog, ice, flooding, popping alerts for inclement conditions along the route of a truck.
“The cost of weather-related delay to the freight industry was estimated at $8.659 billion or 1.6% of the total estimated freight market of $574 billion,” the U.S. Department of Transportation wrote in 2012. “While this appears on the surface to be a small percentage, the dollar value is significant, and it is important to note that improvements to road weather management programs, which are generally relatively inexpensive, can have major payoffs from a benefit/cost standpoint.”
“By providing freight and logistics companies with a single view of critical weather and traffic information, we are providing them with the ability to make proactive decisions that can reduce inefficiencies and potentially keep their drivers out of harm’s way,” said Mark Gildersleeve, vice president and head of business solutions at The Weather Co.
Earlier in May, TransFX announced a partnership with Riskpulse to provide weather information for a trucking futures exchange due to launch late this summer.
Riskpulse’s team of meteorologists and data scientists offer futures traders information about how inclement weather could disrupt the supply chain in the short term.
Investors use weather forecasts to determine what the likely spot market price will be on a particular lane in the future, similar to the New York Mercantile Exchange markets on commodity futures.
