Artificial Intelligence is enabling the next great leap forward in logistics efficiency, agility and safety. Read on to discover how Trimble Video Intelligence and Transporeon Fleet Planner and Fleet Operator can help carriers to reap the many upsides of AI.
We’ve all heard about the revolutionary impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having on society, but the growth opportunities for business are sometimes underplayed. In fact, AI has a very positive and powerful role to play in transportation commerce, not least in improving carrier costs and processes. The wins cross a wide spectrum, from the planning stage, through FTL execution all the way through to road and driver safety.
Look at the familiar challenges that transportation and logistics enterprises face every day: striving for small margins in a highly competitive arena, with hard-pressed manual resources, looking to cooperate as best they can to achieve optimal results, all amid a sea of differing customer priorities and competing external factors. It’s tricky enough to navigate a single truck efficiently from A to B (via C), let alone when you multiply this by hundreds or perhaps even thousands of trucks in the same company. Human error is just part of what makes us human – and in this instance, relying on just your people means somewhere down the line, quality or cost (or both) are likely to take a hit.
Flawless performance is possible, however, for a computer. A computer loves complexity.
“It’s the normal playing field. It can deal with a huge number of conflicting data points and make accurate evaluations in no time.”
- Andras Kovacs, Transporeon Tribe Lead Fleet Optimisation
Add the revolutionary learning power enabled by AI data capture and you create a launchpad for rocketing profit margins. Especially when human resources such as drivers and dispatchers are so hard to recruit and retain across the transportation sector. AI is not designed to replace your people – it is there to help them, to give them more consistency and to facilitate high performance from day one in the job.
Those benefits can be felt across your business – examples include long-term demand forecasting, to optimised route planning and last-mile precision; or the transition from reams of paper to at-a-glance digital confirmation. Each capability on its own sharpens your competitive edge – add them together and you have an unbeatable combination.
By elevating the roles of planners and dispatchers, you’re enabling drivers to do what they do best, rather than wasting precious hours in non-driving scenarios.
Delivering optimal truck to cargo allocations: Transporeon Fleet Planner
In an ideal world, your truck to cargo allocation would be a perfect fit, every time. That’s easier said than done, because there are always potential constraints in today’s volatile world – customer needs, regulations, routes, driving bans must all be factored in, and not just for one truck, but for 50, 100, or more. AI assesses all of these factors to reveal your best-case scenario in an instant.
Transporeon Fleet Planner empowers you to react to any changes throughout the day in the best possible way according to your business requirements. Harvesting powerful business data at shipment, vehicle and driver level, it analyses and calculates in real time the combinations that will deliver the best outcome for your customers and for your business.
Elevating the dispatcher: Transporeon Fleet Operator
The logical next step onwards from Fleet Planner is to assist the daily dispatcher with a similar suite of capabilities. That’s exactly what Transporeon Fleet Operator does, calculating the optimal itinerary for individual and multiple FTL executions and providing a 360-degree overview of everything.
Using algorithms sourced from vast data lakes including parking, ferries, tunnels and routing plans, and incorporating constraints such as times, costs and driving regulations, it presents the FTL dispatcher with previously unmatchable scope and decision-making evidence.
Unexpected event alerts – such as delays or unscheduled trailer openings – enable fast corrective opportunities, backed up by streamlined communication with individual drivers via the user interface.
Protecting precious drivers: Video Intelligence and Trimble Dashcam
The EU Commission wants to move as close as possible to zero fatalities in road transport by 2050 (‘Vision Zero’) and reduce the average death toll by half (10,000) by 2030. AI is going to contribute, improving both road safety and driver performance.
The overall goal of Trimble Video Intelligence is to deliver protection and prevention on the road. AI-enabled Trimble Dashcam will protect your drivers in ways that have never been possible before, issuing alerts to the driver when, for instance, pedestrians are in the vicinity, or a collision may be imminent. Trimble Video Intelligence protects your drivers. In road accidents, the professional truck driver is rarely at fault – Trimble Video Intelligence helps to prove this using video evidence and engine data, and thus helping to prevent costly insurance and legal processes – a process which can also be extremely mentally draining for drivers whose livelihoods depend on their driving skill and experience.
“We recognise the challenges drivers face on the road. Trimble Dashcam goes beyond detecting tiredness or distractions – it responds by coaching the driver for improved performance, all while respecting their privacy. It’s about empowering drivers and helping them improve their driving performance via coaching.”
- Will Jeremiah, Trimble Senior Product Manager of Video Intelligence
It’s time for carriers across the transportation sector to embrace the benefits enabled by AI.
Watch or listen to episode 4 of our Carrier Community Talks podcast: Understanding the impact of AI in the logistics industry to hear Will and Andras talk in more detail about the opportunities.
