Technology is always changing trucking, but I kind of see two different kinds of changes. There are forced changes, such as engine and EPA technology mandated changes, changes in fuel, changes that trucking companies have no choice but to accept so they budget for them.

Then there are those changes that trucking companies can decide whether or not they want to adopt. A lot of these types of changes are technology driven changes that can improve efficiencies, improve productivity, improve the life of the driver; those are the types of things that in-cab technology does.

The technology advances in trucking really started with trailer tracking, progressing to dispatch, electronic on-board recorders and engine monitoring systems. With the rapid growth of Wi-Fi, in-cab computing is the natural next step in the evolution of technology’s influence in trucking.

New in-cab technology adds a lot to a carrier’s bottom line by saving costs and improving efficiencies and communication. Since the advent of cell phone technology, in-cab technology been around for over 20; only now we’re changing to a computing paradigm where you have internet connectivity to computers in the truck that bring a lot of new tools to the table at roughly the same costs as the earliest in-cab technology.

These new technologies are primarily geared towards improving asset utilization. For instance, let’s say you have a turn-by-turn navigation system running in the cab, and that keeps the driver from getting lost for three hours per week, translating into 90 miles per week of lost, out-of-route driving, wasting fuel and increasing the likelihood of accidents. If drivers are spending time looking for stops, that truck is non-productive during that time; and that’s just one example.

If you set up a scanner in the truck, you can scan documents like the bill of lading, getting them into office as soon as the delivery is made, advancing your cash flow and preventing your drivers from unnecessarily driving out-of-route miles in order to get to a scanning kiosk, wasting time and generating unnecessary wear-and-tear on your trucks.

Using cellular, you have the ability to compile real-time hours of service information, allowing you to keep the driver logs up to date and entered into your back-end safety system in a timelier manner. There really are all sorts of ways, because of the band-width, to improve your processes.

I really think that companies that don’t invest in new technologies going forward, over time will find that their metrics are wrong, they’re getting underbid, drivers are leaving them for other companies – especially with technologies that are driver-centric – so over time, you will start to find yourself not being competitive.