Data is all around us — and our relationship with it continues to evolve.
Recently, I joined our friends at the HDT Talks Trucking podcast to share my thoughts around AI, machine learning, and how we make sense of everything data-related in transportation and logistics. You can listen to the first out of three episodes, Turning Trends into Actions, here, and I highly recommend you do! Read on for a few tidbits from our conversation.
When data met Omnitracs
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) transformed the way we look at our universe. After it launched in April 1990, I joined the HST Science Operations Team, working on scheduling space observations for astronomers using the telescope. During this time, I began applying AI algorithms to optimize the observations on the telescope. It was here my love of data, AI, algorithms, and machine learning grew substantially and propelled me forward along my career path.
Our technology advancements, particularly in transportation, have helped us come so far today. Because of these inventions and breakthroughs, these new ways to connect to our world and our universe, that data and its derivatives have become so critical to us. With that mentality top of mind, I knew Omnitracs was the place to go to leverage my AI and machine learning vision to the trucking space.
From applications like Siri and Alexa, which use natural language processing to respond to our real-time requests, to devices like smart cameras, AI and machine learning are ever-present in our day-to-day lives. At Omnitracs, we’ve worked tirelessly to bring this data-evolution to our industry. Initially, we started out focusing on in-cab communication and tracking. Now, we’ve expanded our focus to transportation intelligence, safety, vehicle metrics, incremental autonomous features, and everything in between.
What data can tell us about our industry, the economy, and your business
When the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the world as we knew it in early 2020, we monitored trends over time. We analyzed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) over various industry segments, including oil and gas, manufacturing, and e-commerce. We also created subdivisions in our analysis of these industries, including last-mile, over-the-road, large fleets, and small fleets.
Over the year, the KPIs indicated an industry slowdown. A slow and steady recovery has followed this slowdown. Additionally, we compared these KPIs to the U.S. economy. In doing so, we validated how trucking is the heartbeat of our economy, and metrics in our industry serve as highly valuable indicators of economic performance.
On the operational front, we witnessed some notable trends. One trend we noted is that speeding instances rose during the holidays. While the number of commercial drivers speeding was typically 3.5% or less, a metric we observed is the same drivers were continuing to speed more. In your operation, insight like this can further develop the critical programs you have in place. In recognizing that speeding offenders are more at risk of becoming repeat offenders if you don’t prioritize driver coaching, you can enhance your training to ideally reduce accidents caused by speeding.
Use consumable and actionable data to take your operation to the next level
Not all data is useful data. A huge part of effectively measuring data is separating unhelpful metrics from metrics that can provide you beneficial awareness into business performance. Then, once these metrics are separated, your teams can utilize AI and machine learning to view these metrics in a way they can easily understand and use them to make concrete action plans. That’s made much easier with a data leader by your side.
As an industry leader, we prioritize data insight with the times. For example, we enriched our customer-location data with analytics from Johns Hopkins and Kaiser to alert your teams to COVID-19 hotspots and mandated local precautions. This way, your drivers can stay in the know and take extra precautions wherever needed. We’re also working to consolidate your data to a single source of truth so that you have consistent insight into the metrics that matter to your business in real time and in one place.
Quality data is only as good as the benefit it brings to your teams. As a data-driven industry leader, we strive to ensure your data is aligned with your current needs and future growth.
Tune in to the podcast here to learn about generational divides in data intelligence, our evolving industry landscape, and how we work to translate data at the edge to bring you the best visibility. We will also be covering parts two and three of the series on our Road Ahead Blog this month. Stay tuned!