“What’s the biggest challenge the trucking industry is facing today?” asked chief marketing officer at BlackBerry, Mark Wilson, at the 2018 Security Summit in New York City. With no clear answer in the audience, he responded, “A driver shortage.”
With trucking companies scrambling to attract and retain good drivers, strategies must be put in place to maximize utilization. BlackBerry suggests decreasing the drivers’ avoidable day-to-day frustrations, improving operational efficiencies to increase company revenue, and increasing drivers’ overall compensation in a single package: BlackBerry Radar.
Much more than only the trailer tracking and management BlackBerry initially set its sights on with Radar, the company says the technology can optimize and improve fleet visibility for a broad scope of fleet assets. What’s more, Radar now includes features and functionality BlackBerry says can help make drivers more money and improve retention.
Earlier this year, BlackBerry showcased its Radar technology at the CES show in Las Vegas, advertising the capabilities of BlackBerry Radar-M, an intelligent trailer and container asset-tracking solution that provides load-planners and dispatchers with a volumetric reading into the remaining capacity of a partly-loaded trailer. The company also featured the BlackBerry Radar-L, a cost-effective, simpler version that does not have temperature or load-sensing capabilities while still delivering accurate, reliable, and frequent location information.
Since its launch, BlackBerry has streamlined the appearance of Radar, adding a smaller, more nondescript design with a white color to the Radar collection. This could keep thieves and hijackers from easily identifying the high-tech security device, making the product more attractive to a wider scope of fleet customers.
Reaching towards a bigger audience of vans, trailer flatbeds, chassis, intermodal containers, and heavy equipment, Radar is BlackBerry’s all-in-one solution for a rugged tracking and monitoring device with cellular connectivity and web-based applications that are available from anywhere in the world. This all-in-one solution saves money and time while retaining a company’s driver workforce, according to the company.
After adopting Radar for his fleet, Curt Reitz, president of Contract Transport Services, a Midwest-based carrier, figures he saves “35-40 minutes a day on average” for each of his drivers. Hinting at the driver shortage, one of his top priorities is getting drivers home every day because “whoever has the drivers is the one who is going to win this game.”
With this telematics solution from BlackBerry, drivers can get on the road faster, enabling them to drive more miles while following the ELD mandate, reducing the day-to-day driver frustration BlackBerry suggested, which in turn can increase revenue for the company.
According to Titanium Transportation Group Inc., which adopted BlackBerry Radar two years ago, Radar has saved them an average of 45 minutes a day per driver and $50 an hour, adding up to $37,000 of savings per day across the fleet.
Ted Daniel, CEO of Titanium, stated that the company’s rate of return on the increased trailer utilization “is over $100,000 a month on 300 trailers” or “over a million dollars a year.”
With BlackBerry looking to extend Radar across a variety of fleet equipment, according to the company's claimed benefits, all kinds of cargo and shipment systems could stand to gain with more efficient operations.
