Trimble unveils AI-powered innovations to transform fleet management

NEW ORLEANS—Small actions can have an impact, especially when the sum of their parts contributes to the operation of a large fleet. To illustrate this point, here at the Trimble Insight user conference, CEO Rob Painter posed the following question to the audience: 

Would you rather take $3 million given in a lump sum today, or take a single penny that doubles in value each day for 30 days?

Those who chose the $3 million would find themselves envious of those who took the single penny. This is because, when doubled in value each day for 31 days, a single penny can offer a value of $10.7 million. That’s the power of compounded value.

Similarly, compounding small boosts of efficiency can add up to major advantages for a fleet operation, and that’s what Trimble seeks to deliver for its customers through its AI-powered innovations.

What’s new with Trimble?

Trimble TMS

Trimble announced multiple new features within its platform here at the conference, and each feature is housed in Trimble’s revamped, next-generation, all AI-powered Trimble TMS.

“Trimble TMS is designed to be a single intelligent center of our connected transportation equipment, and it's designed to operate at scale,” Michael Kornhauser, Trimble sector VP of transportation and logistics, said.

This “cloud-native solution” integrates directly into Trimble’s existing TMS and—with the help of AI—automates workflows and offers predictive insights. Trimble customers can use the new Trimble TMS as a modular solution, integrating bits at a time, or as a single, comprehensive solution, whichever best fits their operations.

Trimble TMS offers seven modules with their own AI agents and workflows that carry transportation operations from the initial acceptance of the order to load building and fleet readiness. It also provides tracking and visibility. Further, folks in the back office benefit from Trimble TMS through its centralized reporting, benefiting administrative, financial, and analytical functions, according to a Trimble press release.

All in all, Kornhauser said this next-generation TMS solution “isn’t just bolt-on AI.” In fact, it was built with the day-to-day complexities of large enterprise fleets in mind. 

Trimble’s new AI Agents

Speaking of AI-powered innovations, Trimble now offers AI Agents to reduce manual, tedious office tasks. These include Order Intake Agent for Trimble TMS, Invoice Scanning Agent for Trimble TMT Fleet Maintenance, and Road Call Agent for Trimble TMT Road Call.

“The Order Intake Agent consistently processes orders that can be scanned from email, PDF, or EDI and enters them into your TMS,” Kornhauser said. “Our testing shows that the Order Intake Agent eliminates the need for manual review up to 90%” of the orders. This saves fleets both time and resources.

Trimble also announced Road Call Agent, a module of Trimble’s TMT Fleet Maintenance platform. Road Call Agent is a 24-hour AI-powered service that receives roadside breakdown calls from drivers, gathers their information, automatically creates a repair ticket, and sends it off for the repair team to review.

Kornhauser said this allows the human agent to focus on getting their driver back on the road as quickly and as safely as possible.

Also part of Trimble TMT Fleet Maintenance is the Invoice Scanning Agent. This AI-powered feature scans repair invoices and enters repair order details into TMT. This removes the need to manually enter data and frees up office employees to focus on more pressing tasks.

“We know this work takes time, and now with our Invoice Scanning Agent, we give you that time back,” Kornhauser said. He said that one customer, Knight Swift, has already begun using the invoice scanner and saved 40 to 50 hours a week by eliminating this one task alone. That’s the equivalent of a single employee who could be using their precious time in another area of fleet operations.

Other new Trimble features

Other features were also launched at Trimble’s user conference—and all powered by AI. Trimble Appian now includes Fleet Assistant, which helps fleet managers manage route exceptions. Trimble PC*Miler now includes Route Assistant, which allows dispatchers to create optimal routes using natural language (think: ChatGPT). TMW.Suite now includes Tender Evaluation, which streamlines tender evaluations using AI algorithms that use historical TMS data to grade each tender and select the most profitable option, according to a Trimble press release.

A one-stop system with many integrations

While Trimble’s announcements—especially with its next-gen Trimble TMS—might appear to suggest that the company is working toward an end-to-end solution for all things transportation, Kornhauser said that the team recognizes it can’t build a solution for all of trucking’s unique needs. With Trimble TMS specifically, he said the focus was on doing what Trimble does well and letting partners fill in the gaps.

“I think we tried to focus on what … we are good at: being that core system of record for businesses that have trucks and then extending that on with our partnerships,” Kornhauser said to a group of trade media, referring to the partners that integrate within Trimble’s marketplace.

Billions of freight runs through the Trimble system, collecting data each day. Combine that with the data accumulated by Trimble’s hundreds of marketplace partners, and the Trimble ecosystem is ripe with insights. Customers expect Trimble to help them make sense of all of that data, Kornhauser said, and it’s up to Trimble to make that happen. It’s the marketplace partners that fill in the gaps.

“There will be a network of startups who exist to … find the gaps that aren't being served and to serve that. And we embrace that,” Painter said. “It makes us better by having that visibility and having … the players in the room, and giving customers choice.”

With these newest innovations and features combined with the marketplace network, Trimble aims to help each customer see small benefits that, compounded together, add up to large operational advantages.