Empowering Drivers: Smart Trailer Insights Delivered Directly to the Cab

Driver retention rates continue to be a major concern for commercial carriers in the U.S., and fleets are looking for new and innovative ways to build bridges with their drivers, namely by passing along the benefits of smart truck technology on to the driver’s cab.

In a recent webinar,  Darrin Demchuk, Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development for Platform Science, and Mark Wallin, Senior Vice President of Products for Phillips Connect, sat down to discuss the biggest opportunities and benefits of extending telematics technology and real-time data insights to fleet drivers. 

From smaller, common sense improvements to emerging innovations in hardware and software, fleets can use these concepts to empower drivers to make smarter decisions on the road, and optimize vehicle uptime.

Why Now?

Emerging technologies in fleet management have for decades promised improved insight into operations and performance, helping management and the back office tweak processes and increase the longevity of assets. An untapped potential, however, is how smarter truck technologies can impact the daily tasks of the driver.

The American Transportation Research Institute’s annual survey of top concerns for carriers for 2024 showed the driver shortage as the 9th highest concern for fleets, slightly down from past years where it had ranked as the number one concern from 2017-2021. It remains a pressing concern for fleets, however, since the average cost of losing a driver approaches $13,000 per driver, according to the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. Retaining drivers is an important element of optimizing operational efficiency in tough economic times.

Additionally, consumer expectations and demands are steadily increasing, causing a ripple effect in the supply chain. Today’s consumers often order an item on their phone one day, and expect it to be delivered the next day, safely, efficiently, and in excellent condition. Shippers are responding to this expectation by asking more of their carriers, with delivery windows shrinking and requirements increasing in terms of documentation, care of assets, and penalties for missed deadlines.

“We seem to be meeting the upper limit of how reasonably fast anything could be delivered,” explains Demchuk. “I think what’s going to happen – and is already happening – is that that expectation will continue to broaden to all participants in the supply chain. A few leading organizations really set the standard for timeliness and accuracy of delivery, and consumer demand tends to win out. People begin to expect that anything they buy from anyone should be delivered that way, that quickly and that efficiently.”

Wallin agrees. “We’re going to continue to see fleets looking to differentiate within those tighter windows. With these higher expectations, fleets have opportunities either to drive additional revenue, differentiate in the marketplace, or, unfortunately for some, to pay more penalties because they are unable to meet those demands,” he explains. “You’re going to see an opportunity for fleets to stand out and be different, for better or worse, as these expectations grow. And what’s exciting is that there is a way to manage it and be on the right side of these growing demands.”

How Technology Affects Driver Retention

Daily inefficiencies in fleet operations, especially those experienced daily by drivers, can add up to a make-or-break situation in a tight job market. Today many fleets still run multi-hundred and multi-thousand routes, meaning drivers experience a substantial amount of time away from home in an overall demanding job. Drivers generally make their money by accumulating miles through driving, and anything that comes at the expense of that — such as redundant work, inefficiencies, detention time, or mistakes – can lead to dissatisfaction and exploring the market for a different job.

According to Demchuk, a  helpful set of goals for fleets to support driver success and retention includes:

• Avoid redundant work: Never ask the driver for information they’ve already told you
• Avoid tedious work: Never ask the driver for information you’ve already told them
• Avoiding missing important context: Never ask the driver for information you should already be able to know or detect through well-integrated solutions

Demchuk explains that new fleet technologies should ultimately add up to an easier experience for drivers, with real-world improvements in their daily tasks, without significant additional training. “There’s a constant pressure and demand for more tools, more apps, and responses to more shipper demands. But does your solution work together intuitively and flow correctly so the impact is dramatically reduced for the driver? It’s not the easiest thing to solve for, but it’s the most important thing to solve for if you want to make a dent in driver retention challenges.”

Wallin adds that drivers are, and should be, focused on the task at hand, which is completing their miles safely and efficiently. While new technologies and data can improve situational awareness, they must be integrated without adding additional burdens to the driver’s day. 

“When you are introducing new tech, you run into challenges of training on three or four different apps, and you’re asking your driver the same question three or four times,” he explains. “You’re trying to make the driver's job easier with technology rather than more complicated. You need to look at all the things they’re interacting with in that cab and improve the integration. Ask them once, keep it simple, and train them on one app that gives them all of the information they need, in one place, in the same way.”

In-Cab Insights Set Drivers Up for Success

More actionable insights – delivered seamlessly to the driver in real time – help them play their pivotal role in meeting customer expectations. In the past, a main concern was being late to a delivery; in today’s marketplace, however, being too early to a facility managing the flow of hundreds of assets can be just as bad. Real-time insights – that is, current truck data that has been processed and packaged to be easily digestible and used by the driver to make smarter decisions – is key to keeping routes on time, and drivers happy and safe. 

Wallin explains, “A driver’s job has traditionally been to drive those miles, but the hard part is that today, it’s more like: drive miles, navigate, get there on time, unload, and get away on time. The good news is that the technology we are seeing in vehicles or trailers, and now coming into the cab, can give the driver an advantage that they didn’t have five or ten years ago. Rather than just driving, they now have insights and are empowered to meet those growing demands.”

Improved communication is also key in improving a driver’s efficiency, as many processes for today’s drivers still involve non-digitized steps, like texts, emails, and phone calls. Demchuk suggests a good first step in identifying where technology can improve a driver’s work day is to “look for the clipboard” in any daily situation. 

“When someone is walking around, manually writing things down, ask yourself, why is the clipboard involved? Why aren’t these systems integrated and talking so the driver can focus on doing the more productive thing for the business, which is moving the commodity?” he says. “Often we ask a fleet about what they need or want out of technology, and they talk about the technology here or the technology there, but they never acknowledge that there’s a clipboard in the middle connecting the two things. So we ask, well, why don’t we fix that? Why don’t we make that go away and maybe everything else gets better by just solving for that removal of the manual process.”

Making the Leap to the Driver’s Cab

As fleets increasingly have access to tractor and trailer information, the challenge becomes taking this large amount of data and turning it into something that can be easily received and used by various stakeholders, including the driver. 

“So many people ask for the ‘haystack’ of data, but what they really need is the ‘needles.’ Otherwise you just have a mountain of data and you’re left asking, ‘Now what?’ Operationalizing that is a hard thing to do but it’s important, otherwise you are just drowning in data,” points out Demchuk.

For example, when looking at your maintenance data, you may become aware of a tire alert or a brake problem or a liftgate issue. It’s helpful to have that data, but you need insights into why that matters to your driver, as well as the ability for them to action it. What should they do in response to that insight? Can they make it to the end of their route or do they need to pull over immediately? Will their lift gate open the right number of times for their stop? Do they need to contact the back office and make a new plan? This type of empowerment reduces downtime and dangerous situations, keeping more trucks and drivers on the road for longer amounts of uninterrupted time. 

Wallin explains, “A lot of fleets have started to look at making their trailers smarter, but an area that sometimes gets forgotten is, how do I get that data to the driver? You have all these great insights into your equipment, but how do you get that to the driver to change the demands they face, to allow them to do their job better, and empower them to make things smooth versus disruptive?”

Working Smarter, Not Harder

Another key challenge for integrating more technology and useful insights into the driver's cab is that fleets can’t – and shouldn’t – simply add in more hardware, more devices, and more separate tools through which drivers must navigate. Instead, it becomes a software challenge for industry developers to solve, as they look for ways to deliver useful insights into a single location with which drivers are already comfortable and experienced. 

Partnerships, like the one between Phillips Connect and Platform Science, are continuing to drive these innovations that are making drivers more situationally aware and empowered to make smarter decisions without adding additional burden to their day.

For example, the Phillips Connect DriverAssist app integrates seamlessly with the Platform Science environment to bring information from smart trailer sensors into the cab to provide important insights on the trailer including real-time tractor-trailer pairing verification and tire pressure monitoring data. Mispulls, and the resulting routes or returns, can cost fleets and shippers thousands of dollars in lost time and even ruined assets. This add-on app minimizes mispulls by notifying the driver and the back office in real-time that the correct trailer is in tow, resulting in smoother operations, reduced downtime, and improved trailer security. 

Demchuk explains that the beauty of this add-on app is that it doesn’t add any additional steps or training for the driver. “Nothing about what the driver is doing on a day-to-day basis changes, but it gets smarter. Their primary work tool — their tablet where all their workflow jobs and all their regulatory tracking is taking place — just gets a new capability. It’s a notification that instantly pops up.”

Other integrated tools promise significant insights for drivers from sensors like vehicle health elements, cargo status, lift gate data, and back-up cameras. These added tools help drivers ensure their cargo arrives on time and safely, and reduces wasted time from difficult or unsafe maneuvers. It increases drivers' confidence in their vehicles’ health, and empowers them to immediately respond to any issues or problems that might arise. All of this adds up to a more successful, enjoyable workday at a fleet where drivers want to come – and stay – for years.  

Watch the full webinar now for more insights into smart trailer solutions and how they are empowering drivers.

‍Learn more about Phillips Connect DriverAssist app, part of the Platform Science Virtual Vehicle marketplace, and how it helps eliminate mispulls with real-time tractor-trailer pairing notifications.