Welcome back to Part II in our two-part series on how to harness trucking-related data to enhance your fleet. In our previous post we looked at the many ways data could be used and the technologies underpinning those options. Today, we will look at how data influences maintenance and what blockchain means for the trucking industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While data cannot currently predict all part failures,\nsensors and data can anticipate many routine problems and allow for convenient\nmonitoring of equipment. Data from telematics devices and sensors can give\nclues as to which parts on a truck are wearing or nearing failure, enabling\nfleet managers to alert and advise drivers before a costly roadside breakdown\noccurs. Beyond the cost of the repair itself, unscheduled maintenance costs an\naverage of $79.32 per hour, meaning smart data utilization can quickly pay for\nitself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is the Blockchain?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As far as industry buzzwords go, \u201cdata\u201d is hard to beat, but\n\u201cblockchain\u201d might just take the cake. While the data and blockchain go together\u2014blockchain\nbeing a record of data\u2014 blockchain is certainly less understood. Before we jump\ninto some of the ways that blockchain might bring change in trucking, let us\nfirst define what exactly blockchain is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To begin with, it is not bitcoin. While bitcoin is an\nexample of a blockchain, blockchain is not limited in application to digital,\ndecentralized currency. Blockchain has been called a \u201ctruth machine,\u201d an\n\u201cinstrument of trust,\u201d a record of data, transactional or otherwise, that is\nnot created, owned, protected, or restricted by any one party or centralized\nauthority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blockchains allow all users to see an open history of data\nthat is secured by uncrackable cryptography. This is why the bitcoin\nblockchain, an open-source system with tens of billions of dollars just waiting\nto be stolen, has never been hacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the reason the trucking industry is excited about\nblockchain is not because of bitcoin. At its core, decentralized blockchain\ntechnology is about establishing trust about data between parties. In the\ncommercial trucking industry, like in most other industries, trust typically\ncomes from long-standing relationships or trusted third parties, like banks.\nBlockchain changes all that. The data can be trusted, because the network\nenforces the fidelity of the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many believe blockchain will affect three areas of trucking\nin particular. The first way is authentication. Basically, blockchain can be\nused to track goods on their journey through the supply chain. Giants like\nOracle, IBM, and SAP are enthusiastically pursuing blockchain for this\napplication. Appealing startups like Provenance are joining in. This seems to\nbe a promising application for blockchain adoption in supply chain and\ntrucking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second area is in finance. Blockchain lets cooperating\nparties verify that each has the money they say they do and will be able to pay\non time. Blockchain enables \u201csmart contracts,\u201d which could potentially replace\nthe need for so many lawyers by creating tamper-proof contracts. If you talk to\nsupply chain experts, their three primary areas of pain are visibility, process\noptimization, and demand management. Blockchain provides a system of trusted\nrecords that addresses all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third way blockchain will impact trucking is in process\nmanagement. Like with payments, process management can also be built into smart\ncontracts. If a task creates data, that data can be used by the smart contract\nto indicate whether a party has kept up its end of the bargain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, where did a particular truck drive today? That\ndata could go directly from the truck\u2019s GPS into the blockchain ledger\u2014an\nautomated process with guaranteed integrity. Blockchain can track, communicate,\nand share documentation and information to streamline and secure process\nmanagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the Adoption Timeline?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What does the timeline for blockchain adoption in trucking\nlook like? Some, like dexFreight, are already doing it. The current adoption\nforecast for the technology in trucking is education, case studies, and some\nearly adoption starting now in 2020. Between 2020 and 2025 will be a period of\ngrowth. We should see full maturity from 2026 onward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some hurdles for blockchain adoption in fleets. Most blockchains can currently process 3-20 transactions per second. That\u2019s fine for now, but it won\u2019t be fast enough for effective full adoption across the entire commercial trucking industry. The best blockchain codes are almost always open source, which makes commercialization hard and protection of intellectual property rights challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ironically, many believe blockchain will be transformative\nin protecting intellectual property in the future. As for the open source code\nof the blockchains themselves, they can be quite difficult to control. The\ntransparency of blockchain can also provide some concerns with its benefits.\nThe ledger is open to anyone using the network, and while they can\u2019t tamper\nwith it, they can see any information that isn\u2019t encrypted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems likely that blockchain applications will become\navailable to fleet managers and owners in the near future. They appear to\nrepresent the future of data storage and communication, although there are\nstill some concerns to work out before blockchain goes mainstream in trucking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How to Interpret and Analyze Blockchain Data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Blockchain offers an innovative way to store and share data\ngathered from telematics devices. But the question remains: how can a fleet\nmanager go about implementing this data? The most accurate, efficiently\ngathered data, stored in the most ironclad software, does not benefit fleets in\nthe slightest if action is never taken based on that data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What you need to be doing is setting and monitoring specific\nbenchmarks. Developing benchmarks is a critical part of using data to evaluate\ntruck safety, part performance\/wear, efficiency, and compliance. Is your fleet\nperforming as well as it could be? How is it stacking up compared with others\nin the industry? Without benchmarking and monitoring, fleet managers cannot\nreally know; there is no clear baseline, no context for the data being\ngathered. Prominent consulting firm Bain & Company breaks the benchmarking\nprocess into six basic steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A critical part of the above strategy is choosing which key\nperformance metrics, more commonly called key performance indicators (KPIs), to\ntrack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Common safety KPIs include measures like speed and\nacceleration\/deceleration, as well as peak times during which unsafe incidents\noccur. Efficiency KPIs might include total cost per pound of goods delivered,\nfuel consumption, idling time, rpm range, and shifting habits. KPIs tracking\npart performance and wear include road calls, parts purchased, cost totals, and\nmaintenance costs. Compliance KPIs are often straightforward and easy to track\nthrough ELDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, you must focus on managing the data. Data just keeps\ngetting bigger, but fleets often lack the personnel to handle all the gathered\ndata in-house. What has happened over the past 10 years is that the analytics\nsupport staff that fleets may have had is now gone. So, there are no bodies\nleft and no talent left to do that hard-core analysis that is needed to uncover\nthe magic of that data and the potential of that data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, many fleets can make data-driven improvements with\nthe staff on hand. By defining clear objectives and focusing on a few\nhigh-impact KPIs, fleets can avoid getting overwhelmed and make real progress\nwithout investing excessive time into analytics. Many ELDs on the market make\nit easy for fleets looking to leverage a little more data in their day-to-day\nwith dashboards and reporting tools that highlight useful indicators like\ndriver speed, acceleration behaviors, and idling times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond this sort of \u201centry-level\u201d data management, translating immense amounts of data into bigger strategies can be an expensive, time-consuming, inefficient task for many fleets to tackle on their own. To combat this challenge, there are a host of data services available to fleets on the market today. Most take the data generated by a fleet and turn that data into an implementable plan with accompanying spreadsheets, graphs, and progress trackers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no shortage of options for fleets looking to\nleverage data to keep up with vehicle maintenance, driver habits, route\noptimization, fuel consumption, operating costs, and more\u2014without having to deal\ndirectly with an unending flood of raw data. And these days, fleets need every\ndata point that they can get to stay competitive! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"