Jul 06, 2022

Trucker Path offers its app to fleets

“Trucker Path has grown to over 1 million monthly active users because we listen to our drivers and have built the product around their needs,” said Chris Oliver, CMO for Trucker Path. “With so many fleet owners approaching us and wanting to provide their drivers with our app, we knew it was time to give them the ability to improve driver safety and satisfaction.”

In addition to offering fleets the app with company branding, Trucker Path for Fleets includes automated app onboarding, document scanning, and tutorial videos for drivers to help them make the most of the app. It also comes with a fuel savings planner that navigates drivers to the best prices along their route, helping fleets experience significant savings on fuel.

Trucker Path for Fleets rates vary by fleet size. The risk free service is provided without requiring a contract and can be canceled at any time.

“Employee satisfaction and company loyalty are both keys to success, especially for an industry with extremely high turnover rates,” said Oliver. “Providing company drivers with a company-branded app that features truck-specific routing and mapping, parking availability, document scanning, weigh station statuses and ratings, and information on over 300,000 trucking-specific locations gives fleet owners the opportunity to demonstrate they care not only about efficiency and productivity but also about their drivers’ quality of life on the road.”

Fleet owners and managers can get more information at www.truckerpath.com/fleet-app.

Source: Fleet Owner

Route planning tool helps drivers overcome daily frustrations High driver turnover is an issue almost everyone in the logistics industry is familiar with, if not grappling with, as drivers jump between carriers in pursuit of better opportunities. Drivers leave jobs for a variety of reasons — to receive a sign-on bonus or pay raise at a different trucking company, to seek routes closer to home, to find better management or even to change professions. <a href="https://truckerpath.com/">Trucker Path</a> has been giving truck drivers tools since 2013 to make navigating life on the road more enjoyable and efficient, keeping more people in the driver’s seat. It does this through one critical action: listening to drivers. “So many companies in the logistics industry funnel a large amount of money into technology development, but few remember to ask those who are using the technology daily what their needs are and what works best for them,” said Chris Oliver, chief marketing officer at Trucker Path. At its core, Trucker Path is an app built off of crowdsourced feedback from drivers. While drivers are likely to find benefits and drawbacks working for any motor carrier, they encounter the same day-to-day realities that come with driving a semi-truck no matter what company name is on their door. Trucker Path listens to what drivers need and hands them the tools to mitigate some of the most common struggles they face everywhere they go. Tied for No. 1 on the list of issues drivers face are compensation and truck parking, according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s <a href="https://truckingresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ATRI-Top-Industry-Issues-2021.pdf">2021 survey</a> of critical industry issues. The next top four spots are detention and delay at customer facilities, fuel prices, driver training standards and hours-of-service rules. By crowdsourcing information from drivers, Trucker Path helps them plan their routes and enables them to alter those plans when necessary. It helps them find available parking, be prepared for weigh stations, know what to expect at shipping docks and helps drivers save money on fuel. Trucker Path does this by connecting drivers with hundreds of thousands of points of interest along their routes and sharing the ratings, reviews and real-time updates provided by millions of other drivers within the Trucker Path community. “It’s almost a symbiotic relationship between the platform and technology and the driver base itself,” Oliver said. Drivers can see and share information such as availability of truck stop overnight parking, quality of truck stops, whether a weigh station is open and its wait time, shipping dock wait time, as well as nearby maintenance facilities, restaurants, stores and more. The app also shows fuel stations and fuel-optimized routes that help drivers save money along the way to their destinations. Other insights, such as specific truck entrances at docks and the ability to share feedback regarding sharp turns and other truck restrictions, provide even greater navigational efficacy for drivers as they plan and drive their routes. By providing feedback in the app about these points of interest, drivers are able to help other users. Trucker Path recently also launched its COMMAND TMS solution, which integrates into the Trucker Path app. COMMAND allows carriers to do such things as manage drivers and assets, source loads, build jobs, dispatch, provide instantaneous location and progress updates, scan documents and create invoices. “Having your TMS directly tied to the most popular app for truckers makes for a much easier experience and smoother implementation and user experience for both sides,” Oliver said. “About a third of long-haul drivers already use Trucker Path as it is. So there’s a very good chance from a fleet perspective that when you implement COMMAND, what you’re really doing is using the driver’s preferred tool they’re already using to serve the fleet’s purposes.” DISPATCH is another new service recently made available by Trucker Path. Personal dispatchers take the time to get to know their driver customers, including their lane and commodity preferences, where they live, how long they like to run, and what their favorite restaurants are, in order to help find them the best jobs that not only pay well but adhere to their personal preferences. Once the loads are sourced and agreed to, the dispatchers send the job to the driver’s Trucker Path app, which allows them to either accept or reject a load. “The dispatchers themselves are really a conduit or concierge to all our technologies, helping customers recognize all the benefits we offer via a personal touch and a familiar voice,” Oliver said. Giving drivers the ability to make their daily work lives more productive and convenient is a direct path to boosting driver satisfaction and increasing efficiency and productivity for the entire company. Source: <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/route-planning-tool-helps-drivers-overcome-daily-frustrations">FREIGHT WAVES</a>

Apr 28, 2022

The Pros and Cons of Fuel Optimization Tools for Trucking With diesel prices up more than $2.30 a gallon from this time last year, finding the best prices at the pump is about more than bragging rights these days. It’s survival for owner operators and serious impact to the bottom line of fleets. Fuel optimization tools, like the one in our Trucker Path COMMAND platform, hold huge promise. But that promise comes with a few “ifs” that truckers, fleet managers and fleet owners need to give heavy consideration to. Everyone who’s ever hunted best fuel prices knows the thrill of bagging the lowest price on the lane—as well as that empty feeling that comes from wondering whether the miles and time you spent finding 5-cents a gallon in savings was a wash. Or worse yet, ended up costing you more. Let’s lay bare the pros and cons of fuel optimization tools and present five real-lane examples of when a fuel optimization app would be a winner or an occasion for whining. Pros of Fuel Optimization Tools <li>Thousands of dollars in fuel savings, depending on the lane</li> <li>Removes decision-making. Dispatchers provide specific fuel stops in addition to the navigation for the route</li> <li>Tools stipulate everything: the where, when and how much fuel to purchase</li> <li>Out-of-route miles accounted for in fuel stop recommendations</li> <li>Every detail considered. Fuel plan accounts for equipment mpg, existing fuel levels and load weight </li> Cons of Fuel Optimization Tools <li>Out-of-route miles, while generally limited to less than a few miles per stop, can negate some or all of the savings achieved through lower fuel prices</li> <li>Tools often prescribe more fuel stops. More time spent fueling eats into HOS and increases operating costs</li> <li>Added time. Driving further to low-cost pumps and adding stops can threaten tight delivery windows</li> <li>Drivers don’t get to choose their favorite stops for food and amenities</li> <li>High cost of technology as many optimization tools are designed for larger fleets</li> Success Depends on Number of Stops An analysis of results from a sample of lanes compiled through our Trucker Path COMMAND platform and the Smart Fuel Planner revealed that the true value of a fuel optimization tool comes down to the number of stops prescribed. With a fuel optimized route, drivers often make more stops than they would with a “drive-til-near-empty” strategy. When the cost of making those extra stops outweighs the savings benefits, it’s best to opt out. The good news is that in most cases and most lanes throughout the U.S. using a fuel optimization tool is well worth it, even when you consider the additional stops. Background Into Our Analysis In our analysis, we quantified the fuel savings that could be garnered at today’s diesel prices using our Smart Fuel Planner for five sample lanes. Then we determined the number of stops a driver would make filling up whenever they were near empty on long-haul runs—about every 945 miles by our estimate. We compared those numbers with the number of stops a fuel-optimized route would require. Most of the time there were more stops required on fuel optimized routes. To estimate the cost associated with the downtime that comes from these extra stops, we determined the average fuel stop is a half hour. What’s that half hour translate to in dollars? We used the American Transportation Research Institute’s 2021 estimate for the operational costs of trucking. They put the number at $66.87 per hour, which we increased to $70 per hour to adjust for inflation. All the results are based on lanes input into Trucker Path COMMAND Smart Fuel Planner, assuming a 100-gallon starting fill, 135-gallon tank, and 7 mpg for an 80,000-pound truck. We captured the fuel price data one day in June 2022. While data for the sample routes below were all gathered at the same time, it's important to note that fuel savings vary day-to-day and by lane. One day a stop may be lowest, and the next day, not so much. Savings Analysis for 5 Common Lanes Chicago to San Francisco: 6 Additional Stops Roundtrip - Annual Savings of $7,909 On a single roundtrip that would mean $659 in savings and 6 extra fuel stops. <img src="https://truckerpath.com/uploads/2022/07/Picture2.jpg" alt="" Width=600 /> <center>Exhibit 1. Trucker Path COMMAND Smart Fuel Planner for one-way Chicago to San Francisco trip. </center> Seattle to Washington D.C.: 5 Additional Stops Roundtrip - Annual Savings of $3,132 On a fuel-optimized roundtrip that would mean $261 in net savings and 5 extra fuel stops. Looks like fuel optimizer is paying for dinners. New Orleans to Denver: 1 Additional Stop Roundtrip - Annual Savings of $492 On a fuel-optimized roundtrip that would mean $41 in net savings and 1 extra fuel stop. Worth it? Sure. Especially at a fleet scale. Los Angeles to Dallas: 1 Additional Stop Roundtrip - Annual Savings of $9,768 On a fuel-optimized roundtrip that would mean $814 in net savings and 1 extra fuel stop. Clearly this lane was the optimization of the nation. Miami to NYC: 3 Additional Stops Roundtrip - Annual Savings of $0 In this case, fuel optimization netted no savings when you figured in the 3 additional stops. It’s a good example of how some days, on some lanes the extra stops make fuel optimization not worth it. A Key Solution for Today’s Fuel Crunch Our analysis showed that in almost all cases fuel optimization tools can save money on fuel. The exception is that many times it may require more fuel stops than driving until the driver is near empty. In our analysis, this case was an outlier and didn’t result in a loss. That makes fuel optimization tools, like what’s in Trucker Path COMMAND, a key tool in today’s economy. Diesel prices are higher than they’ve ever been and the chances are slim of the federal government rolling back taxes like they did for gas. The time to optimize is now. There is real money to be saved out there with smart and dynamic fuel-finding solutions—especially for ones that make it easy for drivers by considering all the variables and curating fuel-friendly routes for them.

Jul 20, 2022

Small Fleet recap: How should owner-operators manage downturns? Understanding your costs and developing quality relationships are key, says Trucker Path’s Oliver This fireside chat recap is from the FreightWaves virtual Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit on Wednesday. FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: What steps can owner-operators take to manage downturns? DETAILS: Owner-operators face increasing uncertainty in the freight markets, but there are steps they can take to handle whatever the market throws at them. Understanding your costs and building quality relationships serve carriers better than taking the “bear down and hope” approach that small fleets have operated under in the past. SPEAKER: Chris Oliver is the chief marketing officer of Trucker Path. BIO: Oliver has more than 25 years’ experience leading small to midsize businesses. In addition to Trucker Path, he led growth and development efforts for several transportation brands, including Cargomatic, Zonar and PrePass. He holds degrees in marketing, international management and finance. KEY QUOTES FROM OLIVER “It all comes down to the basics. How do you know if you’re making any money if you don’t understand what your costs are? So the very first that you have to do is understand those costs. And there’s a lot to consider there — it’s not just your truck and your fuel.” “Over time, after you have built a relationship and trust and that shipper knows you’re a go-to guy that’s going to get the job done for you, they tend to loosen the purse strings a little and trust you a little bit more and share a little bit more of the revenue. Just to build those types of go-to relationships over time is just a smart thing to do.” “We’re not just here to book a load, send it to you and get our little percentage out of the way. We’re trying to help people be better businesspeople.” Source: <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/small-fleet-recap-how-should-owner-operators-manage-downturns">FreightWaves </a>

Jun 17, 2022