Originally posted on FreightWaveses
What do trucking companies would do with their data?
Collecting data and making sense of it are two very different things. The transportation industry is flooded with data that is not analyzed. Given its fragmentation, collecting and analyzing it at the company level does not prove cost effective. However, in 2018 making sense of your own data is the new reading skill, companies that don’t do it will inevitably fade away.
There are two solutions to this problem. First one is to build an in-house big data and analytics team. While this sounds simple, it comes with its own plethora of challenges and costs. It is hard for non-tech focused companies to run an efficient development team, as there are big challenges in communication between all the involved parties. Trucking is hard to change from the outside without industry specific knowledge and expertise.
The second and more effective solution is to outsource your data analytics to a third party. This is not a new strategy to the trucking business, since they have been outsourcing their maintenance, trailer ownership, trucking management software and even their extra freight since forever. This solution guarantees that you can focus on your business, instead of making sense of data warehouses, statistics, machine learning, blockchain and an ever expanding field of new technology.
One such solution is Kamion.io. Kamion’s team is comprised of logistics and software experts, with a combined experience of over 40 years. The platform combines all the must-have tools for today’s freight world and integrates them into a unified solution, presenting the user with the most relevant data based on context. Kamion’s dispatch module integrates with existing fleet management solutions, which saves the business from having to change their existing physical fleet management systems, significantly reducing integration costs.
“Machine learning can bridge the gap between the back office and the truck driver, two worlds considered light years apart until now” — Vladimir Atanasov, CTO of Kamion.io
Kamion uses the latest advancements in analytics and machine learning to analyze the available data and provide both dispatcher and driver with smart routing and delivery time predictions. Kamion uses deep learning, the same technique used by google to recognize cats in videos, to build a sophisticated model of each individual driver and accurately predict delivery times, delays and driving patterns. The algorithms build a safety profile of the driver and can detect anomalies in their driving style, which can be caused by fatigue or other, hidden factors.
In the last two years Kamion has been tested with different drivers and successfully prevented accidents based on the data observed. To put this in perspective, the trucking company used for the tests, reduced physical damage premiums by 0.5% and liability premiums by 20%.
Kamion’s platform includes a driver assistant add-on, that uses natural language processing to assist drivers and dispatchers with redundant questions. This technology works across different chat platforms, so communication is fast and uninterrupted. Load relevant information is available 24/7. “What is my pickup number”,” how many miles is this load”, “how much is my paycheck” are all questions that Kamion answers automatically. That saves both time and frustration while keeping drivers informed.
The platform combines all data channels into one pool and applies optimized algorithms on it, to help dispatchers and drivers make the best decisions for a given problem. Would a particular driver be able to deliver a load on time? What is the probability of a driver crashing? What is the best route a driver should take, based on weather, load type and individual driver profile? All these questions can be answered by Kamion.
Kamion algorithms take into consideration not only the data captured by the vehicle’s ECU, but the person’s work habits making it a solution personalized to your individual fleet.
Kamion automates a big part of the communication between dispatcher-driver-shipper, by leveraging smart routing and automated events. The shipper can track their load in real time and get an accurate ETA.
The platform is built as a service, so companies can integrate different parts of it into their existing workflow, using Kamion’s API’s.
Kamion is presenting a demo at Trasparency18 in Atlanta, on May 22, if you want to find out more about the product, the team would love to answer your questions in person.