Ontario truckers tell Queen's Park their budget priorities

Old Dominion Dominates Data

Data from PeopleNet units on trucks plus external information, like weather reports, generate graphics on the big wall map. Dispatchers can see it all from their nearby work stations. Photo via Old Dominion Freight Line

When you have some 7,000 trucks on the road at any one time, things like winter storms that close Interstate highways have a ripple effect across the network like cancelled flights at Chicago's O'Hare airport. And the amount of data available on those trucks via telematics is a gold mine waiting to be tapped.

That's why the less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line got its IT staff to work with PeopleNet to develop better ways to analyze and use all that data. The centerpiece of their efforts is visible as the “command center” at its Thomasville, North Carolina, headquarters.

At any time of day or night, the five dispatchers in the center can glance up at a wall of TVs and get a birds-eye view of the entire network, including any weather delays, accidents or breakdowns, and hard braking/stop incidents.

“We look at ourselves as the conductor and all 230 service centers out in the field as the orchestra,” says Hugh Morris, vice president of transportation. “Anybody here in the corporate office that is sharing information out in the field can walk by, look inside our big glass bubble, and in 30 seconds know just about anything and everything going on in the entire network.”

The data flows into the system from PeopleNet units on the vehicles, as well as external information such as weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“PeopleNet is an external partner that is working with our internal IT department, and they're actually working together to help make this reporting more dynamic,” he says.

WIth the two-way flow of communications though the PeopleNet units, Morris says, ...Read the rest of this story

Choosing Tires for On and Off the Road

Who knows what you'll find when the pavement comes to an end. At that point it's too late to realize that you spec'd the wrong tires.

It doesn't make sense to ask a plow horse to run the Kentucky Derby, or to a hitch a thoroughbred to a tiller. Yet that's the sort of choice faced by fleets that operate in mixed on- and off-road service. There's no straight answer, just a bunch of compromises.

Trucks used in construction, mining, logging and other severe-service, off-road applications often travel across challenging surfaces strewn with rocks, nails and other debris that can cause tire damage. Off-road tires are designed for toughness; resistance to cuts, chips and tears; on- and off-road traction; and long miles to removal. Tires intended for on-highway use are designed a long, fuel-efficient life that is only occasionally threatened by anything worse than a pothole.

So how does a fleet manage the spec'ing decision? It helps to assign priorities to the problem, such as how much time will the truck spend off road, how severe is the terrain it will operate in, and how important fuel economy is compared to the risk of a terrain-induced tire failure or a mission-limiting traction event.

Let's use as an example a fleet that hauls aggregate, logs, cement or some such commodity from a mill or plant to a customer about 100 miles away. The truck may spend 5% of its time in the plant on rough ground, so the tires will need some traction and cut resistance. But the majority of the time would be spent on highway at highway speed where fuel economy matters.

“If the fleet operates more on-highway than off-road, then they may prioritize fuel economy,” says Matt Schnedler, product manager at Bridgestone. Such a fleet might opt for a lug-type drive tire ...Read the rest of this story

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