Fleets Share Best Practices on Implementing New Technologies
TMC panelists Bill Brown, Colin Crowley, Peter Savage and Deryk Powell outlined what they’ve learned as more and more fleets struggled to adopt new technologies and make them work effectively. Photo: Jack Roberts
“>
TMC panelists Bill Brown, Colin Crowley, Peter Savage and Deryk Powell outlined what they’ve learned as more and more fleets struggled to adopt new technologies and make them work effectively. Photo: Jack Roberts
“>
Selecting and implementing new technology and making it work can be a challenge for all of us. It’s especially daunting for fleets, which must not only control costs during the implementation process, but also put new technology to work effectively to ensure downstream return-on-investment.
Four fleet experts with recent experience in adopting new technologies and making them work gave an overview of their experiences and hard-won lessons during a panel discussion entitled “The Challenges and Pitfalls of Implementing New Technology” at the Technology & Maintenance Council Fall Meeting in Orlando, Florida, this week.
Deryk Powell, president and chief operating officer of technology company Velociti, noted in his opening remarks that in our rapidly evolving tech world, “trucking is at the epicenter of all new technology today, because we enable this new economy. And while there is a lot of new, scary stuff coming your way today, you cannot afford to get wound up about it. Because you are going to have to deal with it.”
Powell said his first advice when talking with fleet customers (Velociti specalizes in ” technology deployment services”) is to suggest they “synergize” their technology adoption efforts in order to make them more complete and easier to handle. For example, he said, if your fleet is looking at putting collision avoidance systems on your trucks, why not put them on your yard tractors and forklifts at the same time? Likewise, instead of dividing the tasks of putting different safety systems on vehicles such as electronic logging devices, in-cab camera systems, and lane-departure warning systems, treat all those initiatives as a single, unified action plan.
“That way,” he said, …Read the rest of this story
