There’s An App for That

Max Fuller, co-founder of U.S. Xpress, is known for being on the leading edge of new trucking technology. After all, it was the logo of the Tennessee-based truckload giant that was emblazoned across the Nikola hydrogen-electric truck prototype unveiled last fall. But Nikola and Tesla aren't the only companies bringing technology into trucking that don't have experience in the industry. Some of the hottest companies attracting venture capital these days deal with trucking apps, especially those that promise to do for trucking what Uber did for passengers.

The problem, Fuller says, is these new entrants into the trucking tech arena “don't know what they don't know” — which makes it tough for those in trucking to figure out what these apps are going to mean to the industry.

And it's not like there aren't already enough apps out there to make your head spin, whether you're a trucking exec like Fuller or an independent owner-operator.

You can find hundreds of trucker-oriented apps for smartphones and other mobile devices on the Google Play Store or Apple Store. Truckers can use apps to find parking, find the lowest priced fuel, bypass weigh stations, find freight — the list seems endless.

The term app is used all the time, but it actually can apply to a few different things: a computer application similar to those used on desktop computers; an application that allows access to a web-based platform (Facebook for instance), or a true mobile app designed specifically for mobile devices. Mobile apps tend to be task-specific — finding a parking spot or checking the weather, for example.

In a recent report, market research firm Frost & Sullivan outlined 70 apps widely used in trucking. It grouped them into three categories:

Commentary: No Free Lunch When It Comes to Parts

Rolf Lockwood

Counterfeit, will-fit, or knockoff truck parts remain a serious issue, and you should be concerned. There's a difference between those three, but in the end, one old rule applies: You get what you pay for. And when you see a brake drum or a trailer light or even a wheel fastener that's cheaper than normal, cheaper than it ought to be, your too-good-to-be-true antennae should be picking up a signal.

Some cheaper parts, usually made offshore in places like India and China, might well be worth your money, but this is definitely buyer-beware territory. And an out-and-out counterfeit is potentially a source of real woe, not to mention the illegal side of it that robs the legitimate manufacturer of rightful profit and can mar its good name.

If you're doubting me here, just think about this: Hundreds of people have been killed over the years in air crashes blamed not on storms or terrorists but on “unapproved parts.” The Federal Aviation Administration keeps track of such things, of course, and as of a few years back it blamed nearly 200 airplane accidents on poor-quality counterfeit or knockoff parts that just weren't up to the manufacturer's design criteria.

The problem was big enough that the FAA established the “Suspected Unapproved Parts Program Office” to deal with the issue.

I know of one truck maker caught in this way, having bought wheel fasteners from a cheaper-than-normal source for use on its assembly line. The wheel nuts in question had been correctly marked, but metallurgically they were not what they pretended to be. They'd been bought offshore, in good faith of course, but the quality was sufficiently low that they caused a wreck and killed a four-wheeler in the process.

I happened to be in the plant manager's office when he took the call, informing ...Read the rest of this story

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