Technology

“Innovation opportunity”: PeopleNet upgrades to ALK maps platform

March 9, 2015

KISSIMMEE, FL. PeopleNet, a Trimble company (NASDAQ: TRMB), has announced an upgrade to its web-based interface mapping technology in partnership with sister company ALK. The news was shared with attendees at the Truckload Carriers Association annual convention here today. With the new interface featuring the ALK Maps interactive mapping platform, fleet managers will gain access to new mapping features designed specifically for the transportation industry. Interfaces, such as weather radar and traffic level overlays, will allow fleets to better visualize routes to efficiently plan routes and schedule activities.

Users of the PeopleNet web-based interface maps will also gain an automated workflow tool, which gives fleet managers dispatch-specific information on each fleet vehicle pertinent for approaches, arrivals, and departures, such as:

Estimated time of arrival
Actual arrival time
Estimated time of departure
Fuel levels
Odometer tracking
Distance from actual stop
Date and time of last call in

“We ae always trying to innovate, but also to make life safer for everyone on the road,” PeopleNet’s new general manager, Mark Kessler, told Fleet Owner. “That is our number one goal. Our number two goal is to help fleets be more efficient--to increase their top-line revenue and bottom line profits.

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“ALK’s great mapping tools, with weather and traffic overlays, give us access to a whole a new set of capabilities,” he added. “Now we have a new platform for innovation, for developing things the industry has never seen before.”

One urgent industry problem that PeopleNet hopes to help address - in part with the new mapping tools from ALK - is the driver shortage.

“The industry has seen driver shortages in the past, but this time it is different,” Kessler said, noting that this time, the driver shortage is going to persist due in part to the upcoming ELD mandate, the number of drivers retiring and tighter screening requirements, such as hair follicle testing for drug use.

"We want to deliver services that enhance the driver’s lifestyle by making it easier to manage challenges on the road such as Hours of Service, traffic and bad weather," he told Fleet Owner. "We also want to make it easier for drivers to get home for family things such as a little league baseball game, a birthday. If we can help make the job of being a driver less stressful and more rewarding, we hope we can help keep drivers in the industry and attract new people to it."

About the Author

Wendy Leavitt

Wendy Leavitt joined Fleet Owner in 1998 after serving as editor-in-chief of Trucking Technology magazine for four years.

She began her career in the trucking industry at Kenworth Truck Company in Kirkland, WA where she spent 16 years—the first five years as safety and compliance manager in the engineering department and more than a decade as the company’s manager of advertising and public relations. She has also worked as a book editor, guided authors through the self-publishing process and operated her own marketing and public relations business.

Wendy has a Masters Degree in English and Art History from Western Washington University, where, as a graduate student, she also taught writing.