LAS VEGAS. During this year’s TCA Conference here in Las Vegas, LinkeDrive announced that USA Truck has installed its PedalCoach mobile application in its fleet of trucks to increase the fuel efficiency and augment the company’s existing pay-for-performance program.USA Truck said its strategic sourcing team reviewed the capabilities of LinkeDrive’s PedalCoach mobile application. After a year-long trial period of driving with the PedalCoach on Android devices, the team concluded that “PedalCoach not only increased fuel savings, but enhanced USA Truck’s existing pay-for-performance program to further improve the work satisfaction levels of its drivers.”“Our drivers are truly the backbone of USA Truck and we take great pride in the work that they do to make our company successful,” said Martin Tewari, USA Truck’s president of Trucking. “As a result, we place a strong emphasis on ensuring that our drivers have work-life balance and are properly compensated for performance. Besides increasing fuel economy, LinkeDrive’s pay-for-performance capabilities quickly demonstrated the overall performance of our drivers and helped us make the jobs of our drivers a bit easier while rewarding those who drove in the most fuel-efficient manner. While fuel savings was a key objective for leveraging PedalCoach, its ability to enhance our pay-for-performance capabilities is proving to be significantly positive.”According to the company, PedalCoach leverages LinkeDrive’s cloud-based platform to provide real-time, adaptive feedback for improving fuel efficiency and safety. The solution’s algorithms set a fueling target for each driver communicated in a red-yellow-green interface that allows drivers to earn “points” for achieving optimal behaviors and patterns, the company added. And linking that to USA Truck’s pay-for-performance program enables the company’s drivers to be financially compensated on their ability to meet pre-established goals related to performance and safety.“I’ve been in the trucking industry for roughly 30 years and have seen and tested many products that claim to save trucking companies fuel. From everything I’ve seen since installing the PedalCoach app, I believe this is the one that will have the most impact on our industry,” said Greg Lutes, vice president and general manager of USA Truck’s Dedicated business.“Our intentions behind developing PedalCoach have consistently focused on increasing fuel efficiency, improving driver safety, and helping to retain drivers by offering them a compensation program that is a win for both drivers and their employers,” said Jeff Baer, LinkeDrive’s founder and CEO. “We appreciate the strong partnership we have with USA Truck and are really excited to be seeing a dramatic increase in the interest that logistics businesses have shown in PedalCoach, and believe that it offers them a unique solution for dealing with some of the biggest issues that the trucking industry faces today.” LinkeDrive’s PedalCoach application can be deployed on LinkeDrive’s Android device and also integrated on Android-based tablets installed within cabs.
