Top 5 Pictures & Trends from GATS

The KeepTruckin team paid a visit to the Great American Trucking Show. It was our first visit to the event, and with a fresh set of eyes, we wanted to share our experience:

1. Trucks Galore — Photos from the pride & polish floor

          

2. ELDs — Managing the cost of compliance

ELD compliance has been a hot topic, leading Overdrive to issue a comparison of vendor prices. Newer players (like KeepTruckin), are coming in at far lower price points though, attempting to reduce the overhead burden on smaller fleets and owner-operators.

 

 

 

 

 

3. America’s Road Team — Million mile accident-free club

We loved seeing our ATA partners from America’s Road Team. Gary Babbit (right) has over 5,000,000 miles of accident-free driving! We appreciate the great work he and the others from the Road Team do to spread the word about highway safety.

 

 

 

 

4. Controversy — Howard Abramson’s NYT op-ed column

Murmurs floated through the floor over last week’s New York Times op-ed on trucks killing us. Bill Graves from the ATA issued this response, and talks of the debate was abuzz.

5. Recruiting Drivers — CNBC’s trucking CEO panel

In a panel that included leadership from Covenant, Swift, and Werner, solutions to take on the driver shortage were addressed. The concern is that more drivers are expected to retire soon, and many are worried that younger drivers won’t fill the void.

Check out KeepTruckin’s piece on recruiting millennial drivers if you’re curious!

 

Introducing the completely redesigned KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook App!

We started KeepTruckin with the mission to build great technology products for the trucking industry. Tools that are easy to use, and that improve the lives of those who keep our economy moving — truck drivers.

Less than two years in, the #1 rated KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook App is used by over 100,000 drivers to track their logs on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Over that time, we have received feedback from thousands of users on how to make the KeepTruckin app even better. The feedback has been incredibly valuable.

We are thrilled to announce the release of the completely redesigned KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook App! Here are the top five reasons you’ll love the new design:

1) A beautiful new interface that makes the KeepTruckin app even easier to use.

2) Support for multiple vehicles and odometer readings on your log form.

3) Improved log entry and editing experience.

4) Improved DVIR creation experience.

5) Alerts for Form & Manner errors.

You can download the latest version of the KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook App in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

To learn more about how to use the redesigned KeepTruckin app, visit our Support Center.

As always, we would love to hear what you think. If you have any questions or comments, email us at support@keeptruckin.com.

Manage your drivers more easily with groups

Last September we launched KeepTruckin for Fleets, a dashboard to help motor carriers streamline HOS compliance. Since then, thousands of companies have switched from paper logs to KeepTruckin and have seen incredible results.

Many of these fleets have hundreds of drivers across multiple terminals, a situation that the KeepTruckin dashboard didn’t handle particularly well — until today.

We are excited to announce that KeepTruckin now allows fleet managers to filter the KeepTruckin dashboard to only show driver groups that are relevant to them.

Fleets can add or remove drivers from a group in the Admin Panel.

You can learn more about how to use groups in the KeepTruckin Support Center.

As always, we would love to hear what you think about the new groups feature. If you have any questions or comments, email us at support@keeptruckin.com.

Competing with Large Carriers — How Small Fleets Can Win

Last month the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) issued their annual State of Logistics Report, and found that “over the course of the year, the transportation sector grew by 3.6%”. It was the “best year for the supply chain industry since the Great Recession,” yet despite high demand and strong macroeconomic health, small fleets were squeezed out by competition and regulation.

The CSCMP report found that 390 trucking companies (comprising 10,000+ drivers) went into bankruptcy in Q1 2014. These fleets averaged 27 vehicles, and many were driven out by the larger fleets.

Attacking Goliath’s Weakness

In Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, he explains that an army’s opportunities come from the relative weakness of an enemy, and how well an army responds to changes in the battlefield.

The largest fleets have tighter controls and more management layers — their weakness. These controls often manifest in legacy technologies that have “always” been used to measure and enforce driver activities.

Managing these controls are leadership layers, which creates a rift between leadership and frontline drivers. The drivers are unaware of leadership’s goals, and when disconnected to the company’s vision, morale and loyalty fades.

Winning Against Size — Learn Quickly Via Feedback

A smaller fleet’s advantage is that management can make faster business decisions and rollout changes to drivers more quickly. This advantage can be used to reduce overhead expenses, increase efficiency, and improve driver retention.

Feedback cycles enable this advantage.

Since there are fewer drivers in smaller fleets, leadership can ask firsthand for suggestions. When a fleet’s president checks in quarterly with drivers to ask for feedback, it lets drivers know they’re valued, and helps the business learn faster. This builds relationships and loyalty (advantage), and also helps drivers understand why future business decisions were made which improves compliance with said decisions (advantage).

When trust and a learning culture is established through feedback, fleets can more easily roll out new technologies, reaping business benefits like reduced overhead and lowered expenses.

Could mobile tech help recruit millennial drivers to your fleet?

The driver shortage and high turnover rates are well documented industry challenges for fleets. The ATA estimates the shortage is now north of 35,000 drivers, and yet despite being a well documented problem, fleets continue struggling to attract and retain drivers.

Over one-third of the workforce is now a millennial (born 1980+), and that percentage is growing quickly. What’s interesting about millennials is that they’re similar to seasoned drivers — they value independence, autonomy, and connection to purpose. Why can’t fleets then attract more young drivers?

To attract millennial drivers, many fleets have turned to perks or incentives, like in-cab satellite TVs or sign-on bonuses. However, making such purchases isn’t feasible for many fleets, particularly smaller ones, when there are known challenges and expenses associated with ensuring Hours of Service (HOS) rules compliance, or increased DOT and FMCSA regulation.

Mobile Tech = Appeal to millennials + Reduce overhead expenses

Fleets that have adopted the KeepTruckin mobile app have not only been able to reduce HOS violations or eliminate paper logs, but they can also use it as the modern tool to attract millennial drivers.

If you ask a young, new driver to fill out a paper log and then fax it to your safety manager, they might think you’re from the stone age. Ask them to use their mobile phone though? Yep, no problem, mobile phones are ranked as more important than a toothbrush to millennials.

Next time you’re interviewing a millennial, avoid spending extra on a sign-on bonus or satellite TV. Instead, consider showing how your fleet is on the cutting edge of technology logistics, and that your mobile tech is the competitive advantage you’ll leverage to increase safety and win more business.

Electronic DVIRs with KeepTruckin

Vehicle inspections can be a paperwork nightmare. Many fleets require drivers to complete a pre-trip and post-trip inspection every day — that quickly adds up to a mountain of paper.

KeepTruckin helps fleets overcome the paperwork burden and streamline vehicle inspection reports. Drivers can use the KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook App for Android or iPhone/iPad to create electronic DVIRs. They simply enter their vehicle/trailer details, select defects from a list, and sign. It’s that easy.

The latest update to KeepTruckin makes the electronic DVIR feature even better for fleet managers.

KeepTruckin now alerts you in real time if your driver reports any defects so that you can get the issue resolved promptly.

You can search for DVIRs by driver or vehicle. You can also use the filters to view only those DVIRs with defects.

If a DVIR has defects, you can mark the defects “corrected” or “need not be corrected” and add a mechanic signature if necessary — all from the KeepTruckin Dashboard.

And if you need a paper copy for any reason, you can instantly download and print your drivers’ DVIRs.

As always, we would love to hear what you think about the new and improved electronic DVIR feature. If you have any questions or comments, email us at support@keeptruckin.com.

GPS Location Tracking with KeepTruckin

Knowing where your drivers and vehicles are at all times is critical for effective fleet management. Until recently, that has required installation of dedicated GPS tracking devices with significant upfront investment and high monthly fees. What if you could track your drivers and vehicles in real time without the proprietary hardware and high cost?

With the latest update to KeepTruckin, you can do just that. The KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook app for Android and iPhone collects drivers’ GPS locations at regular intervals. Fleet managers can view all of their drivers’ current locations on an interactive map in the KeepTruckin dashboard for fleets.

GPS Location Tracking with the KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook

KeepTruckin also lets you view an individual driver’s breadcrumb location history for any prior day. You can replay the driver’s day by dragging the time slider.

Breadcrumb Location History with the KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook

To protect driver privacy, KeepTruckin only shows location data when a driver’s duty status is set to driving or on duty.

As always, we would love to hear what you think about the new location feature in the KeepTruckin dashboard. If you have any questions or comments, email us at support@keeptruckin.com.

34 Hour Restart Rules Suspended — KeepTruckin App Update Coming Soon

On Saturday, December 13th, the Senate passed a new spending bill that includes a provision to suspend the July 2013 changes to the 34 hour restart rule. Drivers will no longer have to be off duty for two consecutive 1 am to 5 am periods for a restart to be valid. And drivers will once again be able to use multiple restarts in a 7 day period.

President Obama is expected to sign the spending bill imminently. Once signed, the FMCSA will be required to issue a notice in the Federal Register announcing the suspension of the 1 am to 5 am and 168 hour requirements for 34 hour restarts.

We will be releasing an updated version of the KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook app in the coming days that will reflect the above mentioned changes. Once a driver updates to the latest version, any 34 hour consecutive off duty period will qualify as a restart.

Please contact us at support@keeptruckin.com if you have any questions.

Read more about the the 34 hour restart changes:

34-hour restart rules to be suspended: Congress clears legislation to roll back 2013 provisions — Overdrive

Hours-of-service changes loom: Bill clears Congress, heads toward implementation — CCJ

Learn more about the #1 electronic logs solution for drivers and fleets:

DOT approved eLogs for Fleets

KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook for Android

KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook for iPhone and iPad

KeepTruckin Electronic Logbook adds support for Oil and Gas Hours of Service rules

Over the past year we have heard from hundreds of drivers who work in the oil and gas sector who wanted us to add support for the oil and gas well site waiting time exception. We are excited to announce that the KeepTruckin electronic logbook app now offers oil and gas drivers the option to record waiting time on a 5th line on their log.

If you are an oil and gas driver and the waiting time exception applies to you, you can easily update your Cycle Settings in the KeepTruckin electronic logs app to use the 5th line option.

1. Go to the Account Settings screen and click Edit next to Log Settings.
2. Select Cargo. Choose Oil and Gas.
3. In the Options section, you will see Well Site. Choose “Waiting Time on 5th Line” if you want to use the waiting time exception.
4. Return to the Log screen and you will now see a 5th duty status option — Waiting. And all of your logs going forward will show a 5th line.

Click here to check out our step by step tutorial.

Please visit the FMCSA website to learn more about the oil and gas well site waiting time exception, or email us at support@keeptruckin.com.

KeepTruckin now alerts drivers if they are at risk of an HOS violation

The KeepTruckin team is always looking to make life easier for drivers. Our latest app update includes a great new addition to our electronic logs app — push notification alerts for upcoming HOS violations. Drivers can choose to receive a notification 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes before an HOS violation occurs. That gives you plenty of time to pull over and find a safe place to take your rest break or finish your shift.

KeepTruckin Electronic Logs help drivers stay compliant and avoid the paperwork that comes with paper logbooks.

Check out the latest update to the KeepTruckin Electronic Logs App for Android and the KeepTruckin Electronic Logs App for iPhone and iPad.