One in every 17 workers in the United States is employed in the trucking industry and trucking accounts for the largest annual payroll of any industry in America, said Phil Byrd, chairman of American Trucking Associations, in his opening remarks at this year’s Transflo Users Conference and Brokerage Summit in Clearwater Beach, Fl.
“With the looming driver shortage, we’re going to need to add a million truck drivers in the next 10 years to meet the demand, “Byrd said. “I look with anticipation at busy times ahead.”
Byrd gave an overview of the economic outlook of the trucking industry which included the need to improve the overall image of the trucking industry to help attract people back into the industry.
Byrd praised the use of technology in the trucking industry saying it brought great value to his own trucking company, Bulldog Hiway Express where he serves as president and CEO. Utilizing Transflo scanning services and other technology solutions has helped Bulldog grow and prosper.
More than 100 people attended the two-day Users Conference & Broker Summit, at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort on March 12 and 13. Carriers, freight brokers, and factoring companies came to collaborate, share best practices and learn how Pegasus TransTech’s latest products can improve workplace efficiency and speed cash flow.
Everything that can be automated, must be automated in order to become more efficient, said Robert Voltmann, President and CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, during his legislative and regulatory update.
“You are the rock stars of the internet revolution,” Voltmann said. “Technology will improve efficiency in everything you do and ultimately is what will help you remain competitive.”
Another session entitled “Making Sense of Big Data” gave attendees information on the importance of mining and analyzing the data their companies collect in order to improve the bottom line.
“If your company still makes decisions based on intuition, you might be losing out to your competitors, said Moez Limayem, the Dean of the University of South Florida College of Business. “You should always be looking for relationships within the data in order to show patterns and predict future behavior and results.”
During this year’s conference, Pegasus TransTech showed attendees its future product roadmap and unveiled details about several new products, including mobile applications and automation tools that will be rolled out in the coming months to drive efficiency and boost profits for their customers.
