Forward Air, Inc., and GE Equipment Services announced an agreement where Forward Air’s entire fleet of over-the-road trailers will be equipped with GE’s VeriWise Trucking trailer management technology.
Forward Air is a major supplier of ground transportation for the air cargo industry. GE Equipment Services is a global provider of financing, maintenance and asset intelligence services for transportation assets.
Jeff Woods, senior vice president of logistics at Forward Air, said the decision to add GE’s trailer management solution to their entire fleet of 1900 units, was based on both the productivity gain relative to the cost, and GE’s reputation as a financially stable, technology-rich business that can provide support over the long haul.
Before selecting GE, Forward Air studied the various trailer tracking technologies on the market. Like many companies, they found themselves grappling with the return on investment financials for the products.
“When the potential savings in productivity and the lowered cost of trailer management were added up, the decision to choose GE was clear,” said Woods. “To our surprise, it took us only about eight man hours to install the first 50 pilot units.”
Woods said he expects to eliminate the many man hours formerly spent conducting daily physical inventories at more than 100 company stations and customer yards. In addition to this cost savings, Woods indicated he “expects to pick up a conservative 50 to 75 trailer days” with their existing fleet through utilization of the trailer management feature and downloadable reports to identify under-utilized equipment.
Today, more than 150,000 VeriWise units are installed on trailers in Canada, Europe, Mexico and the U.S.
