Technology news and briefs for the week of Oct. 30, 2022:
Solera company unveils updated cargo sensor
Solera company Spireon recently introduced the next generation of its IntelliScan cargo sensor under its FleetLocate product line.
IntelliScan ProView is an enhanced cargo sensor that changes the carrier’s view of available cargo space with 99% accurate load status as well as the trailer’s used cubic volume and floor space percentages. Images from inside the trailer are also available for download with the proven ability to retrieve images at scale.
The sensor allows truckload carriers to see open space in their trailers for additional back haul opportunities and more revenue. It allows LTL carriers to better plan their trailer load cube and move more freight per trailer while educating the dock team to learn best practices for loading. And private fleets can manage inventory in storage trailers and identify backfill opportunities for incremental revenue.
Each ProView cargo sensor is equipped with optical recognition and proprietary machine learning technology to produce high accuracy. It takes periodic measurements of the surrounding trailer space and sends “percent full” and “percent of used floor space” readings back to the fleet manager’s FleetLocate interface.
The sensor is mounted at the rear of the trailer and provides a complete view into the trailer during the loading process. When combined with cargo load status detection and downloadable images, ProView provides a comprehensive picture of every trailer’s capacity.
Otonomi to bring new freight insurance product to market
Tech-enabled insurance startup Otonomi that focuses on freight insurance recently completed a $3.4 million funding round to bring a new product to market that uses complex models to be able to profitably underwrite insurance against delays in shipments of freight.
Nearly $10 billion of estimated losses have been caused by supply chain disruption.
"Traditionally, insurance at the point of sale has been focused on damages to goods. However, costly delays often arise across air, maritime, trucking and last-mile logistics,” said Chris Shonk, partner and co-founder at ATX Ventures Partners, which led the funding round. “Otonomi has a great team positioned to bring together aspects of parametric insurance, risk related to supply chain and shipment delays, and highly embeddable distribution.”
Otonomi's management tapped into six critical industries to assemble a core team with experience across finance, insurance, blockchain, UX design, marketing and security.
The company is first to market in providing parametric cargo delay insurance (a fast, transparent and automated delay insurance product) that unlocks claims resolution in 45 minutes instead of 45 days, compressing administrative costs by up to 90%.
"By leveraging smart contracts, advanced risk metrics, and industry-leading oracles from our technology partner Chainlink, our engineers are able to build more transparent, timely and cost-efficient products for our logistics end-clients and insurance underwriter partners," said Otonomi CTO Jeremy Sutton.
Tech company to provide fleets access to Nauto safety services
Nauto, a leading provider of AI-based vehicle safety technology for commercial fleets and the automotive sector, has partnered with technology company BrightDrop, which focuses on decarbonizing last-mile deliveries, to provide commercial fleet customers access to Nauto's predictive AI safety services.
Through this collaboration, BrightDrop's commercial fleet customers now have the option to add Nauto's predictive AI safety solutions to help improve driver safety performance, reduce collision loss and prevent deadly accidents.
Nauto's real-time AI, trained on more than 1.7 billion AI-processed driving miles, typically results in 60% to 80% reduction in risky and distracted driving within a few weeks without manager intervention. It also offers a return on investment with a 50% to 80% reduction in collisions across many different vehicle sizes and types, geographies and verticals.
BrightDrop offers a portfolio of first- and last-mile solutions, including electric delivery vans, electric carts and software designed to make last-mile deliveries smarter, safer and more efficient.
IoT company offers enhancements to trailer telematics platform
SkyBitz has launched the next generation of its trailer telematics platform that helps maximize asset utilization.
The industrial IoT telematics solutions provider replaced its best-selling GXT5002C trailer telematics solution with the release of Kuantum, a purpose-built platform for maximizing fleet capacity to increase revenue and profitability using the same number of trailer and intermodal container assets.
Kuantum devices have an integrated ultrasonic cargo sensor, harness solar energy to recharge an internal battery, and use a power management system to reliably deliver high frequency, event-driven reporting of trailer locations and empty/loaded status. The ruggedized hardware is compact and engineered to deliver maintenance-free service for the life of a trailer.
The solution enables fleets with mixed assets to optimize their dry vans and intermodal containers by turning assets faster to increase driver productivity and revenue; detecting misuse of assets by customers and other third parties; decreasing reliance on customer notifications to schedule pickups; automating yard checks and other manual tasks; and verifying detention events with arrival, load/unload and departure data.
It is Bluetooth-enabled and operates on the 4G LTE Network with 5G compatibility. The device mounts on the front of a trailer and functions as a single gateway to support multiple wireless sensors in the SkyBitz SmartTrailer ecosystem. Configurable reporting options and over-the-air programmable capabilities ensure a future-proof investment.
The SkyBitz Insight web Portal delivers a single dashboard that unifies management of mixed trailer assets and provides instant visibility of trailer and cargo status from data captured by Kuantum and other SkyBitz devices. Through APIs, all data in the SkyBitz Insight web portal is available for real-time integration with transportation management systems.
MyCarrier releases new version of TMS
Transportation management system provider MyCarrier has released a new version of MyCarrierTMS, designed to significantly enhance user interaction.
MyCarrier's TMS acts as a digital bridge, providing new levels of visibility between shippers and carriers with a goal to lead LTL shipping market digital transformation efforts and accelerate carrier digital scorecard initiatives.
The release will bring several new updates including, improving the onboarding experience for new platform users, including shipping/logistics users and others involved with shipping from the accounting/finance, customer support and sales departments; adding new carriers via a single-click, quick-connect configuration process; adding ERP Lite integration support for SMB teams that cannot afford the time of complex integrations by enabling teams to integrate into nearly every ERP system quickly without specialized resources and associated costs; adding automation for consignee-routed shipments (outbound collect); and enhancing multi-modal support by integrating core functional elements necessary to support parcel in the future.
The release will advance digital automation in several key areas, like integrating shipper's ERP and TMS platforms, supporting all freight charge types (prepaid, collect, and third-party) and more. It will also improve user experience, focused on unifying and enabling all departments involved with shipping. Future planned features include freight audit and dispute, freight payments, truckload, advanced analytics and more.
