Trimble Insight conference highlights transportation tech, freight trends

LAS VEGAS – Trimble Inc. wrapped up its 2024 Insight Tech Conference + Expo on Tuesday, with the three-day event spotlighting new technology and strategies for carriers, shippers and brokers.

The event drew more than 1,500 attendees and included several keynote conversations and hundreds of panel discussions, workshops and exhibitors focused on transportation trends and emerging technologies.

Here are several takeaways from this year’s Insight:

Trimble leaders’ keynote highlights acceleration of technology across transportation industry

Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) opened its 2024 Insight Tech Conference on Monday with Rob Painter, president and CEO, and Michael Kornhauser, sector vice president, transportation and logistics, unveiling product updates and relaunches focused on optimizing carrier workflows, navigation and safety.

“We will continue delivering innovation to help you do your work better, and continue investing in cybersecurity, in data and in AI,” Painter said. “The global transportation industry is experiencing a major shift as technology propels productivity.”

The product releases included updates to Trimble’s CoPilot commercial navigation solution, as well as a relaunch of its TMS Order and Road Call modules.

Other transportation technologies discussed during the keynote included Transporeon Visibility and Trimble Inspections.

Transporeon Visibility creates a new real-time visibility tool for carriers in North America, while Trimble Inspections is designed to improve fleet safety and efficiency.

Painter was also joined onstage by Platform Science co-founder and CEO Jack Kennedy, who discussed Platform Science’s agreement to acquire Trimble’s global transportation telematics business units.

“We’re entering an exciting new chapter for Platform Science, for Trimble, and for the industry as a whole,” Kennedy said.

Navy commander says companies can achieve success by empowering employees

Former U.S. Navy Cmdr. Mike Abrashoff was the keynote speaker Tuesday at Insight.

Abrashoff, former commander of the USS Benfold, said he learned many lessons about what it takes to run a tight ship during his naval career.

Abrashoff was 36 when he took command of the Benfold, a guided missile destroyer. Within three years of taking command of the ship, Abrashoff and his crew are credited with transforming it into one of the best-performing guided-missile destroyers in the Navy fleet.

Abrashoff said he came up with the idea of interviewing every sailor on his ship and getting to know as much about them as possible as a way to create teamwork.

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“That’s where the interviews came from, and they weren’t interrogations. They were just conversations. I had a photo taken with every sailor. I had an index card for every sailor. I stapled the photo to the index card,” Abrashoff said.

He asked the sailors questions such as what their goals were in the Navy and in life, as well as questions about their families, what sports their children play, and who their favorite football team is.

“Then during these interviews, I asked every single one, ‘What are you most proud of in your life that nobody here on the ship knows anything about?’ If you want us to see people’s eyes light up and talk with passion, it’s not about their work most of the time. It’s about seeing something in their lives that is really exciting to them,” Abrashoff said. “You know what I learned after almost 20 years in the Navy: If your people know you care about them, they’re going to follow you.”

Cross-border Mexico trade operators ‘deserve’ better technology solutions, experts say

One of the panel discussions at Insight focused on how trade between the U.S. and Mexico is rapidly growing and transforming the global supply chain.

“The Rise in U.S. and Mexico Cross-Border Freight Movement” panel featured Patty Hinojosa, CargoQuotes’ vice president of Mexico sales and operations; Edward Habe, Averitt’s vice president of Mexico sales; and Matt Silver, CEO and co-founder of Cargado. The panel was moderated by FreightWaves’ Noi Mahoney.

Silver said more technology investment is needed in cross-border trade to keep up with the growing amount of freight moving between the U.S. and Mexico.

“I think the industry deserves better technology that helps people collaborate with each other,” Silver said. “Right now, there are a lot of individual tools or solutions that people are using to do different jobs. Part of my goal with Cargado, and my hope for a lot of the other technology companies out there, is that we start helping the industry move forward, instead of just trying to replace things that are kind of legacy today.”

Habe agreed and said the cross-border industry needs better technology solutions, such as visibility tools to help carriers and shippers keep better track of freight movements in Mexico.

Averitt is a transportation and logistics provider headquartered in Cookeville, Tennessee. The company has more than 5,700 tractors and 13,000 trailers, with 80 locations across the country. The company provides cross-border Mexico services such as truckload and LTL, as well as distribution and portside container drayage solutions.

“I keep going back to LTL pool distribution for door-to-door, because that’s what we do a lot of, and that’s where there’s still some major visibility issues versus truckload,” Habe said. “Basically, you pick up full trucks all over Mexico, loaded with LTL shipments that already have tracking numbers on them. In many cases, those tracking numbers have already been given to their customers in the U.S. Unfortunately, it could be two days, three days, four days, before that trailer arrives in places like Laredo, El Paso. Then those shipments get uploaded. So you have a lot of customers looking for the freight, that have no visibility, and that’s causing grief with a large number of our customers.”

Hinojosa, whose Lee’s Summit, Missouri-based full-service freight brokerage CargoQuotes specializes in cross-border shipments, said for freight brokers looking to move freight between the U.S. and Mexico, don’t forget about the importance of relationships.

“If any of you are in this industry, as a broker, you know that relationships are very important,” Hinojosa said. “Don’t go at it alone. My advice will be to find somebody that knows what they’re doing and guide you, be it a partner, or with someone that has been doing cross-border. Learn the ins and outs, or create a coalition with that person.”

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