Bussiness
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.
“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.”