The transportation industry is, in many ways, the lifeblood of modern society. Without the countless trucking fleets that travel the roads and highways of North America, everything would grind to a halt. This is truer than ever during the novel coronavirus pandemic, as truck drivers work tirelessly to deliver everything from food to medical supplies.
It is not a mission without challenges. To this day, shutdowns at factories and delivery sites are still common. As a result, supply lines are now more complicated than ever, with countless detours and alternative delivery locations translating into a logistics nightmare.
However, for Industrial Transport Services, it’s more or less been business as usual, due in large part to its fleet management processes. A transportation company headquartered in Mount Vernon, Indiana, ITS delivers across the entirety of the lower United States, from California to Pennsylvania. Currently, it employs approximately 2,800 staff and manages more than 2,000 trailers – and counting.
“COVID-19 didn’t impact us as much as it did others,” explains Tyna Oglesby, Equipment Utilization Manager at ITS. “That isn’t to say it had no impact. We had to change several of our major supply lines as dedicated clients had to shut down their usual delivery sites, meaning equipment intended for certain places ended up all over the country.”
Had the pandemic occurred three years ago, Oglesby and her colleagues may have been left scrambling to keep track of everything. However, the company decided to deploy BlackBerry Radar® in 2018. This has, notes Oglesby, made it incredibly easy for the company to locate trailers and trucks, no matter where they end up.
A complete asset tracking solution, BlackBerry Radar provides easy, reliable visibility into all of a fleet owner’s major assets. Its ruggedized sensors are easy to install and configure and are connected to an intuitive dashboard that provides powerful analytics and insights into asset utilization. In ITS’s case, the company chose to integrate BlackBerry Radar into its existing transportation management software for even greater visibility.
In addition to allowing the organization to weather the chaos created by COVID-19, BlackBerry Radar has also helped the organization gain better control over its assets. Using BlackBerry Radar, it has prevented several thefts while also retrieving multiple misplaced trailers. Given that per Oglesby, each trailer can cost as much as $30,000, this mitigates a considerable financial burden.
“A few years back, a trailer was stolen out of our Martinsburg yard,” recalls Oglesby. “Because the GPS unit was still working, we were able to see exactly where it was. I was able to easily track it down and have it returned. Without the visibility provided by BlackBerry Radar, that likely would not have been possible.”
“Our sister organization, CTS, also had a trailer stolen out of their Green Bay location,” she continues. “It ended up in Greeneville, South Carolina, where our corporate headquarters is located. They ended up calling the Vice President to go check it out, and sure enough, he found that someone had taken it and was able to retrieve it.”
Lost and stolen assets are a constant issue for trucking firms, especially with the logistical confusion created by COVID-19. ITS is among those transportation companies that have managed to largely avoid this problem while at the same time significantly improving efficiency for both dispatch and general fleet management. BlackBerry is honored to have played a role in helping them do so, and we are excited to see where our partnership takes us next.
Learn more about how Industrial Transport Services is using BlackBerry Radar.
