Supporting warehouse efficiency and driver safety with Altitude’s aggregated mobility data

In the logistics world, safety and efficiency go hand in hand. Whether your truck drivers are at the warehouse, at rest areas or on the road, learn how mobility insights can be instrumental for safer, more streamlined operations and supply chains at every step.

Truckers are the backbone of the North American economy. But for these vital workers who make regional supply chains go, operational challenges can impact their day-to-day safety and how efficiently they’re able to do their jobs. The challenges they face can range from a lack of truck parking to frequently encountering route bottlenecks while trying to reach their destinations. In this article, we’ll do a deep dive into the difficulties faced by commercial drivers and how commercial mobility insights can help with optimizing staging, streamlining traffic flows and boosting transportation safety.

The time a truck takes to fill up with goods from a warehouse can have lasting effects on both safety and efficiency. Staging—the process of organizing and loading or unloading commercial vehicles—is a critical step in the delivery transport lifecycle. In turn, any delays that occur during staging can have lasting impacts on the rest of the supply chain.

Common challenges posed by unoptimized staging and truck parking shortages

Safety concerns: Inadequate space for truck staging can similarly cause stopped trucks to overflow into city streets, turn lanes or road shoulders and condense traffic movement. Additionally, if there aren’t enough designated areas to park large commercial trucks, drivers may feel forced to park wherever they can find an area large enough to accommodate their rig, such as a road shoulder or a retail parking lot. Parking in less-than-ideal locations like these can raise driver safety risks. Roadside parking is always unsafe, but it’s especially dangerous to do overnight, when higher numbers of impaired drivers are on the road. In last-resort parking areas where adequate security is lacking, such as retail parking lots, fields or abandoned areas, there also may be greater potential for theft or driver harassment to occur. Additionally, if drivers are searching for a designated truck parking area to rest for the night but aren’t close by to any, they could risk exceeding their Hours of Service (HOS) driving limits, which can potentially endanger both themselves and other motorists. Complaints from community residents can also rise if commercial drivers are having to frequently park anywhere they can in order to maintain HOS compliance.

Lost productivity and earning potential for drivers: Similarly to airline pilots being compensated for their time in the air, commercial drivers are paid for their time spent on the road actually driving. If delays occur during staging, both drivers and companies stand to lose money. Truck drivers may wait in line at warehouses to receive their cargo for long durations, with little direction on where to go, resulting in frequent downtime and wasted productivity.

Driver frustration: Drivers can get easily discouraged if they’re not able to maximize their time on the road due to inefficient staging. Similarly, if drivers arrive at the warehouse too early, at the same time as many other trucks or late due to unplanned traffic, they may feel like their timing is constantly under the microscope, no matter the circumstances. High frustration can lead to increased turnover, costing logistics companies more money and time spent acquiring new drivers.

Dissatisfied customers: Staging inefficiencies can also harm transportation companies’ reputations in the eyes of their customers. Lengthened staging times ultimately delay truck drivers’ ability to get their deliveries to clients on time, leading to a dismal reputation in the eyes of customers and lost business.

Given these multifaceted problems, a strong need exists for optimized staging processes and more overnight commercial parking. To enhance truck parking and staging, asking these critical questions can help you identify where to start.

• Are staging locations or parking shortages impeding the flow of traffic?

• Who is responsible for organizing the staging process?

• Where are drivers sleeping if they’re parked overnight waiting for cargo to be loaded onto their trucks?

Whether a truck is parked overnight waiting to receive cargo in the morning or a driver is taking their required rest hours, commercial vehicle insights can shed critical light into dwell times and overall movement tendencies.

Before a warehouse facility opens, trucks typically want to try to be among first in line for staging. This enables them to get on the road quicker and make faster progress toward their destinations. Mobility insights can help outline the entire process, from staging to where commercial vehicles are frequently headed, showing how drayage trucks typically move product. Transportation analytics provide vital insight into how supply chains disperse out from central ports or distribution centers and snake throughout a region. Warehousing and logistics companies can use insights like these to identify staging and parking inefficiencies and develop effective solutions for them.

Mobility insights from Altitude by Geotab provides logistics companies with a hyper-targeted approach to solve truck parking and staging deficiencies. Our transportation analytics platform, Altitude, is able to surface valuable insights on where trucks are coming from, where they’re going and where they’re stopping, enabling transportation leaders to pinpoint problem areas and measure the results of new strategies over time.

Origin & Destination (O&D): Altitude’s O&D module shows not only the most common routes commercial vehicles take in a region, but it also provides deeper insight into overall truck travel times. You can identify the most common routes taken by trucks and how long it generally takes them to reach their destinations while driving these routes.

Stop Analytics: The Stop Analytics module helps highlight commercial vehicle parking tendencies, including the most frequented dwelling areas and how long they’re at rest for. Truck parking insights also can be parsed using contextual factors, breaking down stop tendencies by vehicle class, industry, vocation and fuel type.

Regional Domicile Analytics (RDA): Where do trucks reside once a job is complete and they’re not in use? RDA answers this critical question and more with comprehensive insights into travel distances, duty cycle stops and domicile stop lengths, showing where freight vehicles dwell to charge (if they’re electric) and how they move when returning to home base.

It’s powerful to have all these rich insights through Altitude, but practically, how are they used to improve operations for both logistics companies and their drivers? Four key use cases demonstrate how our freight data can help solve safety and efficiency challenges at all levels.

Data-driven freight parking planning: Effective truck parking site selection requires a delicate balance between maximizing available space and maintaining easy accessibility for drivers. Studying insights on the most heavily traveled routes by commercial vehicles—and where they’re currently stopping—enables organizations to know where the most needed (or most feasible locations) are for new parking options. Supporting truck parking construction, planning or optimization with data ultimately makes driver’s lives easier and their daily commutes safer.

Optimized staging: Altitude helps surface the staging inefficiencies currently facing commercial drivers. By observing traffic bottlenecks and truck backups at warehouses, logistics companies can better diagnose operational issues. Use transportation insights to develop targeted strategies that streamline truck staging, from optimizing times to preventing overcrowding.

Reduced congestion: Promoting equitable and efficient transportation for all is core to Altitude by Geotab’s mission. By providing transportation agencies and logistics companies with access to contextual transportation data, we help these organizations identify and solve key traffic problems in their regions. As a result, everyone benefits from easier access to smoother roads, with reduced travel times for all motorists and businesses satisfying more customers.

Improved safety for all drivers: Reducing congestion and expanding freight parking helps to protect both commercial drivers and regular motorists. Developing insights-driven strategies to eliminate bottlenecks and build smarter truck parking areas can reduce safety risks for all road users.

Altitude by Geotab provides warehousing and logistics companies with unprecedented visibility into regional supply chains. By analyzing truck movement patterns and dwell times, companies can optimize staging areas, minimize congestion and reduce idle times. This translates to faster turnaround times, increased throughput and a more efficient overall workflow.

Beyond efficiency, Altitude prioritizes driver safety. By identifying areas of high traffic or prolonged wait times with our insights, companies can address potential hazards and improve the overall driver experience. Reducing unnecessary delays and optimizing workflows contributes to a less stressful environment for drivers, enhancing their well-being and job satisfaction. At Altitude by Geotab, we know the unique struggles facing the transportation and logistics industry. We’re dedicated to helping businesses in this sector protect and elevate their drivers with data-driven operational strategies. Our insights-backed approach to safety empowers you to create a secure and supportive work environment for your most valuable assets: your truckers.