For GPS ROI — Follow The Money

The PLCTag is based around a communication standard called PLC4Trucks which uses the power wires of a vehicle to transmit the signals.
The PLCTag when used in conjunction with a reader device such as our Vector 300WP, is capable of:

• Detecting hook and drop hook events
• Realtime tracking of trailing equipment
• Distance reporting
• Gate arrival and departure warnings

So states the website of the Prolificx Group of Companies.  Why are they here, on the GPS ROI Tracking blog?  Nope, they aren’t paid advertisers.  And no, I haven’t used their equipment … yet.  But they have certainly impressed me as a company who has “acquired the bubble” when it comes to the proper ways to manage freight transport and return believable bottom line improvements to freight handling companies.

Here’s a sort of snapshot of the US truck-based segment of the industry.  First we have a large majority of companies who refuse to learn about GPS and receive a great OI on what amounts to a very small investment.  You are my target audience folks … I don’t sell this technology, I write strictly as a labor of love to help people learn what they are missing.

Next we have a smaller, but ever-growing segment of the market … including many “big names” who do use GPS tracking to improve their bottom line.  A large sub-segment of this market, though, are tracking only a fraction of what they should be.  Typically, over the road companies use something like Omnitracs from Qualcomm or (smarter) an EMS technologies-based product like nCompass to track one part of the multi-part freight movement solution … the prime mover (tractor) of the tractor-trailer combination.

This is great and it returns a profit very quickly, often within six months of implementation … but what part is missing from the equation?

The money!  To really keep your hands on the wheel of your business you have to focus your attention on where the money is.  And even though truck tractors can easily exceed $100,000 in capital costs, they are not the real money.  They only exists to pull the freight and the freight resides in trailers (or containers on trailers).  The US has somewhat of a unique arrangement in that trucking companies, in general, have not been very accountable for the freight they carry.  If someone steals a trailer full of valuable merchandise, the responsibility often lands in the lap of a third-party freight forwarder or else in the manufacturer or dealer of the actual product that disappeared.

Fine well and good, but someone has to pay for theft.  The third segment of the freight market is the amazingly small segment that actually tracks the money … the trailers that house the high-value goods.  This segment is rapidly growing, however, and it should … it’s the methodology of using GPS tracking that makes the most sense (cents) and the one that provides dividends that non-trailer-tracking carriers can’t even begin to offer.  A shipper doesn’t really care where truck tractor number 282 is … which is what the first generation of GPS tracking offers.  She cares about where her shipment inside container SUDU 307 007 9 … and that’s what today’s feature product is prepared to tell the freight carrier, the shipper, the consignee and interested third parties … like Homeland Security.

If you want to make a return on the money you invest in GPS tracking, rule one is … Follow The Money.

As always, I welcome comments, constructive criticisms, disagreements, questions or just plain talk.  You can leave a comment to this article or email me direct at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on 1-719-423-8872. I’m usually on Yahoo messenger (davestarr) and will be happy to chat there.  If you liked this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed so you get all my news and views.