Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/442406
FromtheDeskofScott H ow long is a generation? In geological time, a generation is a few million years. In the Bible it was 100, 70, or 40 years (no one knows for sure). According to Ancestry.com, in families it is about 25 years. For Star Trek it took 20 years for the Next Generation. In computer chips a generation is about 18 months. In iPhones it is just a little over one year. So what defines a generation and what is a generation in trucking? When Internet Truckstop started in 1995, when a carrier finished delivering his load was when he started looking around for his next load. Today, you look, find, and book your next load before you load and depart with your current load. In 1995, electronic driver logs were an idea. Today they are about to become mandatory. In 1995, communicating with drivers was done via pay phone or expensive satellite systems. Today almost everyone has a cell phone and pay phones are few and far between. In 1995, internet access was very limited, slow, and you had to plug into a phone jack to get it. Today almost every phone has access to internet, with Wi-Fi hotspots almost everywhere you stop. In 1995, if you needed to get a rate confirmation, you tried to find the nearest fax machine. Today, you get it in your e-mail and electronically sign it. In 1995, driverless vehicles were science fiction on the big screen. Today many of their components are built in and used by vehicles of every sort. If you were to pin me down to define it, I would say a trucking generation has been about 10 years. About every 10 years we see significant changes in transportation. Recently because of the current regulatory environment we are seeing more changes happen more quickly which is speeding up our generational clock. Vehicle requirements, driver requirements, freight requirements, traffic requirements are all putting more and more pressure on transportation to change which is forcing a next generation in transportation. Generations are not something to fear, but to be embraced. Each succeeding generation creates opportunities for new companies not encumbered by legacy processes to step up and make a difference in the industry and for traditional companies to embrace change and eliminate some legacy processes. In 2015, we will be launching our fourth generation of Internet Truckstop products to help you find freight and trucks more quickly. You have seen the first steps of this fourth generation technology at work already on the site with the release of the new details pages which incorporate materials found throughout the Truckstop.com site brought all together into one spot. Additional changes to help speed the decision making process and the communication processes will be arriving shortly. As we celebrate this new year and the 20th year of Internet Truckstop, we are excited to step into this next generation of trucking and support it with more tools, more information, and more ________ to help your businesses step into this next generation and be even more profitable than ever before. TRUCKING: THE NEXT GENERATION G E N E R AT I O N S A R E N O T S O M E T H I N G T O F E A R , B U T T O B E E M B R A C E D . " " 4 IT MAGAZINE Vo l . 9 , N o . 1 Scott Moscrip, CEO