Data technology has muscled its way into the cabs of trucking fleets, and drivers the world over are leery of sharing their tight space with this silent, faceless, mysterious co-worker. Especially today when profit-squeezed big rig operators are having a tough enough time recruiting, training, and retaining drivers who are retiring from the road in sharply rising numbers.
The trucking industry is short 80,000 drivers, a record high, Chris Spear, president, and CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), told CNN recently. That is a 30% hike from before the pandemic hit when trucking was then facing a shortage of 61,500 drivers, he added.
At the same time, the end-to-end digital transformation of supply chains is driving hard to shake off driver shortage slowdowns plus the growing demand from online consumers– who expect swift delivery– are, among other factors, fueling pressures for greater operating efficiencies and profits.
DDC Sync’s Gamification of Trucking
One 34-year-old international company whose US headquarters is in Evergreen, Colorado, is spearheading an innovative solution to an aspect of digitizing logistics using a creative approach that appeals to people of all ages—game playing.
Actually, what sounds like pure fun has morphed into a business discipline that is gaining popularity across many industries: it’s called Gamification. And the company, DDC FPO, is using it in a product, DDC Sync, to trailblaze the technological transformation of motor carrier logistics by delivering rapid data visibility for decision making, again, from the truck’s cab to the carrier’s main or regional office or to a warehouse.
“While motor carriers need to capture Bill of Lading (BOL) data while on the move, not all of the (competitive) applications are designed to capture the actual data,” explains Matt Trevalyan, DDC FPO’s head of customer success for its product line DDC Sync. “They capture the image of the BOL for historical records and require the driver to manually key in the actual data resulting in process fragmentation, human error, and longer turnaround time. It’s extra and often frustrating work for the driver.”
Instead, with DDC Sync, the driver uses a phone equipped with the optical character reader (OCR) mobile app to take a picture of the BOL at the place of pickup and in one click submits it to the terminal for load planning, dock operations, and route optimization purposes. Simultaneously, the image is sent to the carrier’s accounts receivable team so the invoice can be prepared quicker.
This reduces back-office work by digitizing the freight bill at the point of collection with driver GPS tagging of precise location. DDC Sync’s OCR has a sharper image capture capability, asserts Trevalyan, resulting in fewer time-wasting rejections and do-overs. “Essentially, our platform helps carriers receive data almost a day earlier than past processes.”
Applying Gamification to Trucking
But while real-time data visibility is expedited and driver time is saved by not having to do tedious in-cab key-ins, where are the fun and games? And why was it incorporated into a business as serious as motor freight transportation?
Trevalyan, in an exclusive interview with the American Journal of Transportation (AJOT), says gamification is not new to the logistics industry. But DDC FPO is the first and only known company to introduce it to in-cab data capture and transmission. It is essentially a labor recruiting, productivity, and carrier operational efficiency tool.
“It is tough for companies in all industries today to attract labor. But we realize that a core recruitment audience for motor carriers– drivers– have been playing video games from the late seventies, early eighties all the way through to today. Many are used to performing a task, getting points, and getting a reward for their effort. Video game players are also used to working in teams. It started with Pacman, Space Invaders, and continued on. So, we could target a key demographic—seasoned drivers who our clients want to retain. At the same time, some states were lowering the age for driving a truck from 21 to 18 so we could target young people who were entering the workforce and recruit new drivers.
By adding the gamification feature to the DDC Sync’s in-cab mobile app, he says, motor carriers could ensure “proper adoption and engagement from drivers and teach them how to effectively use the app.”
Gamification Injects Teamwork into Driving
Moreover, while truck driving is often a solo and can be a lonely occupation, gamification injects teamwork into their day. Drivers can enjoy friendly competition by joining a dispatcher’s team and earning points and kudos based on a variety of tasks including the quality of the images they transmit from their cab, as Richard Greening, DDC FPO’s chief information officer, told a reporter recently.
As Trevalyan puts it, “Gamification allows members of the driver community within a trucking company to talk to one another about things inside or outside work such as where to park in a specific Tennessee city to the NFL fantasy football draft. For example, women in trucking, who have an underrepresented voice may not feel comfortable discussing some subject matters in front of other employees, can now have a safe space and environment in which to speak freely. When you gamify, you create communities.”
Driver communities not only communicate with one another. Members compete for recognition, he says. One way for a driver to stand out among peers is to capture Bill of Lading data in a high-quality image and transmit it quickly.
“Before DDC Sync, one DDC client’s warehouse night shift would be planning for the day shift based on old BOL data not necessarily sent from the point of pickup and a low-quality BOL image. If either of these two things are not adhered to, the driver will lose points. If the driver, does it perfectly, he or she wins, and the client carrier wins.”
How? By having the data quickly—immediately transmitted clearly from the point of pickup—the day shift at the terminal or warehouse can “proactively plan that day’s operations rather than reactively plan based on the night shift’s input,” Trevalyan says.
Meanwhile, drivers who consistently perform from the road in rapidly capturing and transmitting clear BOL data, get recognized for their prowess with a top posting on the carrier’s Leaderboard. With DDC Sync, they are called “champions.”
Trevalyan says gamification has other benefits for the driver and the client-carrier that are more subtle and collaborative. “Instead of a driver with a problem having to call a dispatcher for an answer and admitting they were struggling, they can call a champion or one of the peers on their team and ask for help.”
Scaling Up Gamification
Gamifying to expedite data is not limited to drivers at a single carrier terminal who work for a single dispatcher, says the DDC FPO executive. “The carrier may want to create competition between, say, its terminals in Salt Lake City and Seattle. Or you could make it on a national level and have teams at terminals and create a Super Bowl between the two top city terminals.”
Gamification of fast and accurate BOL data delivery has still other benefits for the motor carrier. “It stimulates productivity,” Trevalyan contends. “In this industry, people may not embrace and adopt new technologies that quickly, especially if you are a truck driver with 40 years’ experience, who has never taken a picture of a bill of lading before. They’re likely to forget. But if someone tells them there is a reward on the line, that’s different. In some cases, we have had 100 percent adoption levels on new technology in the first week.”
Gamifying is also a managerial tool. “Each day, a dispatcher will receive a feedback loop so they can see which driver has made mistakes the day before. At the same time, DDC Sync sends out automatically generated push notifications to the drivers who performed well so it provides real time feedback and recognition.”
But where gamification really shines is improving line haul operating and logistics efficiency. Trevalyan insists, “For example, our technology can be optimized to measure how harshly a driver puts on the brakes and how that impacts fuel efficiency. You can lose points or earn points for improved fuel use. Logistically, the BOL data capture and transmission image tells the warehouse team exactly what is coming on the truck so they can plan where the freight goes in the warehouse before it arrives.” Again, points are earned or subtracted based on the driver’s performance of how often- and how well- he or she uses the app.
