Staying ahead of Mother Nature: interview with John Bosse
Drivers and fleets can't control the weather, but John Bosse of The Weather Company believes that, with a little help, they have the ability to effectively plan for it.
Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
It's wintertime, and the truck driving is far from easy. For fleets and drivers, January means delays, safety hazards, and general misery across a large swath of the country. With that in mind, The Weather Company, which provides solutions to help businesses—including the world's airlines—minimize the impact of the elements on their operations, established a program tailored to the rig warriors.
In an interview with Mark B. Solomon, DC Velocity's executive editor-news, John Bosse, The Weather Company's offering manager, travel and transportation, talked about the Atlanta-based business's approach to helping truckers cope with the weather, the role of the Internet of Things in its value proposition, and the cost of weather-related accidents on the supply chain.
Q: You were acquired by IBM Corp. in 2015. What did IBM purchase?
A: IBM acquired our business solutions group, our advertising business that is now Watson Advertising, and The Weather Channel's digital properties, which include The Weather Channel app, Weather.com, and Weather Underground. IBM did not acquire the Weather Channel broadcast network.
Q: Truck fleets for years have traditionally relied on National Weather Service (NWS) reports and other sources of secondary research to help plan routes and driver schedules. Can you describe how your service works and how it differs from what's already out there?
A: Our operations dashboard complements the data provided by the National Weather Service with weather information tailored to specific customers. Additionally, we go beyond zone forecasts and can provide temporal and spatial resolution, offering a forecast over more than 2.2 billion locations around the entire globe. This means that drivers can understand what is ahead of them no matter what their destination.
Q: How do you define ROI (return on investment) for your service, and can you provide an example of how a customer has benefited from using it?
A: When we look at ROI for trucking, we consider two key issues: accident prevention and delay mitigation. Combining both issues, here's an example of potential ROI for a 5,000-truck fleet. There were over 430,000 large-truck accidents on U.S. roadways in 2014. That means accidents affected about 4 percent of the estimated 11 million large trucks on the road that year. Using that ratio, an operator of a 5,000-truck fleet can expect 200 accidents a year. By arming drivers with advance knowledge of expected hazardous weather, they are able to plan around it or at least be adequately prepared for it. This knowledge can reduce accidents by at least 5 percent, at an estimated cost of $148,000 per accident. This results in a $1.5 million savings for the company.
When it comes to delay mitigation, it is estimated that the average cost of congestion is $5,664 per truck in the U.S. With advance weather knowledge, coupled with our traffic flow and incident data, we are seeing at least a 5-percent reduction in delays. This converts to $1.3 million in annual savings for the same 5,000-truck fleet.
Q: Can you describe a solution that you would provide to a carrier?
A: A typical solution would involve a combination of services. Drivers and driver business leaders would have access to our "Operations Dashboard" app to track weather and traffic on their routes before they drive. This situational awareness would help them select the right routes, maximize their hours of service, and increase safety. In addition, driving alerts are designed to notify drivers via their in-cab telematics systems when hazardous weather is reported on the road ahead. This lets the driver stay focused on the road but anticipate conditions that will impact both travel speeds and safety by giving them time to change or pull off the road if conditions warrant. Additionally, drivers can combine our weather and traffic data with their own dispatch and asset tracking displays.
Q: What non-IT tips would you give to fleets to help them get ahead of the elements?
A: We like to say that drivers should "brief before you drive." Pilots don't enter a cockpit without a weather briefing, and neither should drivers. With the tools available today, drivers can be better prepared for what lies ahead if they take a minute to review traffic flow, traffic incidents, and the expected road weather conditions before getting in the cab. A quick review during a drop-and-hook or after a fuel stop can improve situational awareness for the next several hours.
Q: What was the catalyst to extend The Weather Company's reach into truck transport?
A: For 40 years, we have worked with global airlines to provide the foundational weather tools used in their daily operations. The extension into surface transport seemed natural, especially with IBM's deep roots serving the industry. The two industries parallel each other more than is visible, and it has everything to do with route optimization, enhanced safety, and maximized performance and efficiency. Ground drivers are the pilots on the ground; they have the same needs when it comes to potential weather conditions. Add into the equation that there are other drivers on the roads causing traffic, and you begin to get a clearer view of why solutions are needed that can help reroute drivers and get them to their destinations with the same safety and efficiency parameters as those given to aviation.
Q: Is the module available to shippers and third-party logistics service providers (3PLs) that work with truckers on behalf of their shipper customers?
A: Yes it is. The service is available across all corners of the industry.
Q: Do you have any data to quantify the cost of bad weather on the trucking ecosystem?
A: Bad weather costs the U.S. trucking industry more than $14 billion annually. According to the Department of Transportation, 22 percent of all U.S. traffic accidents are weather-related. Additionally, we know there were 438,000 large-truck accidents in 2014. So approximately 96,360 of those accidents were likely to be weather-related. If you look at the average cost per trucking accident, which we believe to be $148,000, and the number of total weather-related incidents in a year, it calculates out to more than $14 billion in costs.
Q: Can you describe the role that the Internet of Things (IoT) plays in your weather forecasting model for trucks?
A: IoT is a critical piece of improving the driving experience because data collected from vehicles greatly deepens the volume and quality of real-time observations. This detailed understanding of the road state will move us far beyond the few thousand Road Weather Information System (RWIS) sensors that report today, enabling the monitoring of more roads and improving road-surface forecasts.
Q: Can truckers use these tools for nonbusiness-related purposes?
A: Absolutely. Our dashboard has all of the standard weather features and information that you would see on television or on the Internet. In fact, The Weather Company supplies most of the weather data and graphics used by local broadcasters. This means truckers can plan for short and longer road trips in their "off-time," as well as look for daily and weekly weather conditions.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.