Omnitracs adds coronavirus location data to its fleet mapping tool—Covid-19 roundup for June 9

Fleet management solution provider Omnitracs LLC has added coronavirus location data to its mapping tool, saying that sharing Covid-19-focused location insights could help its customers to keep fleets, drivers, and the general public safe during the pandemic.

By leveraging datasets from Johns Hopkins University and the Kaiser Family Foundation, Omnitracs developed a feature that integrates Covid-19 location-based intelligence into its fleet mapping tool. Offered for free to current customers, Omnitracs says the integration makes it possible for fleet managers to make sound safety decisions for their drivers in near-real time.

Data provided in the new fleet mapping view includes: new Covid-19 cases and deaths in the last 7 days for the location; quarantine and stay-at-home restrictions; group and gathering limitations; and restaurant limitations and business closures.

“Drivers are on the front lines of national response efforts around this pandemic while putting their own lives at risk,” Omnitracs Chief Product Officer Paul Nagy said in a release. “As an organization, we have a responsibility to do our part to mitigate those risks by providing fact-based information that will allow our customers to continue operating their businesses safely and protect their drivers.”

And in other examples of the logistics industry dedicating its assets to the coronavirus fight:

• German logistics service provider (LSP) Rhenus Logistics has transported millions of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Americas since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, receiving medical equipment from Europe and Asia and exporting it to Canada, the U.S., and Latin America. Due to the limitations on flights from Europe to the Americas, Rhenus has solidified Miami as its hub, using a 160,000-square foot warehouse near Miami International Airport that is designated as a foreign trade zone (FTZ). The facility had previously provided vertical solutions for consumer electronics, industrial telecommunications, high-technology, high-fashion, and retail, but it is now focused on PPE including gloves, face shields, masks, and ventilators, as well as testing kits for Covid-19. “We have seen a tremendous increase in the demand for PPE and other healthcare products,” said Jörn Schmersahl, CEO of Rhenus Air & Ocean Americas. “While this was not a niche for us in the past, we have become experts in moving PPE to the US and the Americas. “Clearly our Miami warehouse was strategically located for us to reach the Americas quickly.”
• The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has collaborated with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) and other industry partners to arrange federal shipments of 2.4 million reusable cloth facial coverings to ports and related maritime transportation operations around the U.S. The face masks are being distributed to about 400 maritime transportation entities nationwide for use by their essential personnel, including those working at seaports, inland ports, marine terminals, tug and barge lines, vessel pilot groups, dredging operations, supply chain logistics companies and others. "As chair of the Department of Homeland Security’s Maritime Sector Coordination Council (MSCC) Task Force, which was formed to advise the federal government of maritime-sector needs, AAPA was successful in obtaining orders for the cloth masks in late May from FEMA on a tight weekend timeline,” AAPA Government Relations Director Cary Davis said in a release. “For weeks prior to that, we worked with our maritime partners to aggressively advocate for an allocation for essential maritime transportation workers. The MSCC worked with other transport sectors - such as rail and truck – to obtain some face coverings from FEMA, and that combined work resulted in our maritime allocation.”
• FedEx' customs brokerage arm, FedEx Logistics Inc., is providing essential supply chain services to support the fight against Covid-19, supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) from a facility located in the Panama Pacifico Free Trade Zone and Panama, to hospitals in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. FedEx Logistics receives the equipment from global manufacturers, and then packages and fulfills orders. The program has now shipped over 850,200 face masks to hospitals throughout Latin America, thanks to material provided by Medline, a manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies and clinical programs. The operation to get emergency supplies to hospitals began March 10 and has now distributed around 2,000 boxes, each with 300 masks, throughout the Caribbean and another 1,000 boxes to Central America. Several more containers full of PPE are on the way to Panama for distribution to other customers in South America.

To see further coverage of the coronavirus crisis and how it's affecting the logistics industry, check out our Covid-19 landing page. And click here for our compilation of virus-focused websites and resource pages from around the supply chain sector.

Drivers are facing unprecedented health risks. We're excited to release a new health alert feature to help fleets stay ahead of #COVID19. Get the details: https://t.co/fn0j2wbPxc #trucking

— Omnitracs (@OmnitracsHQ) June 1, 2020