Professional truck drivers have an important and difficult job, and COVID-19 only added to job demands by complicating interstate logistics and impacting the truck stops and restaurants where drivers find parking, showers, hot meals and social connections on the road. At the same time, the pandemic reminded Americans just how essential truck drivers are.

The professional drivers and associates at Werner Enterprises didn’t need to be reminded. The driver-first organization has always invested in providing a safe and efficient driver experience, in part by leveraging (and creating) best-in-class technology. In 1998, Werner was the first trucking company to introduce paperless driver logs — decades before electronic logging devices (ELD) became an industry-wide requirement. As a key initiative under Werner EDGE, Werner focused on modernizing the in-cab technology used by drivers daily while on the road.

“The old system had been used for over a decade, included a touchscreen that wasn’t very responsive and had a drop-down keyboard,” says Danny Lilley, VP of Product Design and Engineering at Werner. “It was macros-based, so to document anything, drivers would have to scroll through 60 forms to find the right one and manually enter the information. We already had most of that data in our back-end systems, but the old technology made drivers re-enter every piece of information.”

The fixed in-cab hardware also made workflows tedious, especially when drivers needed to gather information outside the truck — for example, while conducting vehicle inspections.

“Our team does upwards of 60,000 inspections per year,” says Daragh Mahon, EVP and CIO at Werner. “We'd walk around the truck with paper and a pencil, identify what needed to be fixed and then climb in the truck to document it.”

Breakdown management was also a slow, manual process. Drivers messaged their fleet managers to report a breakdown and then waited while a breakdown agent located a vendor with the right expertise in a nearby location. The messaging system was sluggish, so it often took 10 minutes for the manager to receive the message, then another 15 to 20 minutes to find a local vendor who might be an hour away from the driver.

Drivers also lost time due to outdated critical event management technology, explains Jaime Maus, Werner’s VP of Safety and Compliance. “We have a lot of data coming from the different safety systems on the vehicle, and each vendor has their own portal, so our safety management team was working out of eight different portals. Drivers were getting multiple phone calls from multiple people and possibly rerouted for an in-person meeting. This cost us time and money and led to frustrated drivers.”

Werner’s leadership team spent over six months researching solutions and vendors, including engaging professional truck drivers in the brainstorming and development process. “We started by identifying the baseline functionalities we needed for our drivers to be efficient, like smart workflows, messaging and a really good mapping application,” Lilley explains. “And we wanted a core platform that was cloud-based so we could add our own features and functionalities.”

To build this new hybrid cloud/edge telematics solution — EDGE Connect – Werner enlisted help from Samsung and IoT fleet management provider Platform Science. Samsung collaborated to provide tablets and customization to meet Werner’s vision, while Platform Science provided the platform, a suite of industry-specific apps, a third-party app marketplace and the ability to easily add proprietary, custom-built apps.

“Our philosophy is to buy when possible and build when necessary,” says Mahon. “The beauty of this platform is that we can grab third-party communication apps or video API and drop them on the device with very little effort. Then we can focus our development resources on building functionality that is very unique to our business, like our Drive Werner app that lets drivers access all the information they need about the company, their trucks and their employment, all in one place.”

Drivers can access EDGE Connect via rugged Samsung Galaxy Tab Active devices that are mounted in trucks but can be untethered for use outside the truck. “We were looking for a solution that could go out-of-cab, and it needed to be a durable device, based on the rugged nature of truck driving,” says Maus. “We drive 3.5 million miles a day and park in all types of weather and climates, so we needed leading industry tech that could handle the daily use and varied circumstances.”

The Galaxy Tab Active series devices have withstood more than 20 MIL-STD-810G tests — a series of evaluations created by the U.S. military that prove a device can handle repeated drops, vibration icing, salt fog, humidity, low- and high-temperature storage, and a variety of other environments and conditions. The tablets also have an IP68 rating — an international certification of dust, dirt and sand resistance and water submersion resistance at 1.5m for up to 30 minutes. The Galaxy Tab Active devices also include an S Pen stylus, a long-lasting replaceable battery and robust pogo pin connectors for charging.

Lilley says Werner also chose Samsung because of Samsung Knox device security and Knox Configure, which lets Werner customize and manage tablets at scale in addition to working seamlessly with Platform Science’s transportation-specific MDM. They have deployed the technology across their entire fleet — which included more than 8,000 devices that Werner’s IT department didn’t have to individually customize. “The installation process has been smooth so far, and pushing new applications to the tablets is easy, which is important, because we're building a lot of new functionality."

Drivers use EDGE Connect to receive assignments, communicate with fleet managers (using speech-to-text if they’re driving), get GPS directions and report breakdowns. The form-based documentation system has been replaced with smart workflows that present the correct form to drivers based on where they are in the delivery process. Meanwhile, the back-office can monitor vehicles, review safety alerts in real time and stay in constant contact.

Only a few months after its deployment, company leaders, drivers and associates are already impressed with the results. With more than 8,000 tablets already in use, Werner drivers are quickly experiencing the efficiencies and time savings delivered by EDGE Connect.

Busboom says, from a driver’s perspective, the Galaxy tablets make an enormous difference when on the road. “When I get in the truck, I can access information instantly, instead of waiting 20 minutes for the truck to turn over and power up the old telematics system,” Ben B. explains. “The device is very durable, so I don’t have to worry if it gets dropped when I’m using it outside the vehicle. It also has the S Pen, which will be useful when using the device with gloves in winter.”

The Android operating system and applications are also more modern and intuitive. “The basic controls are easier to use,” he added. “For example, the volume and brightness settings are easy to find, whereas the old system made you click up and down 10 times to change the brightness."

Along with better hardware, the innovative cloud software behind EDGE Connect improves the driver experience by helping to:

Reduce manual data entry

Smart workflows save drivers 30 to 45 minutes per day — time that would have been spent looking for the right form and manually entering information. Instead, the system presents drivers with exactly the forms they need to complete, prepopulated with any information that’s already in Werner’s backend system — giving them extra time to rest or drive.

Improve navigation

The EDGE Connect solution provides drivers with a third-party mapping service that contains voice navigation and real-time traffic updates. “The directions are accurate, easy to follow, made for professional truck drivers, and most importantly, the tablet tells you when there’s an accident ahead and you need to get off the interstate,” says Ben B. “You can also check road closures before your trips, see bad weather up ahead and easily find places to park along the way. Knowing where you’re going and how to get there better, the routing — all the little things add up to make you a lot safer.”

Resolve breakdowns faster

Werner has also introduced Breakdown Management, a new solution to support drivers through their EDGE Connect device. The old breakdown management system required fleet managers to go through 60 screens to report one breakdown and spend more than 30 minutes just to hear back from their response manager, and another 45 minutes for a resolution. Now they wait less than 30 minutes total. “The new system has a three-step workflow, which gathers the information we need on vehicle trip, location, and driver,” says Mahon. “Then the system displays a map based on the truck’s location that shows fleet managers which vendors are closest and best suited to fix the problem.”

Better understand critical events

Werner additionally created a new safety solution, Critical Event Management, that has consolidated all the vendor portals that collect truck and driver safety data — creating an integrated critical event management system. “It takes all the data from the different vendor portals and consolidates it into one event,” Maus explains. “Consolidating events let us see in near-real-time exactly what happened, and we quickly realized that 60 percent of the events coming through were not the fault of our drivers or were not events. Now we’re not second-guessing and frustrating our drivers, and we can recognize them when they do a good job.”

Conduct faster, more accurate inspections

EDGE Connect has turned the inspection process from 100 percent paper-based to 100 percent digital. “Our inspectors check out the vehicle with tablet in-hand, follow a step-by-step checklist and take pictures of any issues,” Mahon explains. “The system is integrated with our repair order system, so they can request repairs on the spot, and we can keep our trucks safe and on the road.”

Simplify training

Werner provided drivers with a combination of online, in-person and (during COVID-19) virtual training, after which drivers gave the new solution a 91 percent approval rating. Ben B. says new drivers pick it up in a few days. “Teaching someone to use the old system was a nightmare and usually took weeks before they felt confident with it,” he explains. “Everyone knows how to use a tablet. The workflow tools show you what you’re doing. You’re just filling in the blanks.”

Stay connected during COVID-19

“During the pandemic, it’s been more important than ever for us to stay in communication so drivers feel connected to the company, to make sure they can find parking and access healthcare if they get sick,” says Maus. “We’ve also sent videos from our CEO and other company leaders, just putting a face on the message about supporting them during COVID-19 and also why we’re investing in this technology to improve their lives.”

Improve driver retention

Maus and Mahon believe the new solution will help improve driver retention and recruiting efforts. Ben B. says he knows it will. “I’m working with a driver right now who just came from another company. They had the outdated in-cab technology and even had to wear a scanner device on the hip, and he hated it. New drivers look for companies that invest in technology and get with the future, and they see Werner is doing that.”

Keep innovating

Werner is currently developing functionality for contactless deliveries, video chat and other system enhancements. “We're committed to being an innovator,” says Mahon. “We want to do whatever we can to help make the industry safer and our drivers' lives easier. And along with companies like Samsung and Platform Science, we're really pushing the industry forward.”