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Trucks Shift Into Higher Gear With New Technology
A truck driver for the Schwebel Baking Co. rolled out of Cleveland toward Rochester, N.Y., on a recent day with a trailer full of freshly-made sandwich rolls and buns. Less than an hour into the run, sensors tied to his tractor-trailer started sending a stream of urgent data messages that led the big rig to turn around and head back to the bakery.
The driver, it turned out, had picked out the wrong trailer.
A dispatcher spotted the mix-up on a live map of Schwebel’s 78 trucks and 100 trailers, equipment laced with new technology tying the vehicles to an elaborate live platform showing the company’s orders and its trucks in live motion.
“Had that not taken place, it would have been eight hours or more of lost time, and our sales team would have been very upset,” said Adam Schwebel, the bakery’s vice president of operations.
From the wheels to the engines and right into their cabs, big rigs rolling on U.S. highways are getting smart. Just as everyday appliances such as refrigerators and thermostats are starting to connect to the internet, the latest heavy-duty trucks are shipping out streams of information, turning 18-wheelers into data hubs moving at 60 mph.
