Trucks at Work Blog

“Gen Y consumers clearly view their automobiles as more than just a way to get from point A to point B. They see them as a way to stay connected around the clock – and they’re willing to pay it.” –Joe Vitale, global automotive sector leader, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited

A survey conducted by Deloitte LLP that I referenced last week concerning a “generational shift” in terms of the appeal of hybrid vehicles also revealed something else as well – a growing expectation amongst younger folk for their vehicles to incorporate the same type of computing power available from their home PC systems and smart phones.

In commenting on the survey, Joe Vitale (at right)– global automotive sector leader at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a division of Deloitte LLP – referred to this expectation amongst the younger generation of consumers as the desire to obtain a “smart-phone on wheels.”

“Gen Y consumers prefer automobiles that are an extension of their social-media and digital lifestyles,” Vitale added. “[They] clearly view their automobiles as more than just a way to get from point A to point B. They see them as a way to stay connected around the clock – and they’re willing to pay it.”

Deloitte’s survey found that “in-dash technology” is the most important part of a vehicle’s interior for a majority (59%) of the Gen Y consumers polled by the firm, with almost three-quarters (73%) seeking “touch screen” interfaces. more

“The complexity of diagnostic codes has gotten tremendous – even technicians struggle with them. And there’s only going to be more of them developed over time.” –Tim Tindall, director of component sales for Daimler Trucks North America’s Detroit subsidiary

I always find the “back stories” about how a particular piece of truck equipment or technology came into being at times pretty interesting, as almost nothing in this industry ever follows a straight line from idea to development and on into reality.

Take the “Virtual Technician” real-time diagnostic system service that comes standard on all EPA 2010-compliant Freightliner brand trucks equipped with Detroit diesel engines (it’s an optional feature on Western Star trucks).

Tim Tindall, director of component sales for Daimler Trucks North America’s (DTNA) Detroit subsidiary (which makes not only Detroit diesel engines but heavy and medium-duty truck axles and possibly an automated mechanical transmission or “AMT” as well in the near-future) told me at a media event DTNA held here in Miami that “Virtual Technician” got its start back in 2008 as the company’s engineers struggled to find a way to keep tabs on the inner workings of the company’s selective catalytic reduction (SCR) emission control system during field tests. more

“Since that time [the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor] the practice of intelligence in the United States has improved greatly, but the opportunities for self-deception are at least as great as ever. Machinery has been built up where there was almost none before. Its effectiveness, however, still depends on the human element. No one has yet found a cure for our tendency to believe what we find most congenial and reject what seems repugnant.” –A. R. Northridge, Central Intelligence Agency

Today marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most tragic days in American history – the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. And, as most folks know, the devastation wreaked by the Japanese on that day resulted in part from an information and military intelligence failure on the part of the U.S.

While information gleaned from numerous sources indicated the Japanese were planning some sort of attack – warranting (thankfully) the dispersal of the U.S. Pacific fleet’s valuable aircraft carriers – a variety of missteps left Pearl Harbor unprepared for the dive bombers and attack planes that roared out of that clear-blue Sunday sky seven decades ago.

As the quote above from A. R. Northridge’s article about the intelligence failures leading up to the Pearl Harbor surprise attack indicates, it’s not just about getting one’s hands on the right information at the right time. It’s also about making sure our inherent human flaws don’t obscure the picture data is often trying to paint for us. more

Swedish truck maker Scania is preparing to roll out a new global positioning system (GPS) linked cruise control system for its Central and Western European customers in early 2012 — one that will enable trucks to “see” the road ahead when in cruise control mode and thus automatically modulate speed with greater efficiency, thus boosting fuel economy by up to 3%, in Scania’s estimation.

GPS, as well all know, is a satellite-based navigation system, consisting of a network of 24 orbiting satellites eleven thousand nautical miles in space.

These satellites provide detailed electronic “maps” that motorists and truckers alike are using with greater frequency to fulfill location-finding and route-planning needs, instead of thumbing through dog-eared paper maps (the method I still prefer, though, to be completely honest).

However, Scania is taking GPS to a whole new level in combination with its cruise control technology. Dubbed Scania Active Prediction, the system is touted as being “intuitive” with the ability to adapt a truck’s operating style to the road’s topography – “looking ahead” some 3 kilometers or 1.86 miles ahead of the vehicle at all times. more

“For nearly 10 years, the importance of ease of use [for on-board navigation systems] has been emphasized by owners, and the continued high level of problems in this area begs the question: is the industry listening to how owners want to interact with their system?” –Andy Bernhard, director, J.D. Power and Associates

I had a dream the other night (no, NOT one of THOSE! Please! This is a family-friendly blog!) which followed a theme that I’m sure is familiar to many – getting lost in what seems to be familiar surroundings. And, like many such dreams, it seems far more humorous and outlandish in the cold light of day than it did to me whilst under its spell.

You see, I’d somehow returned to the house and neighborhood I’d grown up in … only to find it being rapidly transformed by the construction of a strip mall, fuel stop, and other businesses. I couldn’t believe my (dreaming) eyes of course, so I started wandering around trying to figure out what happened to the old playground, park, and forested glen I’d spent so much of childhood roaming in and about.

Instead, of course, I got seriously lost – nothing looked even remotely familiar to me anymore. So I whipped out my cell phone and tried to find my way back to my childhood home using a navigation application.

It should surprise no one who knows me and my total lack of technological know-how that I spent the rest of the dream trying to figure out how to use the navigation “app” on my phone – becoming more and more panicked along the way as I just knew (the way one always “knows” in dreams) that my chances of getting home kept diminishing the longer it took for me to figure out how to use the blessed system. more

“The most advanced criminals are going to ride the waves of personal devices, personal social media use, and personal web activities of employees to create more advanced, social engineering attacks to get in. Many of the business and government attacks in the coming year won’t necessarily be about how complex the code is, but how well they can convincingly lure unsuspecting victims to click.” –Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer, Websense

Yes, yes, I know: I’ve harped on the information technology (IT) security topic a lot of late – a subject only tangentially related to the work trucks perform for our nation.

Yet IT now permeates everything we humans do now, both in our work and personal lives – and this is especially true for truck drivers. Cell phones and “smart phones” are but two of the many tools drivers use to stay in touch both with the company and the family whilst performing their vital (if often taken for granted) tasks.

Now, “social media” such as Facebook, Twitter, and the like are becoming more integral parts of the truck driver’s life – and that of his company.

So when internet security experts such as Websense Security Labs predict that 2012 will be the year we witness a significant increase in criminal activity designed to exploit social media, then it’s something the trucking community needs to sit up and take notes about.

Here are the firm’s top predictions when it comes to the kinds of internet-based criminal activity all web users should keep a wary eye out for: more

“We recognize that most small business owners are focused on running their businesses, and have limited resources and IT staff dedicated to managing their cyber security needs. Unfortunately, cyber criminals are increasingly making small businesses their targets, knowing they are likely to have fewer safeguards in place to protect themselves.” –Cheri McGuire, vp-global government affairs and cyber security policy, Symantec

I’ve been camping out on the information technology (IT) beat of late in this space simply because so much of trucking’s present and future is increasingly tied to IT systems of some sort or another.

Indeed, so much of our daily lives is now intertwined with IT that the issue of “cyber security” has far ranging importance for everyone, truckers and non-truckers alike.

Of course, the results a survey of U.S. small businesses sponsored by Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and conducted by Zogby International are what sparked this particular rumination on IT security … and, yes, it’s fair to add that I am perhaps a bit too fond of data gleaned in such a manner.

[The great Winston Churchill offered up this famous quip concerning the use polls, surveys, and such like: “It is not always a good thing to be feeling your pulse and taking your temperature. Although one has to do it sometimes, you do not want to make a habit of it. I have heard it said that a Government should keep its ear to the ground, but they should also remember that this is not a very dignified attitude.” Did he have a way with words or WHAT?!] more

“Expectations continue to rise dramatically for the IT [information technology] function to support new technologies, such as mobile devices and social media platforms that can be integrated with existing corporate systems, as well as the pervasive accumulation of sensitive data at multiple locations worldwide.” –Kurt Underwood, managing director and head of global consulting firm Protiviti’s IT practice

You know, even as the trucking industry attempts to grapple with a variety of challenges – regulatory changes, equipment changes, shortage of drivers, flat lining freight volumes, etc. – there’s one in particular that’s going to be felt in almost every corner of a motor carrier’s daily life: the evolution information technology (IT).

Take regulations, for starters. The ongoing effort by the Feds to reform hours-of-service (HOS) rules includes a technological component, in the form of electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) or so-called “black boxes.” Such IT functionality opens up quite a “Pandora’s box” of issues: law enforcement access to such data, usage in a courtroom, 100% accuracy and infallibility, etc.

On the equipment side, fleets are trying to manage maintenance, up-time, route adherence, and fuel consumption electronically via sensors tied by wireless and satellite communication pathways back to their operation centers – again, an example of IT at work.

And of course, with so much data flying around electronically, security becomes a much hotter topic, too – especially as electronic information concerning freight shipments is now becoming the preferred fulcrum of contact between shippers and truckers as well as customs agents and border security personnel. more

“A typical working day in Chengdu means getting up at 6:30 am, catching a bus for the 30-minute ride to the factory at 7:10 am and attending a compulsory – but unpaid – assembly at 8:10 am, before starting work at 8:30 am. Shifts, including overtime and breaks, end at 8:30 pm. Night shifts follow a similar pattern; with demand for the iPad2 outstripping supply in many countries, this is a round-the-clock operation. Demand for the first iPad was so intense that workers claim they had to put in a seven-day week during peak production period.” –from the April 30 edition of The Guardian newspaper

The late Steve Jobs, the founder and brains behind Apple, is rightly being eulogized today as a “creative genius” for the changes he’s wrought with his technological wonders; not just in terms of the way those technologies – iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, and the MacIntosh computer, just to name a few – permeate modern human life, but also for the vast societal and social changes they’ve helped initiate over the years.

In trucking, perhaps the most recognizable change fostered by Jobs centers around the conversion from paper-based record keeping and communication pathways to an all-digital environment.

Take his most recent brainchild, the iPad, for example, and look at how it’s being used to deploy a

new system from Vigillo’s, which takes information gathered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) pre-employment screening program (PSP) and then coverts it into a CSA score –shorthand for the agency’s new Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

Steve Bryan, Vigillo’s CEO, showed how this “data conversion” process works via an iPad below:

Yet the irony inherent to all of Apple’s technological wonders and seismic societal shifts they’ve created over the decades stems from its manufacturing and supply chain practices. more

“There is a serious disconnect in how people view the threat of cybercrime … [it] is much more prevalent than people realize.” –Adam Palmer, lead cyber security advisor, Norton

If I were to ask you to guess how much global economic harm is caused by cybercrime every year – in terms of dollars, now – how big a price tag would you come up with?

Do you think cybercrime causes $50 billion in annual losses, in terms of data stolen and productive time lost dealing with the fallout from various nefarious virtual attacks? Maybe it’s more on the order of $100 billion per year in losses.

Well, according to a new study conducted by Symantec, which produces the Norton antivirus software line, direct losses to cybercrime – in terms of money and/or data stolen, systems crashed, etc. – amounts to $114 billion annually, with an additional $274 billion worth of time lost on the part of corporations and individuals alike dealing with the fallout from cyber criminal activities.

[Below you’ll find a few other frightening cybercrime factoids to ponder as well. Note the timeline shown at the beginning of this clip, as the advent of the “Internet Age” is paralleled by a steady increase in all sorts of electronically-focused criminal activity.]

Thus, Symantec believes total global annual financial losses related to cybercrime hovers near the $388 billion mark – a sum far bigger than what the global “black market” takes in from sales of marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined (a figure calculated by the United Nations to be $288 billion annually). more