Logistics are a critical component to the success of any business, and transportation companies invest heavily in mastering it. Whether it’s managing customer orders, corporate fleets, or the employees that “drive” the business forward, progress is accelerating in a 5G-connected era. Companies such as Werner Enterprises have embraced 5G-enabled technologies like autonomous vehicles and next-generation fleet management platforms to move tens of thousands of containers across the nation.
For this episode of The Restless Ones, I had the opportunity to sit with Danny Lilley, VP and Chief Technology Officer of Werner Enterprises, who believes closely aligning IT with business teams and championing end-user experiences is key to unlocking innovative capabilities and experiences well beyond the status quo." 5G continues to transform standard Class 8 trucks from a box and engine on wheels into a giant computer featuring more than 100 real-time sensors. Moving data analysis from the trucks to the edge allows Danny and his team to create a more efficient, safer, and profitable business for Werner and their clients.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey everyone, Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland
and I'm excited to be back for another great season.
For those tuning in for the first time, I'm glad
you found us, and for listeners who have been with
us for the past three seasons, thank you for being
part of our community. As always, my focus is on
exploring the intersection of technology and business by having conversations
(00:24):
with the most forward thinking leaders. Throughout my career, I've
covered everything from massive parallel processing to advanced robotics, but
what truly inspires me are the stories of innovation and transformation.
In this season, we'll continue to discuss the unique missions, challenges,
and approaches of these leaders as they drive their organizations forward,
(00:47):
and we'll explore the innovative thinking and technologies like flexible applications,
more capable devices, and advanced networking like five G that
are helping business leaders act on their big ideas quickly
and unlock mission critical outcomes. What's become clear to us
after three seasons of insightful conversations is that we can't
(01:08):
change tomorrow by deploying solutions of the past. The advances
in technology that we'll be discussing this season offer an
unparalleled opportunity for leaders who embrace them. Leaders like Danny Lilly,
VP and Chief Technology Officer of Werner Enterprises. Back in
the nineteen fifties, a man named Clarence Warner bought a
(01:29):
truck and got his start in the trucking industry. Decades later,
that humble start has blossomed into a logistics and trucking
company that employs around thirteen thousand people. Warner works with
shippers to get payloads where they need to be and
when our guest Danny Lilly joined the company, it was
at a time when big changes were hitting the trucking industry.
(01:51):
We're talking about a time when stuff like cloud computing
and the Internet of Things emerged from being buzzwords into
real world applications where visionaries saw ways to leverage technology
to get a deeper, more complete understanding of their business
and how to improve it. And that's just the sort
of leader Danny is. I sat down with Danny to
(02:14):
talk about his experiences at Werner Enterprises, how technology has
opened up new opportunities in the sector, and the journey
Warner is on toward embracing a futuristic vision of how
a company can make use of tech to add value
to the business as well as empower employees to focus
on their core strengths. But before we get to all that,
(02:35):
I wanted to get to know Danny a little bit better. Danny,
Welcome to the Restless Ones.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I appreciate you having me on and I love to
talk about technology, so this is great.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So can you talk to me about what drew you
into a career path with technology in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah. Absolutely, So I've started my career and focusing on
a lot of project and improving processes, eliminating waste, and
what I've found is that after you do that, the
best way to ensure that those practices are sustained is
by leveraging technology. So I've had an opportunity throughout my
entire career to leverage technology and then decide at some
(03:19):
point to turn that into my career long term. And
it's been a great opportunity to focus on how to improve,
how to make things better, and then applying tech to
maintain and sustain that long term.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, it's a very important perspective to have with tech
in general. I think there's always this temptation to jump
on the new shiny thing without first really considering does
this add value and if so, how and is it
actually better than what we're doing already. How long have
you been in the transportation industry itself.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, so I started in the mid two thousands, and
back then in transportation and trucking companies especially, they were
generally ten years or so behind most other verticals and companies.
The past ten years focused exclusively on technology, but the
first five to seven years started as a financial analyst,
(04:12):
focused on just understanding business and processes and profit spent
a lot of time identifying gaps and inefficiencies in p
and ls and things like that. So just a really
good foundation to understand how businesses work and profitability. That's
helped me throughout my career.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's fantastic. It's a different sort of background than what
I often encounter when I'm talking with people in the
tech sector. I often get the feeling, especially in the
startup world, where you have these geniuses who have become
great innovators, but they perhaps haven't had the experience to
learn about the actual ways to run a business effectively,
(04:51):
so that you are maximizing efficiency, you're minimizing waste, you
are keeping an eye on costs, you're evaluating risk and
and also still taking risks, and you know how to
manage this entire enormous machine. And I've met a lot
of people are very good at building things, but they're
not necessarily good at keeping that thing running.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And as we look at any company that's going through
a modernization effort, that has to be the thought process.
We've been doing this same thing the same way for
twenty years, and we've built process upon process upon process,
and having the ability to step back and say, well,
if we didn't have all of that technical debt and
(05:33):
we're to look at this fresh oftentimes we would do
things very differently. I think as you look at change
and new opportunities, I think one of the most surprising
part of it is how reluctant people often are to
embrace change, and how important is as a technologist to
understand the end user and to provide capabilities that are
(05:55):
factors greater than what they're doing now, and it has
to be incredibly compelling to to make it do so,
and just the close alignment that is needed between business
and it. Some organizations try to operate those separately, but
it is really those synergies. The technology team needs to
understand how the business is run, how it works, and
(06:18):
it's also important that people on the operation side understand
technology and how to apply it. But I think organizations
that really get it and are really able to move
forward quickly, those synergies are there.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, let's talk a bit about connectivity. That is something
that we really value on this show because in my mind,
connectivity is the foundational technology that allows all these other
innovations to actually work. Without connectivity, you have a lot
of islands of tech that have limited use. How has
wireless connectivity transformed the trucking business?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So if you think twenty thirty years ago, right, You've
got tens of thousands of trailers out there there at
various places. You've got thousands of trucks and thousands of drivers,
and you have to get the right truck with the
right driver on the right trailer. So all of our
twenty five thousand trailers are cellular connected, so we know
(07:15):
exactly where they are, how long they've been there. We
have sensors to know if it's loaded or unloaded. So
what we're able to do with that is to eliminate
just a lot of waste in the process. So I
can know when a driver arrives at a shipper, I
don't have to go to a form and fill out,
hey i'm here, because that cellular device, that GPS device
(07:37):
is there, I know exactly when they've arrived. So it
really just facilitates the entire movement of freight across the
country and just makes it so much easier.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
It's hard for me to even get my mind wrapped
around how big of an impact it has on logistics
and supply chain. Obviously, supply chain is something that we've
heard a lot about in the past couple of years,
because when the pandemic hit and we started to see
that massive domino effect, people suddenly became really aware of
(08:08):
things that you knew about already being in the industry.
It's something that a lot of people take for granted,
but it's the fact that we have these technologies that
allow us to keep all those pieces in play all
at the same time and know what's going on with
any individual piece at any given time. Phenomenal transformation and
(08:28):
also one that without wireless connectivity and the various technologies
we built on top of it, I don't think would
be scalable.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, behind that are millions of data points and freight
coming from overseas, So there's just so many components to
build out a supply chain that when one of those
things fails, it has just incredible downstream impact. So the
ability to know where those bottlenecks are, to know where
(08:56):
those challenges are and to quickly address them, I think
that was one of the major lessons learned out of
that supply chain crisis in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Well, Danny, one other thing that we love to chat
about on this show is five G and the opportunities
that opens up. What kind of opportunities do you see
to leverage five G technology and trucking.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There are a lot of advancements happening right now. We
talk about autonomous vehicles and a lot of data intensive
things that are starting to happen. We're heavily involved with
all of the autonomous Class eight vehicle companies out there
understanding what they're doing. But what happens now is that
(09:45):
that truck thing gets back to the warehouse and they're
swapping out memory packs. So the ability to offload data
to provide data real time is I think a great
opportunity moving a lot of the processing to the edge
as well. There are a lot of analytics that are
happening as the driver is moving down the road. We
(10:05):
have forward facing video cameras we're analyzing situations. So the
more of that that can happen on the edge and
we can provide that real time data analysis and feedback,
I think is just a great opportunity. Something that we're
doing now is we have a group of drivers we
call our million milers, so they've been on the road
(10:26):
accident free for over a million miles. So we are
providing them with unlimited five G Wi Fi in all
of their trucks so that they have the ability wherever
they are to leverage that Wi Fi. So even as
a driver benefit for some of our exclusive drivers, we
are currently leveraging five G to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Now, I'm curious how has that impacted metrics on the
business side.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Just simple metrics, like we're providing anywhere from thirty minutes
to an hour back to our drivers so that they
can do what they do in haul freight and move
freight across the country. And there's a financial impact to that,
of course, but the real impact is we're freeing up
non value time for our drivers, making their lives easier.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I love that message of giving time back because obviously
that's a resource that only goes one way. We can't
ever get time back. After the fact, that positive impact
on the driver cascades all the way back to the
clients and ultimately to consumers as well. And it's when
you start to take a step back and look at
that big picture that you really begin to appreciate the
(11:35):
impact that these changes have had on the transportation sector.
Are there any other sort of mission critical areas where
five G is starting to either play a part now
or play a part in plans everything from vehicle maintenance
to compliance requirements to driver safety or all of those
sort of in the mix when we start talking about
(11:57):
things like high speed wireless connectivity.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yes, so if you look at a Class eight truck,
you see this big rig right, Well, in reality it
is a massive computer with over one hundred censors. We
actually have multiple cellular cards on there, and that's streaming
data back. So things like ambient air temperature or is
the seat belt buckled? Or what are the fuel levels
(12:21):
or what are the battery voltage levels? There are infinite
use cases there to leverage that data. So what we
are doing is we're streaming the vast majority of that
data back to the cloud, running that across event grids,
and trying to understand anomalies and opportunities in that data.
(12:42):
Just simple things like a driver sees a check engine
light on. So we're able to stream that data back,
understand it processes, and say, hey, you have a low
diesel exhaust fluid. If you don't fill that up, you're
going to end up on the side of the road
really fast. So let's change your route. Let's prevent this problem.
(13:03):
So we're able to get in front of things before
they become actual problems and to provide additional data and
insight to our teams.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I think, Danta, you just redefined IoT to be Internet
of Trucking, which is totally cool. Yeah, I'm curious if
you can tell us a bit about Werner Edge. Can
you talk about what that is and how it works.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
What we did with Warner Edge is we're built on
thirty years of technology and we are in the process
now of modernizing and replacing every bit of that. I
think what a lot of companies do is they add
a shiny toy but still leave the base there and
you can't move forward like that. So what we're doing
(13:47):
with Warner Edge, and I know it's simple things, but
a SAS spaceed HRMS, a new finance system. So every
piece of technology is either we're moving to a SaaS
or a cloud solution and we're not leaving anything behind.
So when we get through this modernization effort, we'll have
an incredible connected tech stack that will help us to
(14:09):
innovate and to improve. Warner Edge is that umbrella that
encompasses that transformation, and we kind of have three core
components of it. So one is to modernize our base application.
So we built our own hr system, We've built our
own finance system. Why would you ever do that? Now? Right?
There are great off the shelf SaaS solutions out there
(14:32):
that provide those capabilities, and I have a certain number
of engineering talent. Let's leverage that talent to actually build
those things that differentiate us, that provide a unique competitive advantage.
So that's the second tier is to build those differentiators,
focus our dev teams on those things, and then the
(14:52):
third is look to the future, so what are the
newest tech, what are the latest capabilities and also partnering
with a lot of startups and venture capital to understand
where they're innovating and they can fill gaps.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That really hits home to the restless ones. This concept
of embracing the new and trying to avoid reliance upon
things like legacy systems. So many companies have spent decades,
maybe even up to a century, building up these legacy
systems that they cannot easily migrate from, and it can
(15:29):
be one of those elements that holds a business back
from the next step in its success story. So can
you kind of walk us through the various components of
the system and how they work together to provide value
to customers On the customer side.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, So as we're modernizing all of the efforts, we
have a very API driven approach, so we want to
make sure that whatever we're doing is extensible. So as
we will partner with shippers, all of that data that's
in our transportation management system we can share and we
can also ingest, so that allows us to take in
(16:05):
information from shippers. We work with our equipment manufacturers, so
there's a lot of third party systems out there that
have incredible data that we can ingest and bring into
our system.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, and again, this has that cascading effect right to
that end. I'm also curious how that impacts drivers because
I assume they also are able to benefit from a
lot of the information that we're talking about here.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So we've looked at the entire value stream of what
a driver does on a day to day basis. We've
looked at that workflow, and then we've found opportunities to
automate that. At one point, we've moved away from this
form based system. So there were like sixty different forms
and a rive at shipper, a departed shipper, and it
was a one way communication piece. So if I had
(16:53):
an error, it would go back, bounce back, and we
would ask fifty questions. Forty of those are acts relevant.
So what we've been able to do now is to
build that into a workflow. But even better, I've geofensed
all of my shipper locations, so instead of asking them
to fill an arrive or a departure form, I aut
(17:15):
I auto depart. That data is captured and yes, that's
great for the shipper, but for the driver, now that
takes fifteen to twenty minutes of just non value add
activity out of their day, it becomes more accurate. So
there's a lot of things like that that we've been
able to build out in our driver's day to day
(17:36):
workflow and just to streamline, why ask them twenty questions
when we know that data, I can just provide it
to them. So we've really simplified and had a strong
emphasis and focus on improving the day to day of
our drivers.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Is the Warner edge system an integral component in training
at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, So we've had a lot of forms based and
other onboarding efforts where we've been able to digitize that
entire process. The edge Connect, which is our device that
we use to bring them these capabilities, starts at orientation
and follows them throughout their career. The first experience that
a new employee has is really really important.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, we touched on it earlier, you brought it up,
and now I have to talk about it because one
of the things that we do here a lot when
we're talking about the future of the trucking industry is
the potential incorporation of autonomous vehicles. So where do you
see the future if you were to think of a
spectrum between how can I make a driver's life easier
(18:38):
and their job more rewarding all the way to the
robots are driving the trucks. Where are you kind of falling?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
As I look at the demand for drivers over the
next ten to fifteen twenty years, there's a driver shortage now,
and by the wildest calculations of AV adoption, we still
see their substantial driver shortage needs. So any truck driver
entering the industry now will have a career for as
far as I can see into the future. One of
(19:08):
the major benefits we've seen with autonomy is advancements in
safety capabilities and features. I expect that to continue and
to see downstream impacts of those technologies. But there are
areas where AV makes sense now where that technology is.
As I've gone on ride alongs and participated, it really
(19:30):
is impressive to be in a Class eight vehicle on
a freeway that can essentially drive itself. And if any
of us have taken an eight or a ten hour
road trip, there's certain sections of that road trip where
it might make a lot of sense. It's hard to
really say where mass adoption is. There's still a lot
of hurdles that have to be overcome.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I'm also curious, do you envision a future where we
have this connected trucking industry interacting with cities on almost
an invisible way through data.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I hope that we get there once there's autonomous hubs
outside of cities. We expect drivers to be doing those
intercity loads and capabilities, and if we could provide efficient
routes and help them move through cities better. Yeah, I
think it would be great to see some of that
technology move forward.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Before I could let them go, I had to ask
Danny one more thing, what's the best advice you have
ever received?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So I think two things. One is to embrace change
and to two is to challenge the status quo. I
think some of the biggest opportunities of any organization is
for those employees to say, you know, I don't really
understand this. This doesn't quite make sense to me. And
then as you go through that process, sometimes it just
doesn't make sense and there's a better way and a
(20:59):
new opportunit unity, and sometimes you know it's a lack
of understanding. But embraced change and challenge the status quo,
I think is what all of us should be doing,
and that way we can continue to advance and move forward.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
That's a great, great answer, Danny Thank you so much
for joining us for the restless ones. This has been
a real pleasure.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Jonathan, thank you, It's been great to be here. I
appreciate the time.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Again, I have to thank Danny and Werner Enterprises for
joining the show. My guests frequently surprise and impress me,
and Danny was no exception. Learning how technologically advanced the
trucking industry actually is and how connectivity enables the automation
of tasks that normally but put increased demands on driver's
time and energy really made an impact on me. Knowing
(21:52):
that driver's safety and satisfaction will have an effect throughout
the business, ultimately benefiting not just the drivers, but Warner
Warner's clients and even end customers is pretty incredible. And again,
the foundation for these capabilities is that wireless connectivity. It's
the technology that gives businesses the opportunity to do things
(22:12):
differently and to explore alternatives and build new solutions. It's
what lets engineers move the needle on metrics that might
have been static for decades, increasing efficiency, decreasing waste, and
giving employees the support they need to do their jobs
at the top of their abilities. Plus it gives Werner's
customers insight into their own business, which means over time,
(22:36):
we'll see a rising tide lift all boats. Be sure
to join us for more episodes of The Restless Ones.
We'll be talking with more incredible leaders about their approach
to leveraging technology and how this tech creates opportunities even
in places we never thought to look before. Until next time,
(22:57):
I'm Jonathan Strickland, and this is The Restless Ones
Hey everyone, Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland
and I'm excited to be back for another great season.
For those tuning in for the first time, I'm glad
you found us, and for listeners who have been with
us for the past three seasons, thank you for being
part of our community. As always, my focus is on
exploring the intersection of technology and business by having conversations
(00:24):
with the most forward thinking leaders. Throughout my career, I've
covered everything from massive parallel processing to advanced robotics, but
what truly inspires me are the stories of innovation and transformation.
In this season, we'll continue to discuss the unique missions, challenges,
and approaches of these leaders as they drive their organizations forward,
(00:47):
and we'll explore the innovative thinking and technologies like flexible applications,
more capable devices, and advanced networking like five G that
are helping business leaders act on their big ideas quickly
and unlock mission critical outcomes. What's become clear to us
after three seasons of insightful conversations is that we can't
(01:08):
change tomorrow by deploying solutions of the past. The advances
in technology that we'll be discussing this season offer an
unparalleled opportunity for leaders who embrace them. Leaders like Danny Lilly,
VP and Chief Technology Officer of Werner Enterprises. Back in
the nineteen fifties, a man named Clarence Warner bought a
(01:29):
truck and got his start in the trucking industry. Decades later,
that humble start has blossomed into a logistics and trucking
company that employs around thirteen thousand people. Warner works with
shippers to get payloads where they need to be and
when our guest Danny Lilly joined the company, it was
at a time when big changes were hitting the trucking industry.
(01:51):
We're talking about a time when stuff like cloud computing
and the Internet of Things emerged from being buzzwords into
real world applications where visionaries saw ways to leverage technology
to get a deeper, more complete understanding of their business
and how to improve it. And that's just the sort
of leader Danny is. I sat down with Danny to
(02:14):
talk about his experiences at Werner Enterprises, how technology has
opened up new opportunities in the sector, and the journey
Warner is on toward embracing a futuristic vision of how
a company can make use of tech to add value
to the business as well as empower employees to focus
on their core strengths. But before we get to all that,
(02:35):
I wanted to get to know Danny a little bit better. Danny,
Welcome to the Restless Ones.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I appreciate you having me on and I love to
talk about technology, so this is great.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So can you talk to me about what drew you
into a career path with technology in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah. Absolutely, So I've started my career and focusing on
a lot of project and improving processes, eliminating waste, and
what I've found is that after you do that, the
best way to ensure that those practices are sustained is
by leveraging technology. So I've had an opportunity throughout my
entire career to leverage technology and then decide at some
(03:19):
point to turn that into my career long term. And
it's been a great opportunity to focus on how to improve,
how to make things better, and then applying tech to
maintain and sustain that long term.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, it's a very important perspective to have with tech
in general. I think there's always this temptation to jump
on the new shiny thing without first really considering does
this add value and if so, how and is it
actually better than what we're doing already. How long have
you been in the transportation industry itself.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, so I started in the mid two thousands, and
back then in transportation and trucking companies especially, they were
generally ten years or so behind most other verticals and companies.
The past ten years focused exclusively on technology, but the
first five to seven years started as a financial analyst,
(04:12):
focused on just understanding business and processes and profit spent
a lot of time identifying gaps and inefficiencies in p
and ls and things like that. So just a really
good foundation to understand how businesses work and profitability. That's
helped me throughout my career.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's fantastic. It's a different sort of background than what
I often encounter when I'm talking with people in the
tech sector. I often get the feeling, especially in the
startup world, where you have these geniuses who have become
great innovators, but they perhaps haven't had the experience to
learn about the actual ways to run a business effectively,
(04:51):
so that you are maximizing efficiency, you're minimizing waste, you
are keeping an eye on costs, you're evaluating risk and
and also still taking risks, and you know how to
manage this entire enormous machine. And I've met a lot
of people are very good at building things, but they're
not necessarily good at keeping that thing running.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And as we look at any company that's going through
a modernization effort, that has to be the thought process.
We've been doing this same thing the same way for
twenty years, and we've built process upon process upon process,
and having the ability to step back and say, well,
if we didn't have all of that technical debt and
(05:33):
we're to look at this fresh oftentimes we would do
things very differently. I think as you look at change
and new opportunities, I think one of the most surprising
part of it is how reluctant people often are to
embrace change, and how important is as a technologist to
understand the end user and to provide capabilities that are
(05:55):
factors greater than what they're doing now, and it has
to be incredibly compelling to to make it do so,
and just the close alignment that is needed between business
and it. Some organizations try to operate those separately, but
it is really those synergies. The technology team needs to
understand how the business is run, how it works, and
(06:18):
it's also important that people on the operation side understand
technology and how to apply it. But I think organizations
that really get it and are really able to move
forward quickly, those synergies are there.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, let's talk a bit about connectivity. That is something
that we really value on this show because in my mind,
connectivity is the foundational technology that allows all these other
innovations to actually work. Without connectivity, you have a lot
of islands of tech that have limited use. How has
wireless connectivity transformed the trucking business?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So if you think twenty thirty years ago, right, You've
got tens of thousands of trailers out there there at
various places. You've got thousands of trucks and thousands of drivers,
and you have to get the right truck with the
right driver on the right trailer. So all of our
twenty five thousand trailers are cellular connected, so we know
(07:15):
exactly where they are, how long they've been there. We
have sensors to know if it's loaded or unloaded. So
what we're able to do with that is to eliminate
just a lot of waste in the process. So I
can know when a driver arrives at a shipper, I
don't have to go to a form and fill out,
hey i'm here, because that cellular device, that GPS device
(07:37):
is there, I know exactly when they've arrived. So it
really just facilitates the entire movement of freight across the
country and just makes it so much easier.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
It's hard for me to even get my mind wrapped
around how big of an impact it has on logistics
and supply chain. Obviously, supply chain is something that we've
heard a lot about in the past couple of years,
because when the pandemic hit and we started to see
that massive domino effect, people suddenly became really aware of
(08:08):
things that you knew about already being in the industry.
It's something that a lot of people take for granted,
but it's the fact that we have these technologies that
allow us to keep all those pieces in play all
at the same time and know what's going on with
any individual piece at any given time. Phenomenal transformation and
(08:28):
also one that without wireless connectivity and the various technologies
we built on top of it, I don't think would
be scalable.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, behind that are millions of data points and freight
coming from overseas, So there's just so many components to
build out a supply chain that when one of those
things fails, it has just incredible downstream impact. So the
ability to know where those bottlenecks are, to know where
(08:56):
those challenges are and to quickly address them, I think
that was one of the major lessons learned out of
that supply chain crisis in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Well, Danny, one other thing that we love to chat
about on this show is five G and the opportunities
that opens up. What kind of opportunities do you see
to leverage five G technology and trucking.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
There are a lot of advancements happening right now. We
talk about autonomous vehicles and a lot of data intensive
things that are starting to happen. We're heavily involved with
all of the autonomous Class eight vehicle companies out there
understanding what they're doing. But what happens now is that
(09:45):
that truck thing gets back to the warehouse and they're
swapping out memory packs. So the ability to offload data
to provide data real time is I think a great
opportunity moving a lot of the processing to the edge
as well. There are a lot of analytics that are
happening as the driver is moving down the road. We
(10:05):
have forward facing video cameras we're analyzing situations. So the
more of that that can happen on the edge and
we can provide that real time data analysis and feedback,
I think is just a great opportunity. Something that we're
doing now is we have a group of drivers we
call our million milers, so they've been on the road
(10:26):
accident free for over a million miles. So we are
providing them with unlimited five G Wi Fi in all
of their trucks so that they have the ability wherever
they are to leverage that Wi Fi. So even as
a driver benefit for some of our exclusive drivers, we
are currently leveraging five G to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Now, I'm curious how has that impacted metrics on the
business side.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Just simple metrics, like we're providing anywhere from thirty minutes
to an hour back to our drivers so that they
can do what they do in haul freight and move
freight across the country. And there's a financial impact to that,
of course, but the real impact is we're freeing up
non value time for our drivers, making their lives easier.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I love that message of giving time back because obviously
that's a resource that only goes one way. We can't
ever get time back. After the fact, that positive impact
on the driver cascades all the way back to the
clients and ultimately to consumers as well. And it's when
you start to take a step back and look at
that big picture that you really begin to appreciate the
(11:35):
impact that these changes have had on the transportation sector.
Are there any other sort of mission critical areas where
five G is starting to either play a part now
or play a part in plans everything from vehicle maintenance
to compliance requirements to driver safety or all of those
sort of in the mix when we start talking about
(11:57):
things like high speed wireless connectivity.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yes, so if you look at a Class eight truck,
you see this big rig right, Well, in reality it
is a massive computer with over one hundred censors. We
actually have multiple cellular cards on there, and that's streaming
data back. So things like ambient air temperature or is
the seat belt buckled? Or what are the fuel levels
(12:21):
or what are the battery voltage levels? There are infinite
use cases there to leverage that data. So what we
are doing is we're streaming the vast majority of that
data back to the cloud, running that across event grids,
and trying to understand anomalies and opportunities in that data.
(12:42):
Just simple things like a driver sees a check engine
light on. So we're able to stream that data back,
understand it processes, and say, hey, you have a low
diesel exhaust fluid. If you don't fill that up, you're
going to end up on the side of the road
really fast. So let's change your route. Let's prevent this problem.
(13:03):
So we're able to get in front of things before
they become actual problems and to provide additional data and
insight to our teams.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I think, Danta, you just redefined IoT to be Internet
of Trucking, which is totally cool. Yeah, I'm curious if
you can tell us a bit about Werner Edge. Can
you talk about what that is and how it works.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
What we did with Warner Edge is we're built on
thirty years of technology and we are in the process
now of modernizing and replacing every bit of that. I
think what a lot of companies do is they add
a shiny toy but still leave the base there and
you can't move forward like that. So what we're doing
(13:47):
with Warner Edge, and I know it's simple things, but
a SAS spaceed HRMS, a new finance system. So every
piece of technology is either we're moving to a SaaS
or a cloud solution and we're not leaving anything behind.
So when we get through this modernization effort, we'll have
an incredible connected tech stack that will help us to
(14:09):
innovate and to improve. Warner Edge is that umbrella that
encompasses that transformation, and we kind of have three core
components of it. So one is to modernize our base application.
So we built our own hr system, We've built our
own finance system. Why would you ever do that? Now? Right?
There are great off the shelf SaaS solutions out there
(14:32):
that provide those capabilities, and I have a certain number
of engineering talent. Let's leverage that talent to actually build
those things that differentiate us, that provide a unique competitive advantage.
So that's the second tier is to build those differentiators,
focus our dev teams on those things, and then the
(14:52):
third is look to the future, so what are the
newest tech, what are the latest capabilities and also partnering
with a lot of startups and venture capital to understand
where they're innovating and they can fill gaps.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That really hits home to the restless ones. This concept
of embracing the new and trying to avoid reliance upon
things like legacy systems. So many companies have spent decades,
maybe even up to a century, building up these legacy
systems that they cannot easily migrate from, and it can
(15:29):
be one of those elements that holds a business back
from the next step in its success story. So can
you kind of walk us through the various components of
the system and how they work together to provide value
to customers On the customer side.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, So as we're modernizing all of the efforts, we
have a very API driven approach, so we want to
make sure that whatever we're doing is extensible. So as
we will partner with shippers, all of that data that's
in our transportation management system we can share and we
can also ingest, so that allows us to take in
(16:05):
information from shippers. We work with our equipment manufacturers, so
there's a lot of third party systems out there that
have incredible data that we can ingest and bring into
our system.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, and again, this has that cascading effect right to
that end. I'm also curious how that impacts drivers because
I assume they also are able to benefit from a
lot of the information that we're talking about here.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So we've looked at the entire value stream of what
a driver does on a day to day basis. We've
looked at that workflow, and then we've found opportunities to
automate that. At one point, we've moved away from this
form based system. So there were like sixty different forms
and a rive at shipper, a departed shipper, and it
was a one way communication piece. So if I had
(16:53):
an error, it would go back, bounce back, and we
would ask fifty questions. Forty of those are acts relevant.
So what we've been able to do now is to
build that into a workflow. But even better, I've geofensed
all of my shipper locations, so instead of asking them
to fill an arrive or a departure form, I aut
(17:15):
I auto depart. That data is captured and yes, that's
great for the shipper, but for the driver, now that
takes fifteen to twenty minutes of just non value add
activity out of their day, it becomes more accurate. So
there's a lot of things like that that we've been
able to build out in our driver's day to day
(17:36):
workflow and just to streamline, why ask them twenty questions
when we know that data, I can just provide it
to them. So we've really simplified and had a strong
emphasis and focus on improving the day to day of
our drivers.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Is the Warner edge system an integral component in training
at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, So we've had a lot of forms based and
other onboarding efforts where we've been able to digitize that
entire process. The edge Connect, which is our device that
we use to bring them these capabilities, starts at orientation
and follows them throughout their career. The first experience that
a new employee has is really really important.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, we touched on it earlier, you brought it up,
and now I have to talk about it because one
of the things that we do here a lot when
we're talking about the future of the trucking industry is
the potential incorporation of autonomous vehicles. So where do you
see the future if you were to think of a
spectrum between how can I make a driver's life easier
(18:38):
and their job more rewarding all the way to the
robots are driving the trucks. Where are you kind of falling?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
As I look at the demand for drivers over the
next ten to fifteen twenty years, there's a driver shortage now,
and by the wildest calculations of AV adoption, we still
see their substantial driver shortage needs. So any truck driver
entering the industry now will have a career for as
far as I can see into the future. One of
(19:08):
the major benefits we've seen with autonomy is advancements in
safety capabilities and features. I expect that to continue and
to see downstream impacts of those technologies. But there are
areas where AV makes sense now where that technology is.
As I've gone on ride alongs and participated, it really
(19:30):
is impressive to be in a Class eight vehicle on
a freeway that can essentially drive itself. And if any
of us have taken an eight or a ten hour
road trip, there's certain sections of that road trip where
it might make a lot of sense. It's hard to
really say where mass adoption is. There's still a lot
of hurdles that have to be overcome.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I'm also curious, do you envision a future where we
have this connected trucking industry interacting with cities on almost
an invisible way through data.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I hope that we get there once there's autonomous hubs
outside of cities. We expect drivers to be doing those
intercity loads and capabilities, and if we could provide efficient
routes and help them move through cities better. Yeah, I
think it would be great to see some of that
technology move forward.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Before I could let them go, I had to ask
Danny one more thing, what's the best advice you have
ever received?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So I think two things. One is to embrace change
and to two is to challenge the status quo. I
think some of the biggest opportunities of any organization is
for those employees to say, you know, I don't really
understand this. This doesn't quite make sense to me. And
then as you go through that process, sometimes it just
doesn't make sense and there's a better way and a
(20:59):
new opportunit unity, and sometimes you know it's a lack
of understanding. But embraced change and challenge the status quo,
I think is what all of us should be doing,
and that way we can continue to advance and move forward.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
That's a great, great answer, Danny Thank you so much
for joining us for the restless ones. This has been
a real pleasure.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Jonathan, thank you, It's been great to be here. I
appreciate the time.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Again, I have to thank Danny and Werner Enterprises for
joining the show. My guests frequently surprise and impress me,
and Danny was no exception. Learning how technologically advanced the
trucking industry actually is and how connectivity enables the automation
of tasks that normally but put increased demands on driver's
time and energy really made an impact on me. Knowing
(21:52):
that driver's safety and satisfaction will have an effect throughout
the business, ultimately benefiting not just the drivers, but Warner
Warner's clients and even end customers is pretty incredible. And again,
the foundation for these capabilities is that wireless connectivity. It's
the technology that gives businesses the opportunity to do things
(22:12):
differently and to explore alternatives and build new solutions. It's
what lets engineers move the needle on metrics that might
have been static for decades, increasing efficiency, decreasing waste, and
giving employees the support they need to do their jobs
at the top of their abilities. Plus it gives Werner's
customers insight into their own business, which means over time,
(22:36):
we'll see a rising tide lift all boats. Be sure
to join us for more episodes of The Restless Ones.
We'll be talking with more incredible leaders about their approach
to leveraging technology and how this tech creates opportunities even
in places we never thought to look before. Until next time,
(22:57):
I'm Jonathan Strickland, and this is The Restless Ones
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