Inside our freight and fleet data ecosystem: Cultivating evolved partnerships at Connect

Our collection of partners at Connect shared specialized viewpoints on how transportation analytics can help proliferate highly sustainable cities, regions, and states across North America.

This session and fireside chat at Geotab Connect 2024 brought about engaging discussions between leaders of four key partner organizations. These individuals included:

• Kevin Johnson, AICP at RSG
• Sean Co, Senior Director of Professional Services at StreetLight Data
• David Peters, Western Regional Manager at The Ray
• Mario Harper of Utah State University and ASPIRE

All our speakers presented their takes on how new and innovative data insights can change the ways communities are built. They discussed topics like connecting regions with enhanced transportation networks helps trim down lengthy travel durations for motorists and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

By building smart communities and cities that emphasize sustainability and data-driven vehicle movement strategies, states can also set up their infrastructure for better efficiency and driver safety.

This article dives into each of our partners’ unique ideas on connecting and evolving communities, outlining some of the key takeaways from their impactful discussion.

Harnessing transportation data to enhance supply chain management: RSG

In RSG’s presentation, Johnson engaged the audience by sharing how Geotab ITS data can be used to analyze and refine supply chains. With aggregate mobility data, RSG helps clients maximize and make sense of all the transportation insights at their disposal.

Johnson shared a practical example of this in action with RSG’s Central Valley Gateway study. This analysis helped Prologis, a real estate company offering warehousing and logistics solutions, assess their network’s resilience and efficiency. Doing so would help Prologis make operational enhancements, become more adaptable and strategize for future challenges effectively.

Leveraging Geotab ITS data, they were able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how their supply chains were performing, ultimately finding that additional infrastructure was needed eastward. This enabled them to:

• Strategically identify where to spend funds.
• Acquire a more vivid picture of where trucks are headed most often.
• Visualize breakdowns of trip and vehicle traits.
• Gain clarity on the sources of labor.
• More clearly identify localized travel trends and trip chains.

Integrating data with travel models by region helped RSG’s stakeholders have more faith that the project’s outcome would be satisfactory. By continuing to analyze transportation insights and test the efficiency of new infrastructure development, RSG is helping clients like Prologis achieve substantial results.

Using analytics to solve transportation grid challenges: StreetLight Data

As leaders in mobility data, Geotab ITS and StreetLight Data partnered to combine the best of both companies’ insights. The organizations helped the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) access critical passenger and commercial vehicle analytics via a tailored, all-in-one solution. The contract empowers the SCAG and its affiliated agencies to have custom insights that support better travel models and infrastructure planning.

Co highlighted an interesting project about how when a fire occurred beneath I-10 near downtown Los Angeles, transportation insights helped the SCAG discover how shutting down the freeway would affect the nearby highways due to traffic rerouting. Using origin and destination analytics and travel time data, StreetLight Data was able to compare metrics from before the road closure to travel time and journeys captured during it. They found that travel durations headed toward the city of Los Angeles were extended and that movement times departing the city were decreased. As to be expected, total trips around the closed freeway lessened, but the number of trips toward Los Angeles rose via the Santa Ana Freeway, the Harbor Freeway and several other key routes. However, the Golden State Freeway’s traffic patterns were observed to be largely unaffected. Proactively managing transportation issues with powerful data helps the SCAG refine the efficiency and safety of their roads, especially during emergency situations.

New right-of-way use cases for greener, more flexible transportation: The Ray

During The Ray’s session, Peters shared how his organization partnered with Geotab ITS to advance fleet electrification and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure. The Ray is a non-profit organization that aligns with local and state agencies to work toward highway networks that are free of emissions, fatalities and waste.

Peters spoke directly about The Ray’s partnership with Geotab ITS and how our relationship began with a pilot program for freight movement analytics by medium- and heavy-duty trucks along certain highway corridors. The goal of the program was to help departments advance their fleet electrification infrastructure strategies through a series of clinics. Due to the increase in North American commercial fleets going electric, the need for additional EV infrastructure and solar energy continues to grow. Our fleet electrification sessions with The Ray continue to help build awareness of these ideas and shed light on how big data can guide greener transportation grid investments.

Smarter, electrified transportation infrastructure: Utah State University and ASPIRE

Utah State University’s ASPIRE research center helps state departments accelerate transportation infrastructure electrification. In this portion of the session, Harper discussed how Geotab ITS’ partnership with their center led to the creation of a 20-year infrastructure strategy that supports zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. For the Salt Lake City area in particular, this plan will help provide cleaner air for motorists and set benchmarks in reducing high carbon emissions.

ASPIRE’s goals are to enhance transportation and power grids alike, improve public vehicle charging accessibility, establish coordination between connected and self-driving vehicles and leverage different kinds of charging systems to boost sustainability. As a community-focused center, ASPIRE seeks to work with other cutting-edge firms at the forefront of sustainable transportation. Harper detailed how ASPIRE’s artificial intelligence–powered algorithm for smart vehicle charging helps them assess and explore rolling out these game-changing power sources in a scalable way.

ASPIRE relies on transportation insights and their own research to help pioneer new logistics electrification projects like induction-based vehicle charging. Integrating Geotab ITS data helps their team grasp where to electrify the transportation grid and assess the growing need for sustainable power options. Vehicle insights continue to shape their methods and strategies. Using this data to inform large EV grid investments, organizations can spend more wisely and better foresee the potential impacts of their decisions before ground is broken on a new construction project.

How communities are becoming increasingly connected, evolving transportation systems in the process

As the speakers’ sentiments indicated, our communities are becoming increasingly linked with smarter transportation infrastructure. Powerful transportation insights are fostering evolvements in the grid, ushering in a new era of sustainability. As we move toward cleaner, safer and more efficient freight movement systems, it’s important to recognize the tremendous work being done by all of Geotab ITS’ dedicated partners throughout the process.

See firsthand how ITS data can help your state build smarter infrastructure that’s adapted for today’s transportation trends by scheduling a demo of Altitude.