Apr 25, 2024

Spring has certainly sprung as 2024 has shifted into full gear. In that, we are rapidly growing closer to OpTech 2024—the premier technology event of the year, which was designed to help you fully streamline your supply chain operations. At Heartland, this, truly, is our favorite time and event of the year! And, if you ask us, they should be yours, too! At OpTech 2024, you get a chance to navigate the numerous incoming innovations in efforts towards supply chain modernization. Consequentially, you also get opportunities to network with like-minded, goal-driven professionals while simultaneously exploring and learning about the leading-edge, innovative technologies that are being deployed to enhance the levels of operational success for numerous businesses. With all of that in mind, it would be fair to wonder what there was, specifically, to expect from OpTech 2024. Well, to put it lightly, there’s a lot! Along with the abundant networking and educational opportunities previously mentioned, you will also witness significantly informative presentations from some of the leaders in the industry. Each presentation will dissect all the emerging trends in the game of supply chain enhancement. In addition to that, you can interact with innovative showcases of vendors where you can obtain useful knowledge on the several innovations from the industry’s best, as well as several opportunities where you can learn, collaborate, and connect with several experts. To be specific, presentation topics will aid you in learning about the most recent trends in sustainability, artificial intelligence (AI) in demand forecasting, predictive analytics for risk management, private LTE connectivity for enhanced communications, as well as the many lessons from 2023’s supply chain and much more.

There are countless insightful speakers that will be attending this cutting-edge event. With all of them in mind, we would like to spotlight Azuga to provide a closer look into who they are and what they offer.

• Who is Azuga? – Azuga is a Bridgestone company. They were founded in 2012 to provide a different spin on the world of GPS tracking, with the goal of turning it into a driver that leverages technology in order to turn a solution that was meant for GPS tracking and location visibility into a solution that is occurring to help customers with the fleet problems that they need to solve for their operational efficiency, productivity, maintenance, and most importantly, safety. Per their Director of Sales, Christopher Johnson, Azuga has “really rode that safety horse.” In doing so, they managed to deeply ingrain that, safety, into their value proposition to transform a platform that is typically used for punitive measures into a coaching and rewards program to truly work in reducing fleet cost and accident claims across the board—all thanks to their value proposition. In 2021, Azuga was purchased by Bridgestone, who was looking to expand out of their core business in which they’ve grown famous for—the tire business—and start executing on sustainable mobility, which has a lot to do with investments in fleet management technology. Fleet management technology, to be specific, will help customers who are acquiring Bridgestone tires by delivering new additional value by helping them more efficiently manage their fleet data management and safety—as well as providing more accurate information on tire maintenance and how that affects tire safety. In terms of their products and services, Azuga specializes in GPS tracking as well as a connected AI-powered dash camera, which helps with monitoring driver behavior—which reduces the frequency and cost of accidents and claims for their customers.
  
  
• How do GPS tracking and AI-powered analytics contribute to the effectiveness of their fleet management solutions? – In terms of their fleet management solutions, Azuga is just getting started, just starting to scratch the surface of effectiveness of GPS tracking and AI-powered analytics. In fact, according to their AI roadmap, by implementing in-vehicle devices, they will be able to identify how helpful AI is in delivering insights that normally would not be as easily accessible or visible without countless hours of data mining in and around driver behavior. It has been very exciting to see how AI, in particular, can assist in the innovation of their solutions as an emerging technology. Not only will this be harnessed within the vehicle, but they will also have an AI engine that will mine data and make insights very easy for customers to find. To be specific, their AI dashcam provides fleets of every size a powerful device to improve fleet and driver safety. It is designed with first-hand insights from fleet managers and is equipped with multi-sensor HD cameras that provide fleets with access to both live and recorded video proof of harsh driving incidents. By using artificial intelligence and computer vision, the dashcam can identify distracted driving, driver drowsiness, and dangerous driving behaviors—aiding drivers with real-time audio and visual alerts. The AI dashcam expands with your fleet’s needs and works smoothly with Azuga Fleet and Azuga Fleet Mobile to provide an integrated solution that provides tangible benefits—like diminished distracted driving, increased safety, personalized training for high-risk drivers, reduced insurance claims, lightweight GPS tracking, and much more—that help enhance a company’s efficiency and productivity, while maintaining high levels of safety.
  
  
• What are the safety features and compliance tools offered by Azuga and how do they help fleet operators mitigate risks? – One of their biggest innovations is one that is practiced in the fleet-connect, IoT industry, a driver score. A driver score is a score that you assign a driver based on their driver behavior. Its scoring is based on several metrics—such as harsh braking, sudden accelerating, speeding, idling for too long, hard cornering, or using a cellphone while driving. This is something that everybody can now do; however, Azuga’s unique innovation comes from the desire to want to share this score with more than just the fleet manager or safety manager, but with the driver as well. Azuga has developed a mobile application that gives the driver the ability to see their driver score as well as what negative behaviors are contributing to their low score. Or, more importantly, the driver can see what they’ve been doing so well to obtain a high score—on a scale of 1-100, with 100 being the best. With this mobile app, drivers will not only be able to see their own score, but they will also be able to see their score versus other drivers’. As a result, everyone will be competing for a higher score—which, also, increases safe driving behaviors. To put it into perspective, a 10-point increase in a driver score equates to a 40% reduction in risk.

At Heartland, our mission is to provide our customers with scalable and sustainable solutions that are designed to optimize the levels of sustainability, efficiency, productivity, and profitability of their businesses to unmatched degrees. So, if we or Azuga sound like we can do something for you, be sure to check out OpTech 2024 and the rest of its amazing speakers and attendees.