Drivers messaged their fleet managers to report a breakdown and then waited while a breakdown agent located a vendor with the right expertise in a nearby location.
“We'd walk around the truck with paper and a pencil, identify what needed to be fixed and then climb in the truck to document it.”īreakdown management was also a slow, manual process. “Our team does upwards of 60,000 inspections per year,” says Daragh Mahon, EVP and CIO at Werner. The fixed in-cab hardware also made workflows tedious, especially when drivers needed to gather information outside the truck - for example, while conducting vehicle inspections. We already had most of that data in our back-end systems, but the old technology made drivers re-enter every piece of information.” “It was macros-based, so to document anything, drivers would have to scroll through 60 forms to find the right one and manually enter the information. “The old system had been used for over a decade, included a touchscreen that wasn’t very responsive and had a drop-down keyboard,” says Danny Lilley, VP of Product Design and Engineering at Werner. As a key initiative under Werner EDGE, Werner focused on modernizing the in-cab technology used by drivers daily while on the road.
The driver-first organization has always invested in providing a safe and efficient driver experience, in part by leveraging (and creating) best-in-class technology. In 1998, Werner was the first trucking company to introduce paperless driver logs - decades before electronic logging devices (ELD) became an industry-wide requirement.
The professional drivers and associates at Werner Enterprises didn’t need to be reminded. At the same time, the pandemic reminded Americans just how essential truck drivers are. Professional truck drivers have an important and difficult job, and COVID-19 only added to job demands by complicating interstate logistics and impacting the truck stops and restaurants where drivers find parking, showers, hot meals and social connections on the road. Since its launch, Werner EDGE has developed technology-rich solutions and partnered with leading technology providers with the goal of advancing the performance and safety of Werner drivers, shippers, carriers and associates. In early 2020, Werner Enterprises launched Werner EDGE, the company’s commitment to technology and innovation.
Werner provides dedicated and one-way truckload services as well as logistics services that include truckload brokerage, freight management, intermodal and final mile. Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, Werner provides services throughout North America, and is the largest cross-border carrier in and out of Mexico. Today, 65 years since CL’s journey began, Werner Enterprises is a premier transportation and logistics provider and one of the five largest truckload carriers in the United States with nearly 8,000 trucks, 24,000 trailers and more than 13,000 associates. Werner’s story began in 1956, when founder Clarence “CL” Werner bought his first truck - a gasoline-powered Ford for regional deliveries.