One of the newest tools at Grand Island Express doesn't just tell drivers how long a truck has been idling. It asks why.

The AI-powered system interacts with drivers to determine whether they're waiting on a customer, stuck in traffic, dealing with weather, or experiencing a maintenance issue. If something mechanical appears to be the problem, the maintenance department can get involved before a small issue turns into a breakdown.

It's one example of how Grand Island Express is putting artificial intelligence to work, with Vice President of Operations Deen Albert leading the way.

Albert has been in trucking for about 26 years. Almost right out of college, he went to work for a large LTL carrier and was there for 18 years before moving to the truckload side about seven years ago with Grand Island Express.

"In my role, I handle all of fleet operations, all of sales, and all of recruiting," he says. "So I wear several hats."

Automating Dispatch, Costing, Trailer Pools and More

Albert was nominated as an Innovator for his work in adopting advanced decision-making models, automating dispatch, and maximizing revenue during the extended freight recession.

Under Albert's watch, the Nebraska-based refrigerated carrier has developed tools to automate dispatch, manage trailer pools, balance customer freight with available equipment, improve on-time performance, and create more accurate costing models.

It even developed what Albert describes as a first-of-its-kind driver pay guarantee based on what drivers actually earn.

"It's definitely been a success story and one that has seemed to resonate through the industry," Albert says.

In 2024, through a long vetting process, the carrier partnered with Optimal Dynamics on an automated dispatch model driven by artificial intelligence.

"We knew we were going to have some significant change management with an automated dispatch model, so we didn't take that lightly," he says. "We prepared ourselves from both a culture standpoint and from a data management standpoint.

"So when we went live with the automated decisions, we had our foot on the gas, so we really didn't have a long ramp-up period.

"Within the first month, we were hitting some all-time record revenues. By the end of the second month, we were seeing 25% higher revenue through our company with the same amount of trucks and the same length of haul.

"We were expanding without adding a truck or a trailer," he says. "We were just doing it through less waste."

In fact, he says, “the more efficient we were, the hungrier the system got. We needed more business to throw at it."

With that success, he says, they realized they were capable of taking on more automation where it made sense.

Technology Innovation Starts with People

But the technology isn't where the innovation starts.

"We have found that our best ideas have come from within," Albert says. "Many times originating from our drivers."

Grand Island Express has developed a culture where employees are encouraged to question how things have always been done and look for better ways.

"Everyone in our company has the capability to change how we do things," Albert says. "We give them freedom to collaborate and allow the tools to execute on those ideas."

That mindset has shaped the way Grand Island Express approaches technology. He says automation should handle "the things that are easy to do," leaving people to make the important decisions.

"We feel strongly that automation can be used to make people better ... not eliminate people.

"The big thing that we learned through this process is you can automate almost everything, but you cannot take the people out of it," Albert says. "I feel really good about how the team adapted, and really it made our people more important, not less."

Decisions Not Always Obvious to the Human Eye

To become more efficient, the automated dispatch tool works to eliminate downtime as much as possible and make the most out of the driver's clock. Drivers get more miles, the company gets more revenue.

With the help of the AI, he says, "We're just making better decisions that aren't always obvious to the human eye."

Sometimes it may seem counterintuitive; you may run more empty miles to get to a load that makes more sense. Sometimes the closest driver to a load isn't the best driver for the load.

"The system is looking at that downstream, maybe two, three, four days, maybe a week in advance," he says. "It sees events like drivers want home time coming up, so how do we position those drivers to do that?"

"Those are things that as a dispatcher, you just can't do that kind of math. It's not to take anything away from what they can do; it's just that no human can do that kind of math that fast."

Automating Beyond Dispatch

With the success of the dispatch automation, the company started looking at how AI could help it with other challenges.

"Of late, it's been managing trailer pools," he says. "Equipment's getting tighter across the industry, and how do we make the most out of those trailer pools?"

Without much lead time, he says, Grand Island's IT department was able to build a trailer pool dashboard that helps manage the dwell time on trailers, with a map that shows several issues with trailers at a glance.

"These are things we wouldn't have dreamed of five years ago," Albert says.

Trucking is 'At a Crossroads with Technology'

But he admits that they didn’t get that message across well at first.

He says introducing it as "AI is making decisions" created anxiety, and if he could do it again, he'd explain that the computer helps with the math, but people still make the important decisions.

He describes Grand Island Express' approach as "cautious and deliberate," while still pushing to stay on the leading edge of new technology.

"We feel that our industry is at a crossroads with technology, and we feel that it is our responsibility to prepare our staff to use it most effectively,” Albert says. "We don't want to be on the bleeding edge. But we want to be slightly ahead so we're not playing catch-up."