NASHVILLE, TN -- Trimble companies PeopleNet and TMW Systems announced the winners of their 2017 Innovator of the Year awards, recognizing companies that have best leveraged technology to innovate.

The recipients were announced at the 2017 in.sight User Conference + Expo in Nashville,  jointly hosted by both companies. The award focuses on companies that have used technology for integration, custom-tailored applications, process implementation, training methods and other improvements.

“It’s always an honor to recognize the PeopleNet and TMW customers that are helping us drive innovation forward in the transportation industry,” said Rick Ochsendorf, executive vice president, customer for PeopleNet. “The recipients of this year’s awards have uniquely harnessed the power of technology to make incredible strides in their organization when it comes to performance and safety.”

Following customer nominations and testimonials, winners were selected in the following categories:

PeopleNet

• Tier 1 (Less than 100 vehicles): Star Transport
  

Using PeopleNet, TMW and document imaging, Star Transport was able to create an automated billing system that saved the company more than $260,000 in annual labor costs and offered real-time order information to clients.

• Tier 2 (100 to 500 vehicles): Heniff Transportation Systems
  

Over the past seven years, Heniff has doubled in size, increasing fuel economy by more than 20%, realizing an ROI from new technologies that total in the millions of dollars, cutting maintenance expenses, reducing turnover rates, and streamlining order entry, planning, dispatch and billing processes.

• Tier 3 (More than 500 vehicles): Estes Express Lines

Estes used PeopleNet’s geotracking breadcrumb data to create more efficient routes and reduction in dock time, reduce trucks on the road and shorten delivery times for customers. Estes estimates a reduction of 5 million miles per year by 2020, saving on fuel and maintenance costs and decreasing the company’s carbon footprint.

• Canadian Fleets: Vitesse Transport
  

Vitesse has developed three solutions that leverage PeopleNet’s technology to improve visibility into asset utilization and revenue per mile and to simplify the in-cab communication process between dispatchers and drivers. Each of the solutions has resulted in direct revenue gains in excess of $175,000 in the past year.

TMW Systems

• Asset Lite/Brokerage: Traffix

Traffix has a fully integrated 80-person logistics team, a fleet of 40 to 50 trucks and 10 accountants – all leveraging TMW’s TruckMate software to its maximum potential. The team has been an active provider of feedback in the development of TruckMate 2017.

• Less-Than-Truckload, Intermodal, and Specialty:Armour Transportation Systems

Armour used TMW’s ConnectedDock app to give its operations and customer service teams full visibility of LTL freight moving through their system. The implementation of TruckMate also allowed Armour to automate its billing process to reduce overhead and provide customers with accurate, timely billing.

• Energy: Crestwood Transportation
  

The use of TMW software provided increased visibility to key performance indicators (KPIs) promoting efficiency and enabling Crestwood to reduce variable costs in fuel, labor, and other operational expenses.

• Maintenance: Western Refining

The use of TMW software gave Western better visibility to invoice charges, avoiding about $460,000 in expenses in 2016. Additionally, Western was able to reduce discrepancies in billable maintenance hours by more than $500,000, reduce maintenance costs by approximately $1.4 million, reduce the workforce in the dispatch office by 66% and save over $382,000 with efficiencies in drivers’ dispatch routes.

• Private Fleet: Ginsberg’s Foods

Ginsberg’s Foods harnessed Appian software to improve their distribution efficiency, providing an estimated savings of more than $140,000 annually per route.

• Truckload:Trans-System

Trans-System has used TMW’s Suite Operations to create a sophisticated notification system that routes the right messages to the right decision makers. This has resulted in efficiencies on the road and reduced cargo claims by 75% in the past year.

• Business Intelligence:Trimac Transportation Services
  

Trimac augmented TMW Data Warehousing to provide executives with robust dashboards and KPIs. This approach allows for data access anytime, anywhere, and visibility into important data from other parts of Trimac’s business.

In addition to recognizing PeopleNet and TMW-specific winners, a joint award was presented to Star Transport. Deploying technology solutions from both companies, Star Transport has migrated to an automatic billing process, reducing annual labor costs by more than $260,000 and providing better real-time information for its clients.

Innovator of the Year winners are also participating in panel discussions at in.sight, giving attendees an opportunity to learn more about how to better deploy technology to increase efficiencies, lower costs and improve safety.

“The customers recognized at in.sight this year have achieved measurable business value through the use of TMW and/or PeopleNet solutions,” said Timothy Leonard, executive vice president, operations, and technology for TMW. “They’re making real world improvements to not only run efficient, more profitable businesses, but also to foster a better culture, deliver better value and service for their clients, and create safer roads.”