Old Dominion Freight Line to Deploy PeopleNet Across Entire Fleet

JOC Staff |
MINNEAPOLIS, March 31, 2009—Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc., of Thomasville, N.C., has selected PeopleNet to provide onboard communications and fleet management solutions for its fleet of more than 5,100 trucks.

Old Dominion, founded in 1934, is the nation’s 6th largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier and the 20th largest commercial carrier of any kind with 2007 revenues of $1.4 billion. The publicly owned company (NASDAQ:ODFL) has grown rapidly in recent years and now operates 207 service centers from coast to coast.

According to Barry Craver, Old Dominion’s director of freight processing applications, PeopleNet will be installed across the company’s entire linehaul and local pickup and delivery fleet.

Old Dominion will continue to use handheld computers for their pickup and delivery drivers and will pass data to and from these devices through the PeopleNet unit in the truck, providing more powerful transmission, better reception, and improved coverage.

With PeopleNet onboard, Old Dominion will collect and process data from the truck and run other applications such as eDriver Logs®, PeopleNet’s electronic onboard recorder application, PACOS, PeopleNet’s Geofencing application and PeformX®, which monitors vehicle and driver performance. Craver said Old Dominion expects PerformX will help control fuel costs.

Old Dominion began considering onboard systems in 2006 after conducting a program to test automated driver logs. Since automated logs might become mandatory, the company wanted to be prepared. “That test raised a question,” said Craver. “If we’re going to install an onboard device, what else can it do for us?”

Early in 2007, Old Dominion set out to find the answer. The company interviewed many potential providers. “We invited some companies to make presentations. We narrowed those down to a few that we actually piloted. And we finally selected PeopleNet,” said Craver.

Among the reasons was PeopleNet’s eDriver Log solution. “Our safety folks liked PeopleNet’s log program better than anyone else’s. Plus, PeopleNet made a serious effort to understand how Old Dominion does business. They’re very innovative, customer oriented, and flexible about listening and devising a way to get where you want,” added Craver.

“I was positively impressed by the PeopleNet team, their approach to our company and the way in which they analyzed our business processes to demonstrate how their solution could provide return on investment,” said Old Dominion CEO David Congdon. “Our challenge now is to pursue those opportunities. I feel confident the PeopleNet team will follow through on their part to help ensure our success.”

“We’re very excited to serve Old Dominion,” said Ron Konezny, PeopleNet CEO. “We believe this partnership marks the beginning of a new era for our two companies and even for the LTL sector as a whole. The economic, energy, and regulatory challenges ahead of us make onboard intelligence essential for the entire trucking industry. We look forward to working with Old Dominion to meet those challenges.”

About PeopleNet
PeopleNet is exclusively focused on providing innovative Internet-based and integrated onboard computing and mobile communications systems to improve North America’s trucking industry’s fleet management. Its products are used by more than 1,500 truckload, LTL, private, and service fleets in the United States and Canada, including several Fortune 500 companies. Reputed for its customer-driven technological innovation, unparalleled flexibility, and proactive customer care, PeopleNet was the first major technology provider to offer Internet-based communications to the transportation industry 15 years ago. Since then, the company annually reinvests 100 percent of its profits into the business for aggressively developing new products that continue to improve fleet management.