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Cut Costs and Improve Profitability in Trucking with AI and Big Data Analytics

13.01.2025

Cover Picture for the article "Improve Profitability in Trucking with AI and Big Data Analytics" showing the title and a screenshot of the software dashboard next to it.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to have a transformative impact on industries, much like the Industrial Revolution—but at a significantly faster pace. Across sectors like manufacturing and trucking, AI & Big Data Analytics are already making a difference, improving profitability in trucking and boosting revenue by 500 EUR per truck per month thanks to FleetMetrics.

AI thrives on data, and today’s trucking fleets generate plenty of it through telematics and IoT sensors. Unfortunately, much of this data remains underused. Although trucking is essential to the economy, it operates with low technological adoption and slim profit margins. 

This combination of inefficiency and abundant data makes trucking an ideal candidate to benefit from AI and Big Data Analytics.

Previously reserved for large corporations, AI is now accessible to small and mid-sized companies due to reduced storage costs, accessible computing power, and the growing acceptance of AI-driven tools, accelerated by technologies like ChatGPT.

What are the current common Trucking Pain Points?

Today, the trucking industry faces significant challenges. Freight rates have been low for the past 18 months, with no clear recovery in sight. Fuel prices are volatile, toll taxes are rising, and driver shortages are driving wages up. Together, these factors make up about 75% of trucking costs, while operational inefficiencies further squeezing the already slim margins.

While technology can’t solve these issues, it can significantly mitigate their negative impact. AI-driven planning improves vehicle utilization and reduces empty mileage, minimizing costs and boosting revenue, while advanced analytics help identify the most profitable areas of the business. Paired with fuel consumption monitoring, it can also improve fuel efficiency. Automating certain administrative tasks can also help narrow the gap between gross and net profit.

Reducing Costs and Improving Profitability in Trucking

A key challenge for many trucking companies is their fragmented system landscape. They use various tools—TMS, telematics, fuel cards, freight exchanges—that often produce data in different formats and structures, making integration difficult.

The solution is to create a unified database for each vehicle and the entire fleet. By synchronizing telematics and TMS data, companies can accurately monitor KPIs like mileage, revenue, and utilization. Combining this data allows trucking companies to easily calculate costs per kilometer or revenue per day. Integrating fuel card data further enhances precision by providing fuel efficiency and toll cost insights.

Advanced tools can also help set and track revenue and mileage targets in real-time, offering weekly/monthly projections to ensure fleet managers can keep trucks on track to meet their KPIs while improving profitability in trucking.

Optimizing Vehicle and Driver Utilization

AI can optimize vehicle and driver utilization, reducing costly idle time. An idle truck can cost a company 700-800 EUR per day. AI tools developed by Transmetrics make sure that all such vehicles are proactively monitored and if such deviations occur, an alert is sent to the dispatcher so they can investigate further. 

The same applies to drivers and whether they fully utilize the 90-hour biweekly driving allowance they have. Our approach provides a better visibility on the driver and vehicle performance but as opposed to a pure FMS solution, the integration with the TMS allows us to put these into perspective. For example, the software can compare the drivers and vehicles on the same trade lane, truck types, type of orders, business unit, etc., and build scorecards on the best and worst performing ones. 

Enhancing Operational Planning and Execution

AI can also assist with operational planning by suggesting the most optimal truck for each order. For prospect orders, algorithms can calculate total execution costs for each order, including driver wages, tolls, fixed costs, and fuel—helping companies bid more accurately and improving profitability in trucking.

For spot orders, AI can scan emails, automate the bidding process, and create prospect orders in the TMS. This streamlines operations, helping companies focus on the most profitable opportunities and increasing their win rates.

Even the best plans can fall apart during execution, but the technology helps here too. It monitors fuel purchases, route choices, and idle time at loading/unloading locations, providing real-time alerts to dispatchers if delays or inefficiencies occur.

Introducing FleetMetrics

These AI-driven functionalities are part of our software solution, FleetMetrics. By using FleetMetrics, some of our clients have increased their revenue per truck by 500 EUR per month. Even with conservative estimates, realizing just 30% of these improvements leads to a meaningful boost in profitability in trucking.

FleetMetrics also improves fuel efficiency on an average of 1 liter per 100 km. By automating repetitive back-office tasks, we help free up skilled employees to focus on high-value activities and new opportunities.

For a fleet of 50 trucks, these improvements translate into significant gains in revenue and profitability—all without major changes to the way the business is conducted.

FleetMetrics requires a TMS and telematics system to integrate with, but even small and mid-sized companies typically have these in place. The potential of AI and Big Data Analytics in trucking is vast, and your trucking business can already start navigating economic challenges and building a lasting competitive edge by adopting these technologies early.