In this episode of Location Intelligence, we talk to transportation industry experts from Hexagon’s Geospatial division about oversized/overweight freight vehicles. We’ll discuss their impact on transportation infrastructure, and how transportation authorities can address OS/OW permitting and routing challenges.
JD: Hi, and thank you for tuning into Location Intelligence on HxGN Radio. I’m your host, Justin Dinger. Over the road trucking is critical to how goods are transported around the world. It’s also an important global economic driver. While the majority of freight loads travelling on highways and byways meet legal truck size and weight limits, others don’t. In this episode, I’m talking to Bruce Chaplin, Vice President of Transportation Solutions for North America at Hexagon, Rick Schulte, SafeHaul Product Owner and Implementation Manager at Hexagon, and Mark Nicklas, Director of Sales in the US, for Hexagon, about oversized/overweight freight vehicles. We’ll discuss their impact on transportation infrastructure, and how transportation authorities can address OS/OW permitting and routing challenges. We’ll also talk about transportation agencies already successfully using OS/OW solutions to safeguard infrastructure and improve roadway safety. Bruce, Rick, Mark, welcome to the show.
BC: Thank you, Justin. It’s good to be here.
RS: Thanks, Justin, looking forward to the discussion.
MN: Hey, good morning everybody. Glad to be here. Always love the opportunity to sit down with you all.
JD: Great. I’m glad to have you all. Bruce, let’s start with you. Getting oversize/overweight vehicles and loads to their point of destination safely, and without incident, it can be pretty complicated. What are some of the infrastructure constraints, or challenges that freight carriers have to navigate?
BC: Thanks, Justin. It’s a great question, and you’re right. It can be complicated. If I start at a high level, just to provide some context. First and foremost, operating efficiently. This is a really big deal to freight carriers, as it is for any business. That’s how they remain profitable, remain competitive in the industry. They need their trucks on the road, moving freight. But at the same time, they need to account for these two additional factors. The first being, safety, both for the drivers, but also the travelling public. That’s a major priority for them. But the second one is compliance. There’s a lot of rules and regulations that govern the commercial trucking industry. Simple example, they need a permit to transport these oversize/overweight loads. There’s many other regulations obviously that they comply with. Coming back to your question about the infrastructure, we’re dealing with loads obviously that are abnormally large, or abnormally heavy, or both. In moving these loads, and again, remember carriers are trying to do this as efficiently as possible, they need to consider the route. At a very basic level, are the roads along the route wide enough? Are there obstacles, maybe buildings, or vegetation that may limit the vehicle, or the load? Are there temporary lane closures, maybe due to construction? Are there bridges, or tunnels along the route? If yes, can I safely navigate them, considering the size and the weight of the vehicle load? These are all infrastructure concerns that need to be considered, not only by the freight carriers, but also by the state that’s issuing a permit for the transport of oversize/overweight load.
JD: Thanks, Bruce. Truck are out there. They’re on the roads. What happens if an accident happens? Let me be a little bit more specific. What are the financial and safety impacts of say, a bridge strike? How do transportation agencies address this?
BC: Another good question, Justin. Let me start with the safety issue. A bridge strike is obviously a huge safety issue, both for the driver of the truck itself, but also for other drivers, and other users of the road. There’s potential for serious injury, even loss of life in an instant like this. That’s obviously a huge concern. But then, a bridge strike can also do significant damage to the bridge. Now, we’re back to infrastructure. This is where transportation agencies come in. They are responsible for maintaining, preserving our roads and bridges, and even if a bridge strike doesn’t cause the bridge to collapse, it can still damage the integrity of the structure. This leads to a need for inspections, and for repairs. There might be a need to reroute traffic. There could be traffic delays, or congestion. Bottom line really is that, besides the potential for serious injury, or loss of life, bridge strikes can have a pretty significant economic impact to the state, or the city, often in the millions of dollars, a large portion of which ultimately affects tax payers.
JD: Today, how do most transportation agencies help carriers navigate these oversize/overweight vehicles and loads cross their transportation network? Is the current way of doing things effective? Why, or why not?
BC: Yeah, so I mentioned a minute ago, the rules and regulations governing freight, and in particular, the need for a permit for oversize/overweight loads. The permits are legislated, and usually issued by the state, or local jurisdiction. On one hand, it’s up to the carrier to apply for a permit based on the size and weight of their load. But then also, the agency both to issue a permit, but also to enforce permits. They’re specifying the safe route for the vehicle. What happens in practise though, many agencies are still issuing these permits manually. So, this means the route needs to be determined manually, usually by a permit operator. All of this can cause delays, specifically for the freight carriers, who are waiting for their permit, and they can’t move a load without a permit. Besides the delays, which obviously can lead to dissatisfaction with the carriers, or potentially just a slowdown of economic activity within a state, there’s still some danger to the public and to the infrastructure. If you’re issuing these permits manually, there’s always when you’re doing things manually, there’s a possibility for error. It’s just that much more difficult to consider all of the data needed to really determine a safe route.
JD: Wow, I didn’t really realise that so many transportation authorities out there were still doing this process manually. I would think with all of the traffic that’s out there on the roads at any given point, that’s a pretty big backlog some of them have. What’s you take? How can transportation authorities improve upon what they’re currently doing? How can they get away from having to do this manually, and maybe missing certain data that’s critical to getting those oversize/overweight loads safely across their network?
BC: Yeah, the biggest improvement, Justin, is that the states can make is to automate the permitting process. It has all kinds of advantages with it. One is obviously just the throughput, improving the turnaround time to issue a permit. But, it also really allows the state to integrate data from different systems that allow them to safely select a route. It all becomes algorithmic, if you will. It includes the evaluation of the route. There may be bridge analysis that’s needed. There may be other parameters that come into play to affect moving freight safely through the state. Once they’re moved to an automated system, there’s really two main advantages we see with states that have done so. As I mentioned, huge gains in efficiency, improved turnaround for issuing permits to carriers. That typically leads to happier customers, happier freight carriers, which may be more likely to move freight through a specific state. But, more importantly, safer routes, and protection of the infrastructure.
JD: Thanks, Bruce. Rick, let’s move to you. I know you work extensively with SafeHaul from a development and implementation perspective. For transportation and agencies and carriers, what are some of the benefits to automated permit issuing and route planning?
RS: Justin, as Bruce mentioned a little while ago, the process that some of the states used in the past, the manual process, they’re switching over to an automated process, so there’s benefits both to the state, or jurisdiction, and to the carriers. Let me talk a little bit about from the state side. One of the big advantages is the management of processes. In the past, when this was a manual type process, you had people making decisions, and they may, or may not make decisions in the exact same manner. You had some inconsistencies there. Now, with the ability to automate those manual processes, the system’s doing a lot of that work, and it can do it consistently. What it allows the states then to do is, to take their human resources, and focus more on the tougher, and more difficult loads. One of the things that we see year, after year is that, things, loads particularly are increasing in size, both from a size perspective, and from a weight perspective. We’ve seen permits that are over a million lbs. You see windmill farms and whatnot, so the blades are getting longer, and longer. We’re talking 150′, 160′ length blades that they’re trying to move on roads and whatnot. Some of these analysis processes are relatively difficult, so the state agencies can allow their folks to focus on these types of loads. Another benefit for the state, or an advantage for the state is, it allows them to create safe routes, using the latest restriction data. There’s changes going on all the time, whether, or not there’s bridge inspections, or changes to roadway. Those types of information, or those pieces of information provide input into the system, and help generate the route, especially a safe route. That’s the key there. Bruce touched on the capability of performing automated bridge analysis. Again, that was another one of the issues, or complaints from carriers is that hey, I submit a permit application, and it takes three, four, five days to get my result back. Automating these systems allow a quicker turnaround for the state. It takes the bridge engineers away from their desks, sitting there trying to look at permits, and figure out whether, or not you go across a bridge, and lets them focus on actually bridge inspections, and other types of bridge activities that they can do on a day-to-day basis. Then finally, from a state’s perspective, it gives them detailed geographic data on where loads travel. Again, Bruce touched on this a little bit, but the various state agencies, looking at where I need to focus road projects. Where do some of these loads go, and what impacts do these loads have on my infrastructure? And how often do I need to inspect, or update those pieces of infrastructure? Those are some of the things from the jurisdictional perspective, but from a carrier’s perspective, and again, Bruce summed this up very well. The carriers are out there trying to move loads. They’re trying to do it quickly and efficiently. A lot of their revenue is based on how quickly then can turn things around. An automated system gives them 24/7 access. It’s no longer the time where you submit a permit between 8:00 and 5:00, and that’s the only time you get it, because that’s when the agents are in the office. Now, I can submit permits in the evening, I can submit permits on the weekend, and get permits, and move loads during those times as well, so it opens up the door for more opportunity to take advantage of movement, and get the products to their customers. Another advantage for the carrier is, these automated systems allow them to combine state and local type permits. Many times, the carriers are moving loads through states, or to destinations in states, and they have to get into a particular locality, and some of these localities require a permit. Carriers were always submitting a state permit, and then also submitting one, or more local permits, if the locality required that. Now, the automated process allows them to do that once, and get permits, and make that whole process more efficient, and easier for them. One of the things that we’re noticing too, from a statistical perspective, and that affects the carriers is that, we’re seeing an automated approval rating of almost 70%, maybe a little over 70% for permits now. The manual process that Bruce was talking about involved a ton of resources, and especially some of the larger states, where they’re doing 250,000, 300,000 permits per year. If they had manual intervention in all of those permits, that’s a pretty hefty manpower effort there. If we’re auto approving 70%, 80% of those permits, then that gets back to that point where we can focus on more complex loads, and leave the easier loads for the system to figure out there.
JD: Rick, let me back up a minute, because earlier, you mentioned your restriction management, and road restrictions, and when it comes to creating a route. I know that SafeHaul has a restriction manager module. Could you maybe talk a little bit more in depth about that, and how a transportation agency would typically use it?
RS: Sure. Great question. The restriction module is basically the heart of the operation as far as infrastructure is concerned. The SafeHaul restriction module for example, focuses on two types of restrictions. We call them permanent restrictions and temporary restrictions. A permanent restriction, a perfect example of that would be maybe a vertical clearance for a bridge. The system consumes data electronically, and/or manually, typically bridge data, we consume electronically. We take the bridge inventory, we look at vertical clearances, and we load those into the system for vertical clearance type restrictions. Imagine you’re using let’s just say Google, to try and plan your vacation. Well, you’re in your car, and Google tells you go from point A, to point B, and it gets you there. It don’t have to worry about the size of your car. You’re just a legal type vehicle moving there. But in the oversize/overweight business, we have to take into consideration, the dimensions of that vehicle, along with the weight, to see if it can get under a bridge, and whatnot. We have to consume vertical clearances. We have to know the heights of various things, signs and lights and wires and all that kind of stuff, to make sure that we can get a truck through. We use the restriction manager to do that. A lot of that data is stored in the restriction manager. The other type of restriction we call temporary restrictions. These would be things such as, construction, or if there was an accident, or even during the holidays, one of our customers actually closes parts of the city for various festivals and stuff like that. They can use temporary restrictions to do that. The benefit of the restriction manager is that all of these restrictions are applied directly to the routing module, so a carrier in real time going out, when they apply for their route, those restrictions that potentially impact that route are displayed for them. We have processes that avoid those restrictions, so they’re not driving into that, and being stuck, and having to try and figure out how to get that load out of there. To take this discussion a little bit further, one of the benefits of the combination of the restriction manager and the route planner is, what happens if Rick’s Trucking buys a permit, and I want to move next week, and the state decides to do construction in the middle of my route? Well, I’ve already got my permit. The system has the intelligence built into it to say, hey, we’ve got all of the geographic data. We know exactly what route segments are being used, and what route segments have restrictions placed on them. I can notify, or the system can notify the carrier and let them know, hey, there’s a restriction on your route. We need to alter your route, just to make sure that you get through, so you don’t get stuck and whatnot. A lot of things go on in the restriction manager, very complex from a processing perspective, but easy to use from a user perspective. Again, I guess some of the big takeaways are that, we can consume data electronically, so 511 systems, various bridge systems like that, the restriction manager consumes that. But then, we also have a real nice user interface that allows authorised users to go in, and enter a restriction such as construction restrictions, or accidents, things like that.
JD: It sounds like there’s a lot going on there, Rick. Let me ask you this. Organisations love reporting and analytics. What type of reporting and analytics does SafeHaul provide to agencies, and how can they use those reports to improve OS/OW permitting and routing processes?
RS: Great question there, Justin. The system supports a number we have as part of our system, a number of standard reports that we provide. On top of the reports, one of the things that we forget about is query capability. The system also has a really robust query capability. So, I can do real-time queries in the data and whatnot. But getting back to the reports, I guess the easiest way to break it down is we’ve got two major types of reports in the system. We’ve got financial reporting, which is all your day-to-day, weekly, monthly, year-end finance. All of the money is received and what was received for types of payments, all the way down to a detailed financial transaction journal. What was bought, what was deferred, and what will be invoiced at the end of the month. So, the reports that cover all of those. But then, on the flip side, and more specifically toward your question, we have a number of management information reports. Those types of reports give managers, and give state users an idea of what kind of counts. What type of permits are we issuing a lot of? Are they oversize, or overweight? Are we getting a lot of containers? What type of industries are we getting into our state, based on some of the permits that are coming in, or travelling through the state? Those reports again, provide counts and volumes, but it also helps with restriction data. They can actually look at, and do some planning and say, hey, if we’re going to start a couple of construction projects, and we put construction restrictions at point A, and we put construction restrictions at point B, and at point C, what will that do to our commercial traffic, especially our oversize/overweight loads? We had an incident. There was a write up that we saw a while ago, and again, deviating from the subject a little bit, but we had an agency, a couple agencies where they weren’t really talking with each other. We had … I shouldn’t say we, but one of the state agencies built a roundabout on a major, oversize/overweight thoroughfare, but didn’t even take into consideration the size and weight vehicles. Well, they had got that thing completed, and it wasn’t a week, or two later, a big, long load tried to get through, and couldn’t get through. It was stuck there, and they had to basically take the fountain out of the middle, and redesign the whole thing. Information that we provide gives various agencies, or some reporting, and gives agencies the ability to see what’s happening, and where these loads are going. Also, the planning departments, I think Bruce touched on this a little bit as well. We have detailed location data. Again, all the detailed permitting data, so they can from a planning perspective, they can see what impacts some of these loads they’re having on their road network. And from a planning view, see where I need to focus resources on upgrading, or updating my network, to handle the various loads, or an increase in loads, things like that.
JD: Mark, I know that we already have customers successfully using SafeHaul. Can you talk about how some of those agencies use SafeHaul? What have some of the results been?
MN: Sure. I think Justin, for all of the agencies that have implemented our system, I think across the board, they see improvements in probably four main areas. The first area is the ability to generate safe, efficient routes, based on road classification and bridge data regarding height and weight specifications, and even current temporary restrictions due to construction and other considerations. Bruce and Rick have discussed that very, very well. The next area is probably the ability to expedite the routing and permitting requests through the improved workflows and business flows. Rick touched on that really well, describing the people resources needed to do it the old fashioned way, versus the way that it’s being done today. The third area is because those workflows and business flows are embedded in the automated system, it eliminates human error, which is an important aspect. Then, probably finally, our system greatly reduces the training time for new permit office personnel. It makes them more productive sooner. Historically, agencies have done that kind of task manually and have honed their craft. I’m doing air quotes, since we’re virtual, over many years of service. Their ability to train the next generation of permit agents in the same way is really not economically, or even culturally viable, as we have Gen Xers and things moving into the workforce, and not wanting to sit there and draw pictures on maps, and things like that. I think the ability to have an automated computer system is very beneficial. One of our client DOT’s actually is experiencing significant turnover in their senior staff due to retirement. They also happen to be one of the largest issuers of permits in the United States, probably doing close to 300,000 permits a year. Their ability to remain business-ready relies on their automated permitting and routing system.
JD: Tell me this, Mark. As someone who talks to a lot of agency officials and leaders, what are some of the biggest challenges they face? And how does having to also manage OS/OW vehicles and loads affect those challenges, of compact their issues?
MN: Yeah, so I think it’s probably the same as with all public sector organisations. Their biggest concern is how do we accomplish our mission with limited funds? And will my investment that I’m making today, stand up to future needs and changes? Now, when you add the travelling public to the mix, you and I wanting to travel the highways quickly, and hopefully as safely as possible. On top of that, we have a trucking industry that needs to share those same roads and bridges. They’re working to protect their employees and equipment, while remaining profitable. All of this happening against a backdrop of federally mandated safety regulations. It has real significance to the federal funding, which is a major source for many of the state DOT’s. It’s a very dynamic, and complicated environment. It’s one that our oversize/overweight permitting and routing is a significant component in the tool set, to help solve those issues.
JD: Bruce, I know you also talk to a lot of agency officials. What’s your take on this?
BC: I think along the lines Justin, of what Mark says. Transportation agencies, like many of the businesses out there, they have limited funds and limited resources. This year especially for example, gas tax and revenues across many of the transportation agencies are down. Agencies are having to find ways to do more with less budget, and less staff. On one hand, Mark spoke about their mission, maintaining infrastructure, the roads and bridges, and we know from studies that much of the infrastructure is ageing and requires investment. But then, as Rick mentioned, we’re also dealing with an increase in freight. The size and weight of loads is increasing. The number of loads is increasing, so agencies we talk to are just really looking for ways to respond to these challenges. Automating permitting is just one way they can do that. Maybe one more point, especially this year, COVID-19 has really put additional pressure on these agencies. You think about agencies trying to keep business going, as we went through shutdowns, and businesses and agencies moving to remote workers, and so on. Agencies that had manual processes, they really need people in the office, to perform these functions. That has obviously been very challenging over the past nine months. Customers with automated processes that, I think in general, were able to make this transition to remote work just a lot more seamlessly, a lot better than others.
JD: It sounds like there’s a lot of digital transformation going on, or the need to start thinking more digitally-
BC: It is exactly that, Justin.
JD: Yeah. Mark, when you go out and talk to transportation departments and agencies about SafeHaul, and demo its capabilities, what are their reactions? What do they say when they get to look under the hood, and just see what it can really do?
MN: I would say generally, it’s very favourable. But it varies, depending on what perspective they’re coming from, and what systems, or processes that they’ve used in the past. I would say without exception though, that they’re always very impressed to see the routing feature of the SafeHaul platform, and also the fact that it has a very robust modular structure. We even have DOTs that are wanting to ingest real-time weather data, and connected vehicle data as part of the system to change a route, if there is a weather event, or some other event impacting the roads, or the bridges. I think the fact that the SafeHaul platform is not an all, or nothing system, it has a certain modular feature to it. Some agencies have already invested in a permitting system. They don’t want to abandon that investment. But, we can provide the routing engine in concert with that system and protect that investment for them. Going back to my previous comment about available funds. I think they see it as an additional tool set that does not overwhelm the investment they’ve already done, but rather adds to that in a really good way for themselves.
JD: And Rick, what do you hear from prospective customers when you demo SafeHaul?
RS: Justin, I love demoing the system to customers. I could sit and talk about it for hours, and hours. One of the benefits, especially when we are in both set conferences, we get to show the system to, and talk to not only our typical state client, but the carriers that use the system. To me, and I know that holds true for the rest of the team, the best source of information is feedback from them. I always look forward to constructive criticism and what the system can do. Some of the things that we hear about and we have to react to, and respond to, and plan for, customers talk a little bit about the short-term, and long-term transportation plans, and give us feedback on how the system may, or may not meet those needs. It gives us some opportunity to design and build some new features in there. But, we also get feedback on how does the system utilise data from other sources to create a better user experience? We get to hear about some process improvements. “We do things this way”, or “We’d like to see things done that way.” It gives us an opportunity to hear a little bit about from the folks that are in the trenches, things that might make their life a little bit easier, which leads into my next point. That is, I like to always just say straight out, “What are your pain points, and how can I make that better for you?” So, “I know you use the system. I know that you like it, but if there’s any kind of issues that you run into, or any kind of pain points, what are they? Describe that process a little bit for me, so that I can try and come up with a method, or a way to address those pain points.” Then, another thing that we didn’t really talk too much about today, but it comes up often is, again, the states trying to be smart about how they use their resources and getting away from the silo approach. We get questions about, how can your system be expanded, to address other agency type permits? There’s hazmat, there all different types of permits that get issued, other than oversize/overweight. But, we’ve got the key fundamentals, and key basics, customer information, permit information, and then workflow information about being able to process, and pay, and issue some sort of document, so we get feedback from that. Love going to the conferences, love talking with folks and getting input on the system. I think talking to different agencies, and at least making them aware of the data and what the system contains, it’s just another way to get good feedback.
JD: Mark, I know you have a very close relationship with many of our transportation customers. Why do they decide to invest in SafeHaul, and what do they tell you about it, 12, to 18 months after it’s been implemented, and it’s up and running?
MN: Yeah, I think for me Justin, that’s the best part, is the relationship that grows out of that process. You used the term, digital transformation earlier, and indeed, that’s a journey for all organisations. I think through that process, we get to partner with our clients. Then, we begin to earn the role of a trusted advisor. Of course, there’s always legislative changes that take place, affecting the trucking industry, and the need to address those. Sometimes those happen really quickly. Our team has a great track record of dealing with those, and responding to those. But, I think more to your point, the agencies really enjoy the ease of the system, and finding ways to improve their own workflows even more. I remember not long ago, we were at a permit office that had gone live a few months prior, and they had experienced their first national holiday after going live. Of course, the office was closed, and when they came in on Tuesday, they were amazed that they had several hundred permits that had self-issued over the holiday, using the restrictions, using the workflows, using all the data that’s available to them. Those permits and routes were self-issued. I know it’s a simple task, but I will always remember the surprise and satisfaction that they felt, and was visible on their faces, when you consider how they used to issue permits and routes. It was just one of those really cool high five moments that Rick and I got to share with them, when we were there, and just celebrate that win. They’ve gone on to do all sorts of other permits, and all sorts of other workflows. It’s been a great journey, so I think for me, as the account lead, and helping keep those relationships strong and moving forward has been very satisfactory.
JD: It sounds like some people actually got a chance to enjoy their weekend, and their holiday for a change-
MN: Exactly.
JD: … instead of being stuck in the office.
MN: Yeah. Can you imagine what that must have felt like before, on the Sunday? You’re thinking, I’ve got to go back to work on Tuesday, and oh my gosh, what am I going to be seeing when I walk in the door? Yeah, it’s really changed the culture and environment within the permitting office. It’s been really a lot of fun.
JD: Yeah, it sounds like nobody’s hoping that they don’t draw the short straw in that situation.
MN: Yeah.
JD: I’m glad to hear that. Bruce, is there anything you’d like to talk about, or any parting thoughts you’d like to share, as we start wrapping up this podcast? I think Justin, if we boil the themes up, we’ve spoken a lot about the carriers, and the transportation agencies, and what they’re trying to accomplish. But at a higher level, I see the two key things.
BC: One’s around safety, and the other is just preservation of the infrastructure. Maybe in closing, I’ll just mention at a broader level, although much of today’s conversation has been in the context of safe passage of oversize freight, Hexagon also works with transportation agencies and engineering companies and other businesses on other aspects of safety and infrastructure. Things like maintaining the road networks, road capturing, and maintaining roadway inventory, even solutions for roadway safety management. Many states have key initiatives around reducing traffic fatalities, for example. Hexagon is helping these organisations to do so.
JD: Rick, same question.
RS: From my perspective, one of the things that I’d like to bring up, or at least talk a little bit about. We’re focused on the infrastructure today, but this is a system that I’m really proud of. Like you mentioned, I’ve been involved in it for quite the time. I think one of the advantages that we have is that, it’s a modular system. We’ve had installations where we’ve partnered with other companies, and deployed some of our modules, and we’ve done installations where we’ve deployed our complete package. Some advantages to using Hexagon, as opposed to using other vendors is that, you can have bits and pieces of the system installed, and work with other vendors as well, to deliver the solution that, that particular customer needs. Another thing too that we touched on, or let’s say skirted around on the outside was, the technology aspect of it. There’s technology improvements that are going on, from how the system and what it performs on, and what it uses. We’re looking at and examining putting this up in a hosted environment, then also taking advantage of some of the other technology out there. I know Bruce talked a little bit about some of the transportation functions that we do. We have a sensor division, and we talk to them about how can we consume data from roadway sensors? We hear the old buzz terms, automated and connected vehicle. We know that automated vehicles are a few years down the road, but our vehicles today are talking to a number of sensors on the roadway. How could we leverage that data, and make some smart decisions, and make more real-time decisions for carriers, just to make their life easier? Again, leveraging some of that technology, and seeing how it plays with this environment is one of the things we want to continue to drive for.
JD: Mark, how about you?
MN: I guess just to wrap up, Justin. I would encourage folks to engage us in a conversation. Whether it be permitting and routing, or whether it be safety, or whether it be other transportation needs, at the end of the day, we’ve got really great technology, and great experience in the transportation space. We just want to be helpful, and we just want to discuss ways that we might be able to do that. Rick talks about his enthusiasm, and the fact that he could talk about permitting and routing all day long. That’s true, he brings a great enthusiasm and experience and point of view to that conversation. We have other product, and subject matter experts that do that same across a vast array of subjects. My job is to help foster those conversations, and try to set those up. We’re not one of those organisations that’s coming at people with hard sell and stuff. We really just want to have conversation and figure out where we’re helpful, and engage where those things intersect. If they don’t, if it’s not the right mix, then that’s okay too. No harm, no foul, but I think to have the conversation is just a really good starting point. I would just encourage people to engage us at that point.
JD: Mark, you and Bruce have both mentioned some of the transportation safety stuff we have. I would love to have you guys back on to talk about that and the Vision Zero things that we’re working on. Would you guys be interested and open to that?
MN: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it’s an important concept. It touches just about everything that we as the public and the transportation industry faces. It’s a very interesting conversation, for sure.
BC: Yes Justin, absolutely. As I mentioned, we’re working with a number of different agencies on specifically that. You mentioned Vision Zero, and Target Zero, and Target Zero deaths. It’s such a noble mission. Obviously, a huge challenge in making our roadways safe, and not just for vehicles on the road, but also pedestrians and cyclists, and other users of the road. It’s really a huge deal, not just in the U.S., but in Canada, and other parts of the world. It’s also an area that we love to share more about what we’re doing, and as Mark says, engage with organisations that are looking to do work in this area, and just see if there’s areas that we can help.
JD: I would just like to say a big thank you to Bruce and Rick and Mark. I do look forward to having you guys back on Location Intelligence to talk more about how we serve the transportation industry.
BC: Excellent, thank you Justin.
MN: Thanks, Justin.
RS: Thanks for having us, Justin. It was fun.
JD: It was fun. Thank you for tuning into Location Intelligence on HxGN Radio. For more great stories and podcasts, visit HxGNSpotlight.com.
