Averitt wires its 5,000 trucks with Platform Science “connected vehicle platform”

The freight transportation provider Averitt will roll out a “connected vehicle platform” from Platform Science to its entire fleet of more than 5,000 trucks comprising its less than truckload (LTL), truckload (TL), and dedicated divisions.

Platform Science says its Virtual Vehicle platform acts as an operating layer through which any application can collaborate with any other. The California tech firm says its platform transforms trucks into IoT devices, outfitting every vehicle with a 4G LTE wireless connection, mobile WiFi hotspot, satellite GPS tracking, and always-on Bluetooth.

Loading it into Averitt’s trucks will allow the company to develop, deploy, and manage its mobile devices and applications across its fleet. Cookville, Tennessee-based Averitt says that capability will let it craft its own solution set, and connect its Averitt Drive app to the company’s other platform apps, enabling services like SSO and shared mobile identity, to create a more secure, unified, and efficient experience for all of drivers.

“Creating the best driver experience is our top priority and Platform Science uniquely allows us to do this. While it may have been possible to achieve our basic objectives by stitching our app together with a few others, Platform Science is the only solution that doesn't just enable the use of our driver application; it takes our app and the other solutions we leverage to the next level,” Tim Saylor, Vice President, Information Services, Averitt, said in a release. “Virtual Vehicle gives us tremendous flexibility. We can make adjustments to our combined offering, whether that be through simple modifications or wholesale replacement of particular applications, without the need to break up any hard coding, degrade the user experience, or even touch the truck.”