As COVID-19 surged in March, fleet management company KeepTruckin was forced to make some tough business decisions, including laying off 18% of its workforce, to ensure its survival as it waited to understand the pandemic’s full impact on the global economy and its customers.
After the initial supply chain disruptions, KeepTruckin, headquartered in San Francisco, said it saw exceptional growth in the overall freight marketplace as new carriers flooded the market to keep up with capacity demands.
The increased demand drove KeepTruckin to accelerate its vision of building an integrated fleet management platform — including ELD compliance, GPS tracking, video-based driver safety, dispatch and workflow and other features — that carriers could access in one place.
In 2020, KeepTruckin rolled out several new products, including its integrated Fleet View and its Fleet App, which provides carriers with crucial data to make sound, data-driven business decisions, according to Kelly Hanson, director of product marketing for KeepTruckin.
“We saw our supply chain fundamentally change and evolve,” Hanson told FreightWaves. “We saw just how vital the trucking industry was to our economic recovery.”
The company’s new technology advancements “improve the safety and productivity of fleets that keep America’s economy moving,” Hanson said.
Facing the COVID-19 supply chain challenges head-on through innovation by building out its product road map and introducing new technology, KeepTruckin landed on FreightWaves’ 2021 FreightTech 25 list for the third straight year. It came in 12th place this year, fifth in 2020 and 10th in 2019.
To narrow down the FreightTech 100 to the FreightTech 25, FreightWaves sent ballots to 80 different members of the logistics community, including venture capitalists, founders, analysts and large company executives.
The votes were audited by accounting firm Katz, Sapper & Miller (KSM).
“The goal of the FreightTech 25 is to see how the market perceives the most innovative and disruptive companies in the space,” said Craig Fuller, chief executive officer of FreightWaves. “Unlike a lot of awards in logistics, this is an award where we bring in the community. We bring in folks that have a perception and a perspective on who the most innovative companies are.”
What’s next in 2021?
Hanson said KeepTruckin’s mission is to keep building modern technology that improves the safety, efficiency and profitability of businesses throughout the supply chain.
“Heading into 2021, we are excited to not only continue breaking down data silos and offering fleets a comprehensive view of their drivers, vehicles and assets in one place, but to take it a step further and help fleets unlock the power of their data using cutting-edge data science and machine learning — to automate mundane tasks and augment the human experience,” she said.
