Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has plenty of Big Data useful for avoiding congestion, improving trucking safety, and boosting delivery, but no good way to provide universal information sharing, Heavy Duty Trucking Info reported last week.
• Iowa State University is working with the Iowa DOT to develop a way to disseminate the information, whether through Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) (required by the end of 2017), apps, or some other technology. A larger plan to share changing data between states is also being considered.
• Above all, the researchers recomended developing public-private partnerships to develop and test the new technology, conducting a cost-benefit analysis for the project and partnering across state boundaries.

Dive Insight:

The research partnership between Iowa State and the Iowa DOT reveals a critical, but still missing link in the drive to digitize supply chains: public-private partnerships.

The research highlights the vast amount of information long collected by the government, both in terms of construction permitting, congestion and accidents, for public reports. If, however, this information was made available in real-time to logistics providers, greater efficiencies could be reached. This way, the government administration's push for safety could turn into an innovating force rather than a regulatory burden.

While such partnerships have yet to launch, some government agencies are setting the example for data-driven partnerships. The Federal Maritime Commission, for example, put together a team of supply chain stakeholders to develop a visibility solution for the nation's three largest ports, in hopes of reducing congestion. Some ports, meanwhile, are already piloting data projects: the Port of Los Angeles partnered with GE Transportation to expand inbound vessel visibility to 10-14 days, rather than the previous 2-3 day lead time. 

Meanwhile, logistics providers have independently been adopting data solutions, too. The recent 2017 Third Party Logistics Study found 86% of respondents believed data-driven decision making would become a core competency in the future. Yet, for an individual company or agency to collect data on trucks, roads and people is challenging, to say the least ... except, the government has been collecting such information for decades. Imagine the potential.