随着供应链问题已经在全球范围内成为一大关注焦点，货运和物流公司也开始转向采用信息技术来改善自身运营能力，作为长期数字化转型的一个组成部分。
随着供应链问题已经在全球范围内成为一大关注焦点，货运和物流公司也开始转向采用信息技术来改善自身运营能力，作为长期数字化转型的一个组成部分。
总部位于美国田纳西州查塔努加的US Xpress就是这样一家货运公司，该公司正在将数字架构改造为灵活的多云平台，以扩大路线、加快交付速度、吸引更多的卡车司机。
US Xpress公司临时首席信息官Bryan Johnson表示，他的IT团队已经在AWS云上开发和优化了三个司机路线应用，并且正在将他们遗存的后台系统迁移到Oracle Cloud Fusion E-Business Suite上，预计将于2022年底或2023年初完成。
除了迁移到云端之外，US Xpress公司还在自身运营中注入了人工智能和机器人流程自动化(RPA)等技术，虽然这些带来了额外的复杂性和运营挑战，但据Johnson表示，这些举措在吸引更多司机、更有效地预测货运量和路线方面所带来的回报，都是非常值得的。
他说：”2022年我们计划通过云优先战略继续对我们的技术堆栈进行现代化改造，这将带来流程标准化、数据质量、数据驱动决策分析、高度可用的云环境和可扩展性，我们的目标是在未来四年内收入翻一番。“
Johnson于2021年9月开始担任临时首席信息官一职，接替前任首席执行官Robert Pischke，后者等启动了该公司数字化转型的多个方面。
Johnson在谈及公司转型时表示：“从客户的角度来看，这让我们变得更加灵活了。随之而来的是变更管理，但实际上从企业的角度来看，标准程序为我们提供了比旧系统更好的可扩展性，最重要的是，数据质量完全改变了我们的现状，改变了我们在未来利用数据力量的方式。”
一、改善货运体验
疫情导致的供应链困境，致使卡车司机的巨大缺口，US Xpress援引美国卡车运输协会提供的数据预测，到2022年底，该行业将减少10万名专业司机。（华东CIO大会、华东CIO联盟、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO大会等）
因此，吸引和留住卡车司机是当前的一大挑战。US Xpress把运行在AWS云上的三大前端应用视为了支持和招募更多司机、为客户提供更加灵活和全方位的服务(包括沃尔玛、Target、Dollar Store、家得宝和劳氏)的一大关键因素。
US Xpress制定了三管齐下的计划，包括为提供US Xpress核心服务(驾驶US Xpress红色卡车按照专门的每日或每周时间表运送货物)的卡车司机提供增强工具和更多补偿;此外US Xpress推出了一项名为Variant的计划，该计划主要针对那些需要在路上行驶两到六周的长途卡车司机;以及推出了一项数字经纪服务，该服务可以将那些驾驶自己卡车运送US Xpress货物的独立卡车司机进行匹配。
“这三个计划是相互依存、并且相互配合的，切实地支持我们快速扩张的目标。而且我们深知，技术将成为所有这些、以及所有这三大领域的核心。”
二、引入RPA和人工智能
US Xpress还扩大了对RPA的投入，去年US Xpress与RPA巨头UiPath签署了一项协议，将进行人力资源、工资和财务等后端流程的自动化。
“RPA非常适合那些需要完成100次重复性、高接触、大容量、低错误类型的操作，”US Xpress公司IT总监Corey Goux这样表示，去年他实施了多个模型。
其中，US Xpress采用了UiPath的一个模型来打造高级驾驶员入职自动化系统。Goux说，使用UiPath开发的模型和算法还让US Xpress能够更好地预测卡车司机的流动率，让管理层有机会解决问题并留住有价值的员工，这是US Xpress的一项关键业务功能。
“我们已经使用人工智能和机器学习来预测会提前30天辞职的司机，帮助我们的业务人员关注那些有可能要辞职的人，找出他们可能辞职的真正原因，并与他们进行沟通，从而减少人员流失。”
Goux和Johnson表示，US Xpress公司的RPA战略的下一步，是要启动一项全民开发计划，该计划将使从财务、业务分析师到维护人员的各种员工，都能够编写自动化手动流程的RPA机器人。
US Xpress还与UiPath合作开发了能够提高司机和客户业务效率的机器学习算法，其中，负荷预测一直是US Xpress致力于改进的一个领域，Johnson这样表示。
“我们可以提前3到7天进行预测，了解未来的负载量、卡车能够到达和应该所处的位置，并从执行的角度提出更好的计划，最终改善客户服务。”
三、让卡车司机使用一流的平板电脑
US Xpress已经开始启动淘汰卡车的驾驶室内通信系统，取而代之的是Platform Science集成平板电脑和数据系统，可以实现更好的通信、自适应导航、增强的天气报告、强制登录、交货证明软件、机械检查、提醒休息站开放停车位等。
“以前司机使用的是我们旧的司机技术单元，让他们可以与后台应用进行交互，填写他们规定的司机日志等等。现在在Platform Science上升级采用了更先进的技术，在提供了他们所熟悉的功能同时，也让我们能够通过迁移到安卓平板电脑进一步对功能进行丰富。”
这其中，包括了US Xpress将更多文书性的流程进行数字化，无缝传输到后台，并让司机能够以非接触的方式与客户保安和仓库人员进行互动，这在疫情期间是至关重要的。
“通常任何类型的文书工作都是需要签名的，而现在我们可以利用这些[数据]并在无物理接触的情况下来回传输这些信息。”（华东CIO大会、华东CIO联盟、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO大会等）
US Xpress计划在年底前为整个车队配备平板电脑，迄今为止安装量已经达到3300多部。
前端的司机应用和后端系统之间的无缝交互，以及AI和RPA模型对US Xpress很多业务流程实施了自动化，将让US Xpress能够收集PB级的数据，并对这些数据进行挖掘和分析，用于推进其交货能力，为US Xpress的下一步发展奠定了基础。
Johnson在谈到该公司数字化旅程的下一个目标是表示：“我们正在制定一项数据战略，将数据转化为我们最大的资产，这将确保我们对整个企业的数据元素有单一且一致的定义，提高数据素养，加强数据分类以便于数据的可发现性和可解释性，维护主数据的单一真实来源，通过数据治理保持质量、安全性和数据访问，以及实现数据民主化。”
来源： 至顶网CIO与CTO频道
原文：
With supply chain woes center stage around the globe, freight and
logistics companies are turning to information technology to improve
operations as part of long-term digital transformation.
Chattanooga, Tenn.-based US Xpress is one such freight carrier in the
midst of overhauling its digital architecture to a flexible multicloud
platform in an effort to expand its routes, speed up deliveries, and
attract more truckers.
[Learn from your peers: Check out our State of the CIO report on the
challenges and concerns of CIOs today. | Find out the 7 skills of
successful digital leaders and the secrets of highly innovative CIOs.]
The carrier’s IT team has developed and finetuned three driver route
applications on Amazon Web Services and is in the process of migrating
its legacy back-office system to Oracle Cloud Fusion E-Business Suite,
which should be finished by late 2022 or early 2023, says interim CIO
Bryan Johnson.
In addition to transitioning to the cloud, US Xpress is injecting AI
and robotic process automation (RPA) into its operation, all of which
brings additional complexity and operational challenges but the payoff
in attracting more drivers, forecasting freight loads and routes more
efficiently, and generating a data mine is well worth the effort,
Johnson says.
“In 2022, we plan to continue the modernization of our tech stack
with a cloud-first strategy. This brings process standardization, data
quality, analytics for data-driven decision-making, highly available
cloud environment and scalability, as we aim to double our revenue in
the next four years,” he says.
Johnson, who also serves as chief of staff, assumed the interim CIO
role in September 2021 when former CIO Robert Pischke, who initiated
several aspects of the company’s digital transformation left the
company.
“From a customer standpoint, it makes us really more nimble. There is
change management that comes along with it, but really from an
enterprise standpoint, standard procedures give us much better
scalability than what we have with legacy systems,” Johnson says of the
transformation, which garnered US Xpress a 2021 CIO 100 Award. “And
above all things, the quality of data totally changes where we are today
to how we can harness the power of data in the future world.”
Improving the trucking experience
Bryan Johnson, interim CIO, US Xpress
US Xpress
It’s no surprise that supply-chain woes resulting from the pandemic
have led to a dearth of — and massive demand for — truck drivers. US
Xpress cites figures provided by the American Trucking Association
projecting that the industry will be down 100,000 professional drivers
by the end of 2022.
As such, attracting and retaining truckers is a significant challenge
these days. US Xpress sees its triad of front-end applications on AWS
as key factors in its ability to support and enlist more drivers, and to
be more flexible and full-service for its customers, a sizable roster
that includes Walmart, Target, Dollar Store, Home Depot, and Lowe’s.
The three-pronged program includes enhanced tools and compensation
for truckers who provide the company’s core service, delivering goods
via US Xpress’ red trucks on dedicated daily or weekly schedules; a
second program, Variant, designed for long-haul truckers who are often
on the road from two to six weeks at a time; and a digital brokerage
service, which matches independent truckers who often use their own
trucks to deliver freight loads managed by US Xpress.
“All three of those areas are interdependent and operate in concert
with one another in support of our goal of scaling really, really fast,”
Johnson says, “and we know that the technology is going to be at the
center of that and is at the center of that within all three of those
divisions.”
Bringing RPA, AI on board
The carrier is also expanding its investments in RPA, having signed
an agreement last year with RPA giant UiPath to automate back-end
processes, such as HR, payroll, and finances.
“RPA is great for those repetitive, high-touch, high-volume,
low-error type activities that need to be done 100 times,” says Corey
Goux, director of IT at US Xpress, who implemented several models last
year.
One such UiPath model was used to create a high-end driver onboarding
automation system. Models and algorithms developed with UiPath also
enable the company to better predict trucker turnover, giving management
an opportunity to address problems and retain valuable employees, a
business-critical function for US Xpress, Goux says.
“We’ve used AI ML to predict drivers that would quit 30 days ahead,
so that helps our business folks pay attention to who we’re predicting
to quit, figure out the real reason they might quit, and have
conversations with them. It affects attrition,” he says.
Next up for US Xpress’ RPA strategy is a citizen development program
that will enable employees, from finance, to business analysts, to
maintenance staff, to write RPA bots that automate manual processes,
Goux and Johnson say.
The company has also worked with UiPath to develop machine learning
(ML) algorithms to make the business more efficient for drivers and
customers. Load forecasting is one area in particular that US Xpress has
worked to improve, Johnson says.
“We have that three- to seven-day forecast ahead of time, so we know
what loads are coming, where trucks can and should be, and plan better
from an execution standpoint, which ultimately improves our service to
customers,” he says.
Top-notch tablets for truckers
US Xpress has also started ripping out in-cab communications systems
in trucks, replacing them with an integrated tablet and data system from
Platform Science that allows for better communications, adaptive
navigation, enhanced weather reporting, mandated log-ins, proof of
delivery software, mechanical checks, and alerts to open parking spaces
at rest stops.
“Our drivers had an old legacy driver tech unit that allowed them to
interact with the back-office applications as well as fill out their
mandated driver logs and all of that,” says Goux. “Upgrading to a newer
technology on Platform Science did provide a lot of that same
functionality that they were used to, but we were able to enrich it by
moving to an Android tablet.”
That enrichment includes the ability to digitize more paperwork for
seamless transmission to the back office, and enabling drivers to
interact with customers’ security guards and warehouse personnel in
touch-less fashion, vital during a pandemic.
“Any type of paperwork that traditionally would have had to have a
signature,” Goux says, “we’re in a position now to where we can leverage
that [data] and transport that information back and forth without
having someone physically touch it.”
US Xpress plans to have the entire fleet equipped with tablets by year’s end. To date, more than 3,300 have been installed.
The seamless interaction between front-end driver apps and back-end
systems, as well as the AI and RPA models that automate many of the
company’s business processes, will enable US Xpress to collect petabytes
of data that can be mined and analyzed to advance its delivery
capabilities, laying the groundwork for US Xpress’ next move.
“We’re working on a data strategy to turn data into our biggest
asset,” Johnson says of the carrier’s next destination on its digital
journey. “This involves ensuring we have singular and consistent
definitions for data elements across the enterprise, increased data
literacy, data cataloging for easy discoverability and explainability of
data, maintaining single source of truth for master data, data
governance to maintain the quality, security, access of data, and data
democratization.”
本文主要内容转载（或原作者）出自Paula Rooney，仅供广大读者参考，如有侵犯您的知识产权或者权益，请联系我提供证据，我会予以删除。
CXO联盟（CXO union）是一家聚焦于CIO，CDO，cto，ciso，cfo，coo，chro，cpo，ceo等人群的平台组织，其中在CIO会议领域的领头羊，目前举办了大量的CIO大会、CIO论坛、CIO活动、CIO会议、CIO峰会、CIO会展。如华东CIO会议、华南cio会议、华北cio会议、中国cio会议、西部CIO会议。在这里，你可以参加大量的IT大会、IT行业会议、IT行业论坛、IT行业会展、数字化论坛、数字化转型论坛，在这里你可以认识很多的首席信息官、首席数字官、首席财务官、首席技术官、首席人力资源官、首席运营官、首席执行官、IT总监、财务总监、信息总监、运营总监、采购总监、供应链总监。
数字化转型网（资讯媒体，是企业数字化转型的必读参考，在这里你可以学习大量的知识，如财务数字化转型、供应链数字化转型、运营数字化转型、生产数字化转型、人力资源数字化转型、市场营销数字化转型。通过关注我们的公众号，你就知道如何实现企业数字化转型？数字化转型如何做？
【CXO UNION部分社群会员】中国医药集团有限公司CISO、碧桂园控股有限公司CISO、恒大集团有限公司CISO、中国兵器工业集团有限公司CISO、中国电力建设集团有限公司CISO、中国电信集团有限公司CISO、交通银行股份有限公司CISO、中国航空工业集团有限公司CISO、中国化工集团有限公司CISO、绿地控股集团股份有限公司CISO、中国建材集团有限公司CISO、招商银行股份有限公司CISO、中国保利集团公司CISO、联想控股股份有限公司CISO、中国太平洋保险(集团)股份有限公司CISO、腾讯控股有限公司CISO、国美控股集团有限公司CISO、广州汽车工业集团有限公司CISO、万科企业股份有限公司CISO、物产中大集团股份有限公司CISO、山东能源集团有限公司CISO、中国铝业集团有限公司CISO、河钢集团有限公司CISO、上海浦东发展银行股份有限公司CISO、兴业银行股份有限公司CISO、厦门建发集团有限公司CISO、招商局集团有限公司CISO、民生银行股份有限公司CISO、浙江吉利控股集团有限公司CISO、中国光大集团有限公司CISO、中国远洋海运集团有限公司CISO、陕西延长石油(集团)有限责任公司CISO、中国华能集团有限公司CISO、陕西煤业化工集团有限责任公司CISO、中国机械工业集团有限公司CISO、厦门国贸控股集团有限公司CISO、中国联合网络通信集团有限公司CISO、海尔集团公司CISO、兖矿集团有限公司CISO、雪松控股集团有限公司CISO、厦门象屿集团有限公司CISO、中南控股集团有限公司CISO、中国航空油料集团有限公司CISO、美的集团股份有限公司CISO、山东魏桥创业集团有限公司CISO、国家电力投资集团有限公司CISO、潍柴控股集团有限公司CISO、青山控股集团有限公司CISO、中国航天科工集团有限公司CISO、江西铜业集团有限公司CISO、江苏沙钢集团有限公司CISO、中国航天科技集团有限公司CISO、中国能源建设集团有限公司CISO、阳光龙净集团有限公司CISO、中国中车集团有限公司CISO、安徽海螺集团有限责任公司CISO、金川集团股份有限公司CISO、中国华电集团有限公司CISO、中国电子科技集团公司CISO、中国电子信息产业集团有限公司CISO等
