Today’s Pickup: Execs don’t understand importance of rugged devices, survey finds

Good day,

Surprisingly, a new survey from SOTI has found that nearly 70% of transportation and logistics executives have not grasped the importance of rugged handheld mobile devices in the field.

The survey, based on interviews of 1,300 individuals in organizations with over 50 employees around the world, also found that 31% are not investing in mobile technology to stand out from the competition and 49% of CEOs are only concerned with mobility issues when there is an outage.

From an employee perspective, 29% are worried they may lose their job if something happens to their company-provided mobile device and 60% are worried about losing information.

“As the future becomes increasingly mobile, devices and tools are being embedded with software, sensors and connectivity at a rapid pace. All around the world organizations prepare to take greater advantage of mobile technology, but there are numerous challenges they need to overcome,” Carl Rodrigues, CEO and founder of SOTI said.

Did you know?

The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, added 2,400 jobs in June, however, trucking industry specific jobs declined by 1,400, the Labor Department reported.

Quotable:

“Many organizations are using mobility for the basics, but do not know how to implement the next level of mobile integration to transform their workforce. This has left businesses with a piecemeal approach to their mobile operations—a disconnected set of point solutions required to perform business-critical operations.”

– Carl Rodrigues, SOTI CEO and founder

In other news:

Court sides with Mexican carriers

In the latest in a long-running court battle over the legality of Mexican trucking companies being allowed to operate in the U.S., a U.S. court has dismissed a Teamster lawsuit trying to stop the cross-border trucking program. (Overdrive)

Longer trains drawing concerns

Because the federal government does not regulate train length, some rail lines are building longer trains – up to 3 miles – in an effort to boost efficiency. But at what cost? (Supply Chain Dive)

Job growth surprises in June

The government reported a surprising jump in jobs in June with 220,000 positions added to the economy, far exceeding the expected 179,000. Wages, though, continue to lag, it said. (Reuters)

FMCSA decision on CSA recommendations confuses truckers

While most of the industry welcomed news of FMCSA agreeing to accept recommendations of a CSA advisory panel and make changes to the program, some are baffled over what the “item-response theory” actually means. (Transport Topics)

American Fast Freight acquires Grand World Logistics

Transportation and logistics provider American Fast Freight Inc. (AFF) has acquired Grand Worldwide Logistics Corp. (GWW), the company announced. (DC Velocity)

Final Thoughts

A survey commissioned by SOTI, a provider of mobile and IoT device management solutions, seems to indicate a disconnect between the power of mobile devices and what executives believe they are used for. At the least, the fact that 49% of respondents believe the CEO is only interested in mobility solutions when there is an outage underscores this disconnect.

Hammer down everyone!