Cloud-based transportation industry operating system

Early next year, Volkswagen Truck & Bus will offer RIO – an open and Cloud-based operating system for the transportation industry. With it, all players in the supply chain – shippers, dispatchers, carriers, drivers and recipients – will be connected with a uniform information and application system that includes forecasting features.

Using intelligent algorithms, RIO combines different sources of data and then analyzes them.

Based on information from tractors, trailers, bodies, drivers and orders – plus combining this information with traffic, weather and navigation data, RIO will provide its users with “concrete recommendations for action in real time,” say company officials. This will “significantly improve” both the transportation and reloading process, plus increase efficiency and transparency in the transportation ecosystem.

Volkswagen Truck & Bus, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG (www.volkswagenag.com), is a global leader in commercial vehicles with its brands MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus.

COMMON PLATFORM 

Harnessing data within the transportation industry is oftentimes not possible due to the players involved who use different software systems and different cargo and vehicle management systems.

RIO is the first to offer a common platform and thus one that can be used regardless of the vehicle brand or telematics system, notes Andreas Renschler, CEO, Volkswagen Truck & Bus. Fleets with mixed vehicles can only use digital services in one single solution. 

In addition, all vehicle types can be refitted without difficulty, he adds.

“RIO will fundamentally change the world of transportation as we know it,”

Renschler says. “For the first time, our unified platform enables the registration, management and integrated use of all data and information available in the transportation system.

“That is beneficial for our customers because it makes their business more profitable, and it is good for the environment, because we will see fewer empty trucks on the road.”

DIGITIZATION

For any size fleet, RIO provides the opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of digitization without the need to have strong IT skills or specially trained experts, Renschler notes. Similar to operating systems of smartphones, various apps can be used with RIO that are intuitive in their operation and run in any standard web browser.

Another feature of RIO is a consistent user interface across all functions.