Checking a weather forecast for home is pretty easy, but when you're clocking 500-plus miles per day across multiple states it's not uncommon to run into some weather-related surprises.
Just last week a storm system dropped multiple tornadoes across Texas and Louisiana before pushing north and eastward, placing almost 70 million people across the Southeast and into the Great Lakes region under a severe weather alert.
When you're dragging a 53-feet-long wind sail, or trying to schlep 80,000 pounds up a snowy mountain pass, an unexpected change in weather is both frustrating and dangerous.
To take some of the guesswork out of weather awareness, Bridgeview, Illinois-based Distance Trucking partnered with AccuWeather to integrate tailored weather alerts, including long-range forecasts and up-to-the-minute data geared specifically for trucking operations into a customizable personalized app installed on drivers' phones.
Distance Trucking drivers receive severe weather alerts in real time via the app, both as they travel and before they get on the road. As long as the driver's location services are turned on, they will receive personalized notifications about the weather conditions on their route, including alerts in the event of bad weather.
"There was a huge tornado in Kansas in November and Distance Trucking had several of its trucks in the area," recalled Bojan Radojicic, owner of Distance Trucking. "The tornado came out of nowhere with little prior warning. Luckily none of our trucks were impacted, but they easily could have been."
That close call with a handful of its drivers was one too many, and Radojicic immediately kicked off a search for a solution for his 34-truck, FedEx-contracted fleet.
