CCJ Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact CCJ Editor Jason Cannon at jasoncannon@randallreilly.com or 800-633-5953.
XPO Logistics (CCJ Top 250, No. 6) kicked off the new year with a successful six-week-long pilot of its virtual reality (VR) training for less-than-truckload (LTL) employees in North America. The solution integrates XPO software with Oculus for Business headsets, and the company plans to scale its new-age training solution across its LTL operations in the months ahead.
The company’s use of virtual reality for LTL training follows its deployment of augmented reality at key logistics sites, where headsets guide employees during inventory picking. In LTL, VR is used to train XPO cross-dock workers on the optimal method of loading freight for delivery.
“Our North American LTL cross-dock operations load about 25,000 trailers daily," said Mario Harik, XPO Logistics' chief information officer. "VR is an efficient way to ensure great outcomes for our customers and the XPO employees who serve them.”
XPO’s LTL training creates a virtual cross-dock environment to demonstrate effective loading procedures that protect freight from damage and ensure operator safety – coursework that previously bounced between a classroom and loading dock.
"The typical training would have been a classroom setting: How to load the freight, how to secure it, how to properly strap it and do all these kinds of things, and then you go on the dock where you have staged trailers where you can do the work," Harik said. "What we did is we carried over this whole experience in virtual reality. You see a dock. You see a loaded trailer. You can look around and move around as if you're on a forklift and you effectively load pallets in a virtual trailer."
Harik noted as the users load the virtual trailer, they have to follow the procedures spelled out in their safety training, like proper strapping and use of dunnage.
