TrueVoice, in alliance with GE Capital, Transportation Finance, recently performed a year-long study that looked over fleet services trends. According to the report, there were 250 million online areas that were searched and the researchers found the most topical and debated conversations in the industry.
The study discovered more people in the industry were vocal with their online presence when a government agency made an announcement about the trucking industry. The news would often be passed from blogs to social media sites like Facebook and then discussed in personal forums.
“The volume of industry-specific conversations happening in social media was surprising,” said Dan Clark, president of GE Capital, Transportation Finance, according to the source. “But on the other hand, we know that drivers want to keep in touch with their families when they’re on the road and social media is a convenient way to do that.”
Over 80 percent of online activity involved three topics: safety and health; recruitment and employment; and regulatory issues. The discussions tend to be interrelated, involving several of the issues simultaneously.
Technology-related discussions focus on new products that are being developed in response to regulatory demands, especially those relating to emissions and safety. In general, online conversations about technology were jump-started by company-issued product announcements.
A lot of the activity in the equipment category was related to fleet ownership. Most of the online activity took place in forums, indicating that fleet company leaders were looking to interact with their peers.
This is the second-consecutive year that GE Capital, Transportation Finance has conducted a study of social media usage in the trucking industry.
“We launched this project in 2013 for two reasons,” Clark said. “We wanted to understand the challenges and issues that are most important to the industry and to do it in an objective way. And we wanted to see where our customers and prospects were spending time and having conversations online.”
