Staff Sgt. David G. Bellavia

Brought to you in partnership with the Journal of Business Logistics   Companies are investing heavily in safety technology. Trucking fleets now rely on cameras, collision warnings, lane alerts, adaptive cruise control, and automated braking to reduce crashes and protect drivers. That investment assumes a straightforward outcome. More technology should lead to safer behavior. It does not always work that way. Research in the Journal of Business Logistics shows that the same technologies designed to improve safety can also undermine it. The difference comes down to how drivers experience the tools and how managers use them. The problem is not the system. It is the interaction around it.   How safety technology fails in practice The study points to two common patterns that show up across fleets. The first is avoidance. Some drivers ignore or disable alerts. They cover inward-facing cameras or override automated features. This behavior shows up when the system feels intrusive or disconnected from real driving conditions. Frequent warnings and false alarms create frustration. Experienced drivers, in particular, may feel the technology challenges their judgment rather than supports it. When that happens, drivers do not adapt to the system. They route around it. The second pattern is…

In a recent conversation, 4flow’s Akhilesh Mohan joined Scott Luton with Supply Chain Now to explore a critical shift underway in global supply chains: the move from siloed functional optimization to truly connected decision-making. The discussion highlights a growing realization across the industry. As organizations continue to invest heavily in digital platforms, Mohan makes it clear: the next wave of value won’t come from adding more tools, but from aligning how decisions are made across the enterprise ensuring those decisions are connected end-to-end.   Beyond Systems: The Rise of Decision Integration For years, companies have digitalized supply chains function by function: ERP systems, planning tools, warehouse management, transportation platforms. While necessary, these investments often created islands of capability rather than a cohesive whole. Despite this investment of technology, Mohan says “in many organizations those capabilities still operate in silos ,” limiting the value companies hoped to achieve. The result? Planning, logistics, manufacturing, and customer service frequently operate with different priorities and incomplete visibility. Mohan emphasizes that the real transformation lies in connecting these decisions: “It is less about having more systems and more about making those systems, processes, and teams work together.” This is the shift from system integration to…