New Amazon Tracking Device to Monitor Trucker Safety, Collect Data

Amazon is moving to more directly monitor the hours truck drivers spend transporting freight between its warehouses, which could give it better insight into possible safety violations—and capture a wealth of other data.

The internet retailer has developed its own version of a technology, known as an electronic logging devices, to track truck drivers hauling its freight in real time, The Information has learned. At least six trucking companies that transport goods for Amazon have already installed the technology—which includes software and hardware that gather detailed data about a vehicle’s precise location and movements—in their semitrucks since it became available in April, according to internal company documents viewed by The Information. Amazon plans to install the technology in hundreds of tractor-trailers that haul its freight by the end of the year, according to those documents.