Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Private equity firm buys GPS Insight to build fleet management software shop

Accel-KKR combines latest acquisition with two other vendors to serve medium duty trucking sector.

gpsinsight_Image_5-20-21_at_12.09_PM.jpg

The private equity firm Accel-KKR has acquired fleet management software vendor GPS Insight and will merge it with two other transportation technology firms it already owns, making a move to create a “single-point solution leader” for the medium duty trucking sector, the company said Wednesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company said that Gary Fitzgerald, CEO of GPS Insight, will continue in his leadership role as CEO of the combined businesses.

Menlo Park, California-based Accel-KKR will merge GPS Insight with InSight Mobile Data (IMD) and Rhino Fleet Tracking, two firms that provide fleet management, field services, and GPS tracking for Class 3 to Class 6 trucks fleets in sectors such as garbage trucks, construction trade vehicles, and food and beverage distributors.

Together, the three firms serve over 11,000 accounts spanning more than 30 industries and over 225,000 vehicles. They provide services such as GPS tracking, fleet utilization, scheduling and dispatching, and driver safety and compliance. They now plan to expand that range of offerings as fleets adopt broader technologies like 5G wireless networks and connected devices, the firm said.

“Fleet owners continue to grapple with the need to optimize investments in their people and their fleet while providing a high level of customer service and ensuring driver safety and compliance,” Fitzgerald said in a release. “The GPS Insight platform is bringing exciting changes to the industry such as video telematics, tighter integration to field service management, and advanced analytics that transform what fleet management software is capable of doing.”

The acquisition marks Accel-KKR’s latest move in the logistics tech sector, following its 2020 decisions to buy logistics connectivity provider TrueCommerce, the yard management software vendor Pinc Solutions, rail industry software solution provider RailcarRx, and the transportation management system (TMS) software vendors ShipperConnect and ShipXpress.

The firm now appears to be following a similar strategy with its GPS Insight deal, combining the firm with complementary vendors to create a single provider with greater scale. “We are thrilled to bring these businesses together with a unified vision of what the next best-in-class leader in fleet management can deliver in the marketplace,” Dean Jacobson, managing director of Accel-KKR, said in a release. “Fleet, field, cameras, analytics: these are all converging to provide actionable insights and deliver significant value to customers. We believe the platform comprising GPSI, IMD, and Rhino will be poised to be a powerful, single-point solution leader in the industry.”

Recent

More Stories

screen shot of AI chat box

Accenture and Microsoft launch business AI unit

In a move to meet rising demand for AI transformation, Accenture and Microsoft are launching a copilot business transformation practice to help organizations reinvent their business functions with both generative and agentic AI and with Copilot technologies.


The practice consists of 5,000 professionals from Accenture and from Avanade—the consulting firm’s joint venture with Microsoft. They will be supported by Microsoft product specialists who will work closely with the Accenture Center for Advanced AI. Together, that group will collaborate on AI and Copilot agent templates, extensions, plugins, and connectors to help organizations leverage their data and gen AI to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and drive growth, they said on Thursday.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

holiday shopping mall

Consumer sales kept ticking in October, NRF says

Retail sales grew solidly over the past two months, demonstrating households’ capacity to spend and the strength of the economy, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Census data showed that overall retail sales in October were up 0.4% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.8% unadjusted year over year. That compared with increases of 0.8% month over month and 2% year over year in September.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of global supply chain capacity

Suppliers report spare capacity for fourth straight month

Factory demand weakened across global economies in October, resulting in one of the highest levels of spare capacity at suppliers in over a year, according to a report from the New Jersey-based procurement and supply chain solutions provider GEP.

That result came from the company’s “GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index,” an indicator tracking demand conditions, shortages, transportation costs, inventories, and backlogs based on a monthly survey of 27,000 businesses. The October index number was -0.39, which was up only slightly from its level of -0.43 in September.

Keep ReadingShow less
employees working together at office

Small e-com firms struggle to find enough investment cash

Even as the e-commerce sector overall continues expanding toward a forecasted 41% of all retail sales by 2027, many small to medium e-commerce companies are struggling to find the investment funding they need to increase sales, according to a sector survey from online capital platform Stenn.

Global geopolitical instability and increasing inflation are causing e-commerce firms to face a liquidity crisis, which means companies may not be able to access the funds they need to grow, Stenn’s survey of 500 senior e-commerce leaders found. The research was conducted by Opinion Matters between August 29 and September 5.

Keep ReadingShow less

CSCMP EDGE keynote sampler: best practices, stories of inspiration

With six keynote and more than 100 educational sessions, CSCMP EDGE 2024 offered a wealth of content. Here are highlights from just some of the presentations.

A great American story

Keep ReadingShow less