DOUBT
“I am concerned about the security and privacy of my own data and my customer data”
At 46%, data sharing and privacy topped the list of obstacles to adoption cited by respondents to our survey.
Perhaps that’s not surprising. Data is a very precious commodity. In our personal and professional lives, we all want to feel comfortable that our data is secure and free from the risk of monetizsation or misuse by unwelcome, unassociated third parties.
The transportation industry is no exception. Carriers and logistics service providers worry that the more information they share about their trucks and movements, the more control they will ultimately hand over to someone else. They fear that their business will suffer. This is why real-time visibility relies on Trimble’s routing layer. It receives only the essential routing data (such as the calculated route, estimated time of arrival (ETA) and location references), but never any shipment contents or sensitive cargo details.
Trimble recognizes that. We need to, because data is our lifeblood. If the transport industry cannot trust Trimble on data security, our network crumbles. That’s why leading-edge data security and privacy is central to our mission.
1. Real-time visibility data is heavily restricted and protected
SECURE AUTOMATION
Our Visibility Control Center and Trimble Trust Center integration ensures data sharing and partner connectivity can be easily automated, securely.
DATA VISIBILITY
Data is seen and shared only by those you select to see it, whether that’s a load giver, carrier or chosen customer, and only for the portion of the journey you authorise.
DATA PROTECTION
All visibility data is hosted in a secure, encrypted data vault designed to ensure full compliance with U.S. data privacy laws, guaranteeing that sensitive operational information remains protected at every stage.
MINIMAL TOUCH
Our approach ensures we only collect and process the specific data points required to fulfill the task at hand, strictly limiting usage to core visibility functions without ever overreaching into extraneous operational details.
SHARING CONSENT
The vehicle location can only be shared if you have allocated the vehicle, given explicit consent, and the vehicle is driving the customer’s route.
NEED TO KNOW PROTOCOL
Intelligent geofencing algorithms ensure that your chosen partners only see what is related to their ongoing shipments.
2. It’s transport data, NOT shipment data
At no time does the data store or share information on the shipment, its content, volume or value. Freight visibility is concerned solely with transport location. If a vehicle leaves a route to carry out an unrelated task, no data is shared. Likewise, if you mistakenly allocate a wrong vehicle to a transport, no data is shared. That means most carriers see live ETAs in their transportation management system in under a day.
No custom coding required!
3. Carriers control their own visibility
Carriers have full control and autonomy over visibility of their transports. Their transports will not be visible to partners unless they have given explicit approval, according to their own parameters.
In addition, transport locations are only visible to load givers, freight forwarders and carriers for the portion of the overall journey that is relevant to them. Visibility is ‘triggered’ for the shipper, by the carrier, when the transport is approaching the first stop on the route, and not before. It’s then switched off as soon as the relevant portion of the journey to that shipper is ended.
Vehicle location and status are only shared if a licence plate has been assigned to that transport, or the carrier has enabled the data stream.
Carriers can stop sharing the visibility of any of their own vehicles at any given time if they wish to.
4. Shippers and subcarriers CANNOT communicate
There are no hidden exchanges between shippers, drivers, sub-carriers or anyone else. Subcontractors are not named and are not visible to the shipper.
For shipper purposes all visible vehicles are those of the main carrier, with no separation or distinction between the carrier’s own vehicles and the assets of a subcarrier.
5. You control what you consent to
The clear, easy-navigation user-interface provides a full on-screen overview of data consent sharing status between your business, carrier partners, shippers, and subcontractor carriers.
The screens also offer a full overview of fleet utilisation in order to enable optimisation of full loads, including subcontractor vehicles dedicated to your fleet. Again, you can switch vehicle sharing on or off at any time, according to your preference and requirements.
DOUBT
“I am concerned about inconvenient integration and incompatibility with my proven systems”
A common fear among smaller carriers and freight forwarders is that real-time visibility adoption will inevitably require them to depend on larger corporations for technology, and that they will then lose the independence, character and mindset that made them successful.
They fear squeezed margins, too.
In fact, the evidence shows that the opposite is the case. As more of the larger players embrace digitisation, the opportunities become stronger for the smaller players who also make that journey. Relying on ‘old school’ methods is likely to lead to a competitive disadvantage. Global consulting group PWC conducted independent research into supply chain ecosystems for 2025.
of respondents cited fears of difficult integration and compatibility with existing systems as a major obstacle to the adoption of real-time visibility technology.
It found that digitally connected networks generated up to 8% additional revenue for participating companies, also cutting costs by 7%, with a return on investment of about two years. The figures are double those of digitally immature competitors. It confirms that both carriers and subcarriers have much to gain by embracing the opportunities of digital supply chain connectedness.
1. Full real-time visibility integration takes place in minutes
We know how much trouble-free integration matters to businesses that want to focus on their core without the headache of unnecessary distractions. We have decades of experience deploying operation-enhancing solutions across thousands of carrier and LSP customers. We would simply not be able to achieve those numbers if the integration process was hard, or if it interfered with member businesses doing what keeps them so successful.
2. Click-and-link to telematics
You do not need IT expertise in any form to operate real-time visibility. Integration is completed in a matter of minutes, including a click-link to over 95% of available telematics and freight management systems on the market (note: any that we don’t already link to will be added within a couple of business days). Log in with the normal telematics credentials and go. That means most carriers see live ETAs in their transportation management system in under a day.
3. Easy subcarrier onboarding in 3 simple steps
1) Connect
Connect your systems to Freight Visibility, via direct GPS connection. Mobile app and individual interface connection are both immediately available.
2) Invite partners
With ‘Bulk Invite’ you can import your subcarrier list and send invitations in a single click. Track and manage subcarrier transports via their vehicles.
3) Customize set-up
Consolidate GPS data from all relevant sources to customize your set-up, including multimodal transports and container/swap tracking.
Consents, sharing status and subcontractor status are all easily viewable on the simple user interface, which also provides a full overview of your fleet utilisation and optimisation opportunities.
Remember – visibility data is ONLY shared under ALL THREE conditions:
- Data sharing consent is given
- Vehicle is allocated
- Data sharing criteria are met
4. Our business is support
Welcoming new partners to the network is at the heart of Trimble’s business. Whether carriers have in-house resources or not, they can count on 24/7 support, with multilingual assistance provided by our team of 250 experts–120 of whom are fully dedicated to onboarding and supporting carriers.
DOUBT
“I already have telematics, I don’t want or need to add further complexity to it”
Telematics tells you where the truck was; the real-time visibility + Trimble stack tells every stakeholder when it will arrive—factoring legal large commercial vehicle-ready routes, live traffic and low-emission zones.
Some shippers and carriers shy away from real-time visibility, because they fear further complexity on top of a perfectly adequate telematics solution
But real-time visibility is not telematics. The latter derives its data from historic performance; the former is about right here, right now and what’s coming next. Real-time visibility is all about giving users the opportunity to react to events in real time and to plan their transports more efficiently. It connects everyone in the chain, via a single source of truth.
What does that mean in practice? It means proactively reacting to exceptions as they occur, without facing damaging delays. It means precise ETAs, calculated by powerful AI capabilities, improving truck and driver optimisation (at a time when the latter is scarce) and much more refined transport execution processes.
© 2026 Trimble Inc.
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© 2026 Trimble Inc.