Marketing Plan of Vivify Trucks Inc.
The concept
Our service is to go the long haul with 18-wheel semi-trailers in the northern and central United States and Canada to begin with.
The advantages, the opportunities:
Reduces accidents (up to 90%) even in extreme conditions (wind, road cracks, snow and ice). Reduces fuel consumption (between 30% and 35%), converts the monotony and stress of travel into productive time, reduces the travel time of trucks as they would not need to stop - up to 8 hours per day.
Autonomous trucks are trucks in which human drivers are never required to take control to drive the vehicle safely. Also known as “driverless” trucks, they combine sensors and software to control, navigate and drive the truck. Vivify Trucks is currently at level 3 with Nvidia Drive
Level 3 automation means the vehicle can take over all driving functions under certain circumstances. The road environment is less complex (all vehicles moving in the same direction, no pedestrians, no complex intersections). A driver is still required. But Vivify Trucks will quickly climb to level 4 and 5 with the help of NVIDIA Drive, a turnkey technology provider of this kind of service. Level 5 does not represent any human assistance for driving.
The environment
Politico-legal
Experimentation with an autonomous vehicle on public roads, open to road vehicle traffic, is only authorized within the framework of the pilot project. Only the Minister of Transport can authorize it so that new means of transport using technological innovations can be tested, without compromising the safety of road users. The maximum duration of the pilot project is five years and it could be extended for a period of up to two years. Thus, if it is not within the framework of the pilot project, it is forbidden to put an autonomous vehicle into circulation on public roads, unless it is an autonomous vehicle with driving automation level 3, according to the standard. J3016 from SAE International, admitted for sale in Canada.2
Social
People in general will like autonomous trucks because they will lower the logistics costs of their products which they consume, the trucks will also reduce congestion because the company Vivify Trucks will develop the network logistics software for the Vivify Trucks fleet of trucks. She makes sure every truck is where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. Giving its users peace of mind knowing that delivery will arrive on time every time. Other types of people will fear losing their jobs. 3, 4
Economic
The economic impact will be big, the impact will be faster (hit the market first) with self-driving trucks than with cars, maybe not as big (cars = $ 7 trillion USD) but faster, people at Vivify Trucks estimate that around $ 600 billion USD will be transformed by this sector (shipping to the North of the United States), i.e. all between 2025 and 2030.5,6
Technological
As for the technology, Vivify Trucks is part of the NVIDIA Drive program and it will have DRIVE AGX Orin, a level 5 not yet available on the market. This technological platform is based on a system-on-chip of 17 billion transistors. High performance and very secure, Orin is designed to manage a large number of applications and deep neural networks that operate simultaneously in autonomous vehicles and robots, while respecting systematic safety standards such as ISO 26262 ASIL-D.7 .
Competitive
Competition is fierce with TuSimple, Embark, Waymo, Tesla, Ike, Plus.ai, Aurora.tech, but none of these companies deliver to the North of the United States and Canada, they deliver between long-distance cities. Vivify Trucks wants to create an image of a Nordic delivery man before them. This is its niche, it will specialize in this market which is not yet served.
Customers
Because of the advantages listed above, the need for autonomous trucks will be great. There is a significant labor shortage in this area. Vivify Trucks' technology will become a solution for this problem and for quality. It will be flawless with NVIDIA. To reassure customers, it will put a driver, even with robotic technology, but later Vivify Trucks will be able to remove them when everything is tested. The size of the market is $ 600 billion USD per year in the North of the United States. While remaining humble, the folks at Vivify Trucks hope to achieve around $ 20 million USD in revenue between 2020 and 2030 in the United States and Canada per year, but Vivify Trucks will have to really display its mission. Because of the competition, Vivify Trucks will enter the northern markets with unserved 18-wheel autonomous semi-trailers. With a driver behind there will be no problem for snow, winds etc. When the image of Vivify Truck is made, when it is known, Vivify Trucks will finance its activities by making deliveries for long-distance customers. This market in the United States and Canada in total is about $ 600 billion USD, and Vivify Trucks wants to have another $ 20 million USD from this market while remaining humble in the north and central United States (Portland , Seattle, Chicago, New York, Boston), Canada (Halifax, Sept-Iles, Rimouski, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Sorel, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton). Why does Vivify Trucks want $ 20 million in revenue per year? Because the people at Vivify Trucs don't know the impact of their activities, it could be more or less, they don't know. It will depend on whether they appear in the media with the message they want to convey, either to go to the north and central United States and to Canada, or to the investments that the company can have and make. the press with this funding news.
There would also be other customers like Canada Post, SAQ, Canada Seaports, Kraft / Heinz Canada, Canadian Tire, McCain Canada, Amazon Canada.
The organization
Vivify Trucks Inc. has two addresses, one in Trois-Rivières and the other in Bellevue near Seattle. Communications are made with LinkedIn where Vivify Trucks hires specialized people and also with Microsoft Teams, another communication software. It is a start-up company, it has not received any investments, a lot of interest from investors but no commitment from their shares. It finances the activities itself with the money of its founders, one with the remuneration for his work (Mechanical Engineer) and the other with his loan money and scholarship. They got a partnership with NVIDIA Drive, they are providing marketing human resources to help Vivify Truck and she will use them. Vivify Trucks Inc. is a shareholding company, Norvin Cuentas (the engineer) owns 50% of the shares and Jonathan Després (accounting student) 50% as well. Vivify Trucks will use a Freightliners brand truck.
Material resources
We will be selling our kits at $ 10,000 USD for each truck with multiple mobile installers and Vans or Sonomo style trucks. All of our mobile installers will have the parts, tools and know-how to install our kits, and we will go far in all possible territories. We will also make alliances with dealerships of truck sellers, we will train them as our mobile installers. Mobile installers will do this.
The structure of the company
There is a CEO paid by future investors, but at the moment the CEO is Norvin Cuentas and the official chief financial officer is Jonathan Després. We have no employees for the moment, but in the future, the CEO will be the only one who will have authority over the 7 software and robotics engineers as well as the truckers, 3 in number. We want to have as little as possible in the company. hierarchy in several levels, we want to have an organization that is more horizontal than vertical.
Suppliers
NVIDIA Drive AGX Xavier for level 2 and 3 and Pegasus for level 4, 5. Heex.io to understand and be aware of more critical data like a pedestrian passing quickly in front of our truck and other critical data that we don't know. LeddarTech for lidar, a useful camera for self-driving cars. AutonomouStuff to understand and obtain information on how to install our kits on our trucks. Freightliners Semi Trucks Class 8 to obtain data with our HDR Cameras, lidars and radars. We haven't decided which speed cameras to use yet.
The partners
We have Angel.co which helps us to obtain employees, Crunchbase to show our investments that we have had to date, Pilot.com which helps us in accounting and finance. There is also LinkedIn, which is a site for obtaining contacts from suppliers and key partners such as Propulsion Québec, which allows us to discover other organizations in Quebec in our industry.
The synthesis of SWOTs
Strengths
Vivify Trucks has a good name that quickly explains its kind of business. She still has time to look for markets not yet served in her industry and the people at Vivify Trucks know it, Jonathan Després is an accounting and finance expert, which gives a good helping hand to build a viable and successful business. structured from the start. He does his work in relation to this business, which helps his business and himself. We use several "load board" applications on our cell phone such as: Coyote Go, Carrier 360, Carrier Dashboard, Amazon Relay, Uber Freight, Trucker Path, Available Loads, Carrier, another Available Loads, Next Load, Loadsmart, Doft, Dat Load , 123 Loadboard, Truck Stop. And have a freight business while training our artificial intelligence system with our fleet and our transportation service that will fund our research. Venture capital investments will be a bonus for us because we will already be operational.
Weaknesses
Vivify Trucks has no investors yet because it has no prototype yet, no funding. She doesn't have a truck. She hasn't done any tests yet. She doesn't have a lot of employees either.
The occasions
Almost all of Vivify Trucks' competitors are still in the southern United States. So people at Vivify Truck can opt for a strategy and go where it's snow and wind by putting a driver behind the wheel of the truck. They don't use social networks like us, networking, chatting in Facebook groups in English, for example keywords such as: "dispatcher", "truck operators", "truck broker", "freight", "truck owner", "truck loads", "self driving trucks" as well as on the LinkedIn groups and on YouTube.
The threats
Vivify Trucks' competitors have a lot of investors at the moment and she has none. They could opt for the same strategy as her and go to the northern region of the United States and Canada.
The positioning
Segmentation criteria
These are people who will be CEOs, or we will start negotiations with a person who is the head of operations of a company that manages a lot of trucks such as the SAQ, Canada Post, Canadian Tire, Amazon, Kraft / Heinz, McCain, the ports of different Quebec or Canadian cities. Canada's ports represent a higher rate of profit, it pays more. They also have other needs, there is a greater variety of trucks in the ports than in Canada Post or SAQ where they are all or almost all the same, and require a faster installation and therefore less expensive. We expect to make $ 2 million CAD in the first phase of installing kits for autonomous trucks with Canada Post. With SAQ $ 1 million CAD. Canadian Tire, about $ 1 million as well. Amazon Canada, about 2 million. Kraft / Heinz Canada, $ 500,000. McCain Canada, 2 million, and the ports being more chargeable, perhaps 5 million CAD. That would be for a level 3 installation, the level 4 and 5 installation for autonomy would be more expensive because it would not require the presence of humans on the trucks, which required more tests on our part.
These are all CEOs, owners, people in charge of operations who will have the chance to choose our services and products. With the labor shortage in this field of trucking, I think they will make a good choice to go towards automation, it will save them money in the long term.
It is very easy to communicate with the leaders of these companies on LinkedIn, they are practically all there.
Segmentation by organizational behavior
The buying behavior of CEOs or owners is going to look at whether our technology will give truck drivers any advantage, whether it is beneficial or not for them (like retention). But we will have to look at the long-term vision which will allow us to test and evolve towards level 5 without a truck driver. The type of purchase is therefore a type of "update" of software and therefore of a subscription to a service. We will take installers with good technical experience thanks to a partnership with AutonomouStuff, a company recognized in this field. My partner will surely take part in their team, my partner is a very competent mechanical engineer, he will learn with them and I will negotiate for the Canadian territory and the Canadian customers the prices to obtain good bottom and to be up to my clients.
Segmentation by industrial psychography
Canada Post: it wants to innovate, serve Canadians with pride and passion, integrity, justice and respect, involved in a safe and healthy environment.
SAQ: Passion. Courage. The responsibility.
Kraft / Heinz: customers first, innovation, integrity.
Amazon Canada: obsession with the customer rather than a focus on competition, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence and long-term thinking.
Canadian Tire: Integrity, honesty and respect are core values at Canadian Tire and we expect each of our employees and directors to adhere to the principles and expectations set out in our Code of Business Conduct (the Code). When they carry out their activities on behalf of the company.
McCain: Our unique family values guide our daily actions and decision-making, anchoring our culture in all aspects of the business. Based on our values, we believe it is essential that we operate in a sustainable manner - for today, tomorrow and for generations to come.
Most transport companies have the same values in general: respect, customers first, decisiveness, positive attitude, balance, good financial responsibility, availability, responsiveness, quality of service, spirit of service, guaranteed delivery.
Segmentation by organizational demography
According to demographic data, there are owners in Quebec (in 2015) (not operating other trucks). They number 3,016, owner and operator of 49,027 and only operator of 1,279 (owners and operators of heavy vehicles) 9
The Port of Halifax is the largest container port in Atlantic Canada. It handles most of the region's trade, with 4.8 million tonnes of total freight in 2018. The transport of petroleum products and vehicles is also an important part of the port's activities.
Canada's National Highway System (NRN), with more than 38,098 kilometers of track, has provided 20 billion vehicle kilometers of truck travel.10
Truck transportation in the United States in 2007: 2,017,833,000,000 in revenue.
There are approximately 1.7 million truck drivers in the United States
Drivers in Chicago-Naperville-Arlington: 37,500
Drivers in New York-Jersey: 40,000
Michigan Truck Count: 4,651,312
Number of Trucks in Vermont: 370,267
Number of trucks in Alaska: 586,381 (we are targeting northern US cities)
And for Canada: This statistic represents the revenues of the Canadian trucking industry from 2009 to 2018. In 2018, the Canadian trucking industry generated approximately 39.55 billion Canadian dollars in revenues by transporting some 63.7 million of expeditions.11
Targeting
Is this segment exploitable?
Yes it is, but only with a level 3 of autonomy and even more with a level 4. Level 4 will hardly need any more drivers, and level 3 a little, but not much interaction with the driver. flying among the snow, so the northern United States and Canada which includes snow, winter can be well managed, and also we are pioneers in this field. When we reach out to large potential customers in the north, we make our own mark. With venture capital investments, well then that will give us even more credibility, and there is no one, no competitor to date, so very exploitable. We have about 1 to 3 years before we have a first competitor, if we start now, this segment of the northern United States and Canada is amply exploitable. With approximately 50,000 truck owners (owners and operators) in Canada, there are a lot of trucks on which our range kits could be installed level 3, after level 4, then 5 later. When technology makes a big difference, there will be a big craze, we will become known, recognized. People are going to want to see this. Seeing an 18-wheeler driving alone is impressive, it will cause a sensation in our community and it will be made in Quebec. Most of the other companies are in the south and in California. We will start in Quebec, Ontario, the rest of Canada and then in the northern United States.
We also want to have another segment, which is to have our own trucking fleet to generate income to do our research.
Can the company adequately meet the needs of this segment?
It's a challenge, but if we make about $ 3000 or $ 4000 in profit per install, we can invest in training mechanics, we already have a mechanical engineer who can install our starter kits to raise enough money to after hire mechanics and train them. There could be delays in the installations. We do not know yet. Training a mechanic can take 2 months, because each model of truck is on a case by case basis. We could hire other mechanical engineers at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières where they go to experiment with autonomous cars to see if they can train people, or go see AutonomouStuff, a recognized company that installs kits. and share our profits. For that, it will be necessary to sign a non-competition agreement between the two parties. And I dare to hope that when we have a few clients we will receive funds from investors, I am currently in talks with Investissement Québec, they are interested in seeing our documents (marketing plan, strategic plan, pitch deck).
Segment profile
What do they want and why?
1) Consume less diesel because diesel is more expensive in Canada
2) Drive faster and do less traffic in the northern United States, because there is a large population
When do they buy this product and how do they use it?
1) In Canada they will buy the product before the Americans. On the road, they will sometimes touch the steering wheel to follow the lines on the highways, they can also press the emergency button and start driving 100% with their hands again.
2) The United States will be served after Canada, it will be more a level 4 of autonomy, because they will be served later and they will have less to use the wheel, practically not.
Where do they buy the product and where do they use it?
1) In Canada it will be in our truck warehouse in Trois-Rivières, at the first phase artificial intelligence research and development center and then we will build other truck warehouses in the rest of Canada, in Ontario (Toronto) , Calgary and Vancouver.
2) In the United States, we will move to Seattle (2024), then Chicago, Detroit, New York and Boston, but it's really long term, maybe in 2025 or 2030 when level 4 or 5 will be built.
Truckers will use it (the technology) all over the North American continent and even Mexico. We will even do freight with our own trucks and do tests at the same time, which will provide us with income to do our research and speed up the process.
Our target is to start in Canada and even in Quebec, because this market needs innovation, and I think that we will have good relations with our future customers. I myself am a Quebecer. I could approach state companies, for example, which are major clients. Canadians and Quebeckers will start with level 3.
The positioning
Quebecers will have technology first: our work, and we will be able to test and evolve with them first, then offer equipment repair and maintenance. We're going to get the information of this technology and even this science and this market first with the snow, our potholes on the roads, our own environment. And in the same vein, become an expert in our territory and obtain clients in this territory before others. It will take time before other companies of our kind come to experiment on our territory.
Product policy
Our technicians and mechanics and our mobile installers will have uniforms with our logo on their polos and jackets with a nice style, and will be instructed to always be clean and polished. We will have positive customer testimonials on our website. There will be an entrance hall with air conditioning, in summer and heating, in winter to be comfortable (for customers who want to go to the head office). There will be counters with our colors and logo as well as comfortable chairs with a television scrolling through promotional videos and magazines of our products and our history as a company. We will have all our certifications on our walls as well as some diplomas from our senior leaders. Our engineers will be dressed in suit and tie, and in their professional emails, they will all have the same signature standardized by the company with the logo, profession, title and name. We offer our customers the opportunity to complete a survey on things they liked or didn't like. We will also have melamine posters that show how we set up our kits at each stage in our waiting room. We can also offer a shuttle service between the hotel or the customer's house and our warehouses. There will be a high standard secretarial service. When customers come to have our kits installed on their trucks, they will be well served. We will also offer them a guarantee on our products and a flawless after-sales service. We will even tow damaged trucks to the Vivify Trucks Repair Center and repair them for a cost while analyzing our systems. When there are more drivers, the truck will automatically detect the problems and send us an alert to our logistics and monitoring center (Vivify Trucks Logistics Center). Customers want to have a financially secure business, therefore they want it to have multiple customers, customers want experienced employees when it comes to operating security equipment for them and people in general on roads. Customers care about the environment, and our level 5 autonomous system consumes up to 30% and 35% less diesel. We will also offer kit system installation service from our competitors, if the client of course wants it. We will hire one or more Brand Manager (s) or Chief Marketing Officer who will or will have several responsibilities including selling franchises (McDonald's style) or co-branding with a partner.
The pricing policy
We're going to sell our product for 8% more than our cost, and also we're going to survey the trucking companies about the price. How many would they like to buy? what kind of products do they want and when? (level 2, 3, 4, 5). We will also determine the price of our product by analyzing our variable and fixed costs and we will try to bring these costs down, the current evaluated price is around 10,000 USD. We will also hire ex-politicians to advise us and to bring our legal product to the United States and Canada as soon as possible to lower our research costs and therefore bring economically viable products to market and promote us at the same. time. We will probably use the demand method like Dell, and always try to estimate the demand and the size of our market. Listening to our customers. We may adopt experimental or judgmental pricing (trial and error) as well. But we will provide guarantee to make us a bonus profit margin
Distribution and sales policy
Determine distribution goals
We want to be the fastest to install kits on trucks. When it breaks, you have to reinstall the kits. Since the trucks are always on the road, then we need mobile installers. Truck owners would pay us via interac money transfer, VISA, Mastercard, Paypal, Stripe. In addition, they would have us in their list of beneficiaries in their bank account and pay monthly or on the spot for their fleet of trucks. Truck owners could also go to our site and pay for a first install and we would go with our mobile installers to do the installation, or the owner could come to our head office if there are any major issues or they want to. learn more about the technology.
Assess the influence of internal and external environments
Fast, short because it is business-to-business, technical and expensive sold directly to end customers. Mobile installers will have a center in each major city to get their parts as a kind of warehouse and where they can park their trucks. The head office will coordinate the goods and equipment. Training of mobile installers will take place in centers in large cities but will be coordinated by the head office. We will always provide same day delivery / installation / repair / calibration.
Choose a distribution strategy
We will have as many centers as possible where mobile installers can have equipment and we will have as many installers as possible in the territories in Canada and the United States, and will therefore be able to carry out intensive distribution. If a truck breaks down we'll be there quickly. We will do additional relationship marketing.
Develop distribution tactics
Become the leader of the circuit quickly and first. We will be giving out rewards, bonuses etc. to our fastest and most bulky installers. We are going to increase our number of installers in relation to the needs felt in a given territory, everything will be calibrated. If a territory requires more repair, we will add more mobile installers.
Communication policy
We will use the word of mouth method with our marketing experts or friends. We will ask questions about our industry, recruit on social networks, by networking, by discussing in Facebook groups in English, example keywords such as: "dispatcher", "truck operators", "truck broker", "freight", "truck owner", "truck loads", "self driving trucks" (we can find hundreds of them by doing such a search), the method: from "many to many", as well as on LinkedIn groups and on YouTube. We will always try to see and learn about new chat technologies like Tiktok groups etc. if it is possible for us. We will adopt this policy first. Second, we will also do personal communication. If there is a crisis situation, we will hire a company or PR person, do a press release and advertise in the newspapers.
Financial results and execution of the marketing plan
We expect to sell 1000 kits for $ 10,000 each year from 2022 to 2027 and therefore for at least $ 10,000,000 USD (level 3, 4, 5). Other transportation income: $ 744,000 in income per year.
Our variable costs: $ 1,358,499 USD per year
Our fixed costs: $ 4,398,642 USD
For a profit of approximately $ 4,242,859 in 5 years.
The costs in more detail here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZde7gwqbkWtPRnamo9Sexam6x7gOxSg0JdELBtra3Q/edit?usp=sharing
If we want to make sure we are selling a sustainable product and be sure to sell it in the long term, we will be forced to manufacture and sell an autonomous truck built from A to Z, the truck + the autonomous vehicle kit and also more eco-responsible.
Marketing plan execution schedule
Allocate $ 150,000 USD per year for 5 years to a social media manager to join the trucker, trucking groups in English and French around 2000 groups and pages. Discuss our technology on these groups. Comment and help people on Facebook, LinkedIn with their questions. The social network groups approach program would be designed and implemented by the CEO and the social network manager (CMO).