Autonomous Trucking, Innovation and Fleet Data | with Matt McLelland of Covenant Logistics

Recorded live at ACT Expo 2026, this podcast episode features Matt McLelland of Covenant Logistics discussing how the company evaluates diverse fleet technologies, from autonomous vehicles and electric trucks to data analytics. He highlights practical implementations like electric APUs and shares how combining data sources provides the context needed to proactively improve driver safety and wellbeing.

Creators and Guests

Host

John Heinlein, Ph.D.

An experienced technology and marketing leader, John brings his background from startups and established companies to Sonatus. He worked for 14 years at Arm, most recently leading Automotive Partnerships for North America where he engaged OEMs, Tier-1s, and others to deploy Arm-based solutions into automotive applications, including autonomous vehicles. His team was integral to launching the SOAFEE industry initiative for software-defined vehicles of which Sonatus is a member. Earlier he served as VP and Chief of Staff to the CEO and led a group responsible for competitive strategy. For three years, he was VP of Corporate Marketing where he led centralized outbound marketing, spanning marketing campaigns, press, events, web, digital marketing, ecosystem programs, and working closely with investor relations. Prior to Arm, John had an 11-year tenure at microprocessor startup Transmeta where he held several senior roles spanning business development, marketing, and customer success, among others. John earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford University.

What is The Garage by Sonatus?

The Garage Podcast from Sonatus brings you conversations with thought leaders from around the vehicle technology space discussing far-reaching topics about software innovation in vehicles.

These episodes will include industry experts, whether from Sonatus, or from our amazing partners across the industry, all of whom will share their Ideas and their outlook for the most important topics in vehicle technology. Episodes span from more technical topics, to business evolution, and market trends. Join us and learn about the future of vehicle in The Garage.

Today in The Garage, we're
recording live at ACT Expo 2026

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here at this hall, the
show floor is filled with

technologies of all
kinds from fleets to fuel

technologies and
trucks and everything.

And one of the things we're
learning as we talk to more and

more customers is the diversity
of needs of different fleets

and their operations.

We're seeing cases where
fleets are interested to

understand autonomous
vehicles and

autonomous technologies,

how they're helping to
optimize their operations.

We're seeing how different
drivetrains from electric to

biodiesel to conventional
diesel and everything in

between can affect their
sustainability and their operations.

And we're seeing how
fleets deal with different

kinds of issues
ranging from safety,

driver behavior,
anticipating breakdowns,

even anticipating driver
problems in the future.

To talk about that,

we wanted to bring on a
guest who's working with one of the

leading fleets in the industry.

And so our guest today
is Matt McClelland,

who runs innovation and
sustainability at Covenant

Logistics.

Matt joined us to talk
about their experience as a fleet,

the technologies they care about

and what they're looking
to use in the future.

And he tells some really
interesting stories about

practical uses of how
technology can benefit fleets.

It's a very interesting
conversation.

Let's go!

Welcome to The Garage.

I'm John Heinlein, Chief
Marketing Officer with Sonatus.

We're here at ACT Expo 2026
in Las Vegas and excited to

be visiting with Matt.

Matt, welcome to
The Garage. Hey.

Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to,
to chat with you.

We're appreciate you
spending some time with us.

Yeah.

Can you start by telling us
about you and your background?

Sure. Yep. Matt McLelland.

I do sustainability
and innovation for Covenant

Logistics.

We are a, for those
of you who don't know,

a a third party
logistics provider.

We have warehousing,
trucking, freight brokerage,

managed transportation, but
we have a lot of trucks.

Right? And that's why I'm here.

I'm here to look at
alternative fuels.

I'm here to look at all the
things that I need to know

about to present customers
greener, cleaner,

leaner solutions than
what we're doing today.

There's also some other
things too that fall under the

innovation umbrella, but
for the most part, you know,

I'm here for the trucks, and
I'm here for the, actually,

here for some of the AI.

Okay.

Yeah. Well, hopefully,
talk all those things.

Yeah. Yeah. So tell us
about your background.

What what did you do
before? What's your background from?

Oh, wow. You know,
it's sort of funny.

I was in IT for a
long time, like our mutual friend Yeah.

That introduced us
in the first place.

Lawrence was also
on the podcast.

Lawrence was on the
podcast. Yeah. Go Lawrence.

So, I was in IT for
pretty much all my career.

I ended up, running an
innovation lab at a 3PL,

a competitor to ours.

Well, the idea was we had ten
thousand square feet to fill

with the latest and greatest
technologies that were going on

in the warehouse, robots,
drones that scanned inventory,

like all these things that
customers want were paying us

millions of dollars a year
to come in and and provide,

you know, the best
solutions available.

They wanted to see all the stuff
that was out there on the edge.

I did that for this
company, Kenco Logistics,

for several years, ended up
pivoting and going to Covenant.

And so Covenant's where I've
been for the last eight years.

I think I came in more
of a innovation IT role,

but it pivoted to be more
sustainability probably back

in, like, 2018/2019.

My career is the same.

And I've I've I started
out with one background,

and I pivoted to
adjacent things.

And it's funny how
your career path works.

I didn't apply for
this job. It evolved.

In fact, one day, our CEO said, let's
talk about your role, your KPIs.

Like, let's talk
about your title.

And, you know, it's kind of a
longer story, but at the time,

there were lots of
questions about autonomy.

There were lots of questions
about electric trucks.

There were lots of questions
about alternative fuels.

There was a lot of
that stuff, John,

that we were already doing.

Was a way just to kind form
together and Put it together,

put it under a title, put
it under a department,

and that's where we are today.

It's it's fantastic.

Well, gotta start by telling you
gotta tell us a fun fact about you.

We always like to get our

know our guests.

Oh, wow. Fun fact.

So I'm a really I fly hang
gliders and dive with sharks

once a month and everything,

but I was in Antarctica in
January And when was a National

Geographic expedition ship.

That's fantastic.

Yeah. It was so cool.

And how long was the trip for?

We were there for twelve days.

Took two days to get over the
Drake Passage, five days there,

and then two days
to get to Drake

Passage, six days there, and
then two days to get back.

Well, that's a pretty
incredible story.

Yeah.

The Drake Passage is one of the most
craziest, you know, crossings ever.

It's where three oceans come
together and there's these

giant waves, and we actually
didn't have bad weather.

We had great weather. So
it was a fantastic trip.

That's incredible. I
can't touch that at all.

So I'll tell you a different
one...It's not a competition.

You mentioned diving.
I'm a big scuba diver.

Oh, good.

Fantastic. Former
scuba instructor.

That's another story
for another time. Fantastic.

Lots of live-aboard
scuba diving Me too. Which

is great fun.

Love it. There you go.

My wife does it, my son does
it, it's a family affair.

There's our connection.
Yeah. Fantastic.

I knew I liked you.

Alright.

So we're here at the show, ACT.

It's full of the most
incredible, diverse Yep.

Commercial vehicle technology
of all shapes and sizes,

electric and biofuels and trucks,
big, small tractors, trailers.

What what's the technology
that's really exciting you

right now, and what's
on your mind right now?

You know, it's interesting.

There's, know, there's
no one thing. Right?

I mean, we like to say
that in my quiver of solutions, right,

I'm gonna have
some diesel trucks.

I'm gonna have some
electric trucks.

I'm gonna have some CNG trucks.

Right now, we're a fleet
that is mostly diesel trucks.

In fact, it's all diesel trucks.

We're long haulers, which
means we go long distances.

Sometimes we have two
drivers in the trucks.

We can go up to a
thousand miles a day.

There are not a lot of
decarbonized solutions that

will take us the distance
that we need to go.

Also, pretty much anything
that's not diesel is generally,

but not all the
time, more expensive.

And so these are really hard
conversations we have to have

with our shippers.

They want to know what sorts of
solutions can you bring to the table.

It's my job to kinda know what
they all are, present those,

talk about the cost

increase, talk about
the cost benefits,

and we just sort of
go through those.

And we have some
electric yard hustlers,

which was kind of new for
us in the last few years.

We're looking at class eight
electrification right now.

In fact, in a few weeks,

we're gonna be doing a
demo of the Tesla Semi,

which we're super excited about.

That's great.

So it sounds like you're really
putting your ear to the ground

watching these technologies,

understanding where
do they make sense,

why do they make sense, when
do they fit into your fleet,

when do they fit
in your portfolio?

Yep, exactly. Okay.

Now and talking about
technology, mean, podcast,

we look at software, we look at
artificial intelligence, especially.

How do you see
technology...What are some

things you're looking at that
technology think can add value

to either your fleet
directly or fleets like you?

So five years ago, I started...I

was invited to be a part of
when the early TuSimple—when

TuSimple was still a thing,

right—TuSimple is autonomous
class eight trucks.

Went down, looked at what
they were doing, listened.

They were really one of
the first ones. Right?

Anthony Levandowski and some of
these other folks from Pronto

and, oh gosh, what was it, Otto,

there were some early stage
ones that were getting some

attention back in maybe 2019.

But in 2020,

looked at TuSimple, then
we looked at Kodiak,

then we looked at Embark, which
is no longer around, then Torq,

Aurora, you know,

so we're kind of have
partnerships with Aurora and

Torq.

But the idea of being
an expedited fleet,

so we we cover long
distances at night,

is really a really
interesting fit for autonomy.

So talk about the ultimate AI.

Right?

You got a class eight truck
that with the trailer and

everything, and it weighs
eighty thousand pounds.

You're potentially going down
the road without a driver.

I mean, it doesn't
get more AI than that.

Yeah. Right?

It's pretty incredible.

So I've been I've been in
that world for the last five years.

A lot of the things, John,

I love about my job is I
not only get to talk to our

shippers, talk to our
senior leadership,

but I also go to all these
meetings and I'm with JB Hunt,

I'm with Warner, I'm with
CR England. I'm with Schneider.

I'm with all my
competitors. Right?

People that I compete against,

but we're all trying
to look at technology.

We're all trying to look at how
this incredible thing called

autonomous vehicles brings
us all together because

we we all need each other.

We all need to buy trucks
in order for it to be a

sustainable solution for people.

So, you know, I get to be with my peers
and my competitors at the same time.

You know, it's an interesting
perspective you say there because on the

one hand, people a
lot of times say,

what's the key competition
against, for example,

the kind of things we do.

And a lot of times it's OEMs
or providers trying to do

everything themselves.

And I think one of my
observations is that trying to

do everything yourself and
trying to reinvent all the

wheels is a great way to
never deliver a solution.

Yeah.

You really need to share
technologies and the kind of

thing you're talking about
working with your competitors

to find common solutions where
it makes sense and compete

where it makes sense, I think
is an interesting balance.

Yeah. You know, the whole
rising tide floats all boats?

Right.

Well, the the tide is a a
class of new solutions that

weren't available before.

Right.

You know, Aurora
or Torq or Kodiak,

they're not gonna be
I just saw a demo.

That's what I mean, and Waabi,
I don't want leave her out,

Raquel and her team at Waabi.

But if they just have
trucks to one provider,

they're not going
to be successful.

They need to sell
trucks to everybody.

And so we're working together
to kind of figure out,

you know, what sorts of problems
they haven't solved yet.

Are there things that we can
do to work together, oddly enough,

in order to

make this work?

So we currently don't have any.

We're not testing any
autonomous trucks right now.

We're looking at it. You
know, we're always open to anything.

So I mean, your your fleet,
it sounds like for your fleet,

you're you try to keep your
trucks relatively a short time.

And that's a that's the affects your
methodology and how you do things.

Obviously, fleets have
different mixtures of things.

We were chatting
earlier that, you know,

depending on the fleet's needs
and depending on the missions

of different fleets, they
may have different approaches to,

for example, maintenance,
preventative diagnostics, and so on.

What are some of the
technologies you've seen that

you think are interesting,

rising rising
technologies in this area?

You know, what's interesting is you
bring up the length of ownership.

Right.

Some of the investments that
you can make in a truck,

you have to own it for longer than
two years in order to make it pay off.

And so that's some
of the challenge,

which is the way our
trade cycle works.

A newer truck is also a
recruitment retention tool for us.

And so there are lot of reasons
why it's two years for us,

it's three years maybe for
some of our competitors.

But sometimes we
have to pass on a

technology because
the payoff you know,

exceeds the length of
time we're gonna own it.

But electric APUs is
something we've done.

That's a device for the listeners
who may not know what it is.

It's a bank of batteries that lives
under the seat of the sleeper cab.

And it charges during the day
while the truck is moving.

And then at night,

it runs an air conditioner
or heating unit or a

CPAP machine so you don't
have to run the engine.

Running. Exactly.

Yeah.

So you're not, so,

a truck burns about a eight
tenths of a gallon, of fuel,

per hour just idling.

And then there's all the stuff
coming out of the tailpipe.

Right?

And there's that.

And then but there's the rattling
and there's the noise and, you know,

then you've got about fifty
other trucks that are around

you all doing the same thing.

Right.

It's just you get out of your
truck with fifty trucks idling.

You're like, oh, what
is this on my body?

I just wanna go to the bathroom.

So it's not very green.

It's not very cost efficient,

and it makes noise for the
driver trying to sleep.

But we do these because
they cost justify themselves with

both hard and soft cost over the period
of ownership that we have the truck.

So it's a really
good fit for us.

It's funny because we don't
there are probably better uses

of capital as a publicly traded
company on the New York Stock

Exchange.

But the way our leadership
team looks at it,

if we don't lose money
and we don't make money,

it's the right thing to do.

It's the right thing to
do in the environment.

It's the right thing
to do for our drivers.

It's the right thing to do
sort of for the industry.

And so that's an investment that
we've we've made for a long time.

That's great. Yeah. I mean,
we talked earlier about data.

I mean, data is the lifeblood of
so many different technologies.

And I think we were looking at some
work we're showing here at the show.

Yes, great, very
impressive stuff.

Well, you for
about, for example,

monitoring driver
distraction The safety stuff.

Preventative maintenance, a number
of things like that.

You know, what's data like to you
and how much with your IT background,

how much does data kind of live
and breathe for you all day long?

The devil's in the
details, right?

And the details is always,
you know, the data, right?

Sometimes some of my friends, we
get into arguments about, you know,

politics and sports and all
kinds of different things.

But I'm always saying, do you...what
what's the data behind it?

Like, tell me where
you got that statistic.

And sometimes people
just don't Right.

Like, you so you just made
it up is what you're saying.

You know? So I'm a
big data guy. Right?

I have a cup on my desk at
home that says, "Without data,

you're just another
person with an opinion".

Right? Right? You want one?

I love it. I got an extra one.

I love it.

Yeah. So, you know,
I'm I'm all about it.

I think without it, you
know and by the way,

my wife drives her
nuts, you know,

when we get into a a debate
about something and she's like,

it's like, why do
you feel that way?

Like, I don't know.

I just feel that way. I'm like,
well, I'm not a I'm a data guy.

You gotta give me an you know,

give me an example of
what you're talking about.

So I'm a big data guy.

So what you're doing here and what
Sonatus is doing is fantastic.

Collect you know, I think
sometimes as normal humans like

I am, you're a PhD.

EE PhD. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not me.

But sometimes I need a tool
like Claude or like some of

things you're working on
to help me connect dots.

I just recently uploaded three
different spreadsheets into

Claude.

It was lane data, truck load,
or fuel stop location data,

and some other data points
because I trying to figure out

to put all this together and
create a graph and I uploaded

it in this thing and it helped
me connect dots and data points

that I really didn't
think made sense.

But once it did,
thirty seconds later,

I had a beautiful slide that I
could show to the customer that answered

the exact question they
asked me to answer.

It's such an important point you
make that when you have a data,

I like to say to one plus one equals
three or one plus one equals seven.

If you have different data
sources on their own, great.

When you combine them,

you can find insights
that weren't there,

weren't easy to find.

One of the things we're showing
in one of the demos we showed

you earlier was how we can
take data from the vehicle

that maybe they're getting
from their data provider,

its existing data,

but we combine it with other
data that they don't have and

add more value, add more,

whether it's insight or
diagnostics or anticipating

failures or a range of things.

But it's when you combine those
data sources that you get to

potentially new
levels of insight.

That's one of the things
we're trying to focus on.

Yeah, I do a presentation on sort
of innovation and disruption.

Every once and once, sometimes
I get asked to do a keynote,

but I have this slide that says
data without context is meaningless.

And so sometimes it's these
extra data points, right, that,

you know, independently
don't mean anything,

but together that provides
context that we need in order

to make the kind of
decisions we have to make.

It's true. It's true.

And we're showing another
diagnostic product that

probably is more targeted
towards OEMs than less to

yourself and your
fleet customer.

But one of the engineers that
was working with us said that

when we show them the
analysis is we say, Hey,

we see that there's this thing.

And we say, We think this is
why your vehicle's failing.

And then they say,
But prove it to me.

Ah, they say, Here's why.

We're showing you, Here's
the source data we came with.

Here's your page seventy
four of your service manual,

and here's the service history.

And you put it all together
like, now I believe you.

So it's the opposite of
whatever the opposite of a

hallucination is.

It's showing our homework,

showing the references that
there's real meat there.

We use a product.

Maybe it's a competitor, so
I'm not gonna use their name.

But when they pitched
it to us, he said,

I'm gonna give you an example
of something that happened with

somebody that we went live with.

He said, we called a
driver in the office.

HR manager said, hey.
I want you to sit down.

We have a problem. The guy had
no idea he was talking about.

He said, our software says that you're
gonna have a wreck in the next two weeks.

And he was like, what
are you talking about?

He said, you know, like,
remember my Minority Report.

I knew you were
gonna say that. Yeah.

And they're like, well,
it's not one thing.

You've had erratic
time off. Yeah.

The —what is it, J132 port,

whatever—the truck shows
that you've had an unusual,

you've had some curb strikes,

you've had erratic acceleration.

There is, requested
a different cycle in

your pay, you asked for
an advance on something.

There was, you were late
for some of your deliveries.

You were late showing up for
work. So independently pattern.

None of these things
mean anything.

But all this data lived
in six different systems.

Together, you put
it all together.

He said, what's going on?

And the guy just looked at
the HR manager and said,

"My dad is in the hospital,

and he's probably gonna
have to go to memory care,

and I can't stop thinking about
it", and he starts tearing up.

And he says,

I can't

concentrate because I'm
worried about my dad.

And so that HR manager said,
go take a week off, paid,

go deal with this,
come back to work,

everything's gonna be fine.

So, you know,

reading the tea leaves and what
the tools like you guys are

developing or do are gonna help
you help safety departments,

help HR departments
solve those problems.

It's true.

And, you know, in
safety and downtime and

it's all rolls together.

Right? Yeah. You know, this guy
now is he's been taken care of.

They've avoided
potentially a wreck.

They've even...He

loves it.

They love the company
Everyone wins.

Yeah. Right?

So sometimes I think when
you can add these solutions

together, you can
create, as I said,

more than the sum of the parts.

Yeah, absolutely.

So what's your favorite thing you've
seen at the show show here this week?

You know, we're doing this
Tesla Semi demo. Yeah.

And and I was there at the
factory a few weeks ago,

so I got to see it.

But, know, here it's
out in the hall.

You know, it's the
new one. Right?

It's the production
ready version.

And so it's super
excited to see that.

International has this thing
called S13 engine, which is

very different than the way
traditional engines work.

So there's better fuel economy.

There's some cleaner aspects
to it on the emissions.

That's super cool to look at.

But really, the the hall
just opened yesterday.

So, you know We'll
after this after

this podcast is over, I'm gonna
go out and walk the halls.

Fantastic. Hey, listen.

I really appreciate you
spending some time with us.

I know you're busy.

Yeah. It's great to hear
perspectives like yourself's.

Your fleet needs are different
than other fleets we talk to.

With the super
valuable perspective,

you were challenging us and giving us
some great ideas a few minutes ago.

So we're thrilled to have
you and enjoy the show.

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

All right.

All right. Appreciate it.

If you like what you're
seeing in this episode,

please like and subscribe to
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We look forward to seeing
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