It’s a dual milestone for Isaac Instruments in 2024, marking its 25th year in business and 10th year focusing exclusively on the trucking industry.
The company recently held a celebration for employees and plans continued events – including anniversary-themed giveaways at events – throughout the year to mark the occasion.
“Isaac Instruments has 25 years’ experience developing technology for vehicles, with many of these years focused on research and development of OEM prototypes,” co-founder and CEO Jacques DeLarochelliere said in a release. “We were initially involved in projects that were extremely sophisticated and complex.”
In the beginning, the company was designing telemetry for everything from race cars to electric trucks (yes, 25 years ago). The engines then were mechanical, so Isaac had to design its own G-Force sensors to get the data it needed to boost performance. As a fledgling tech company, it soon realized trucking companies had the most to gain from Isaac’s technologies and the company opted in 2014 to pivot and focus exclusively on trucking.
“Isaac grew up in a tough, competitive neighborhood, and 10 years ago we saw that the trucking market could leverage our solution more than others,” DeLarochelliere said. “That is why we decided to focus our mission on connecting people and technology to simplify trucking and keep the wheels turning.”
“This made it easier to scale product development and use our innovation to grow our base with carriers excited to grow with our solution,” added Jean-Sebastien Bouchard, executive vice-president and co-founder.
At the time, trucking represented just 10% of Isaac’s revenue. Isaac was in many cases designing the sensors to go into the trucks and at one time had some 200-plus parts numbers. Over the years, the trucks and engines became more sophisticated with integrated electronics that gave Isaac more capabilities, beyond tracking and eventually into electronic logging and in-cab driver coaching.
Isaac’s Quebec headquarters was host to a recent celebration for staff. (Photo: James Menzies)
Despite all the changes to the vehicles, Bouchard pointed out in an interview “What has remained constant on the truck is the driver impacts the truck’s fuel efficiency by 25-30%.”
Putting technology in the cab that could improve the driver’s impact on fuel consumption was a major turning point for Isaac, as it offered tangible benefits to the trucking fleets. Isaac has made continued gains in the Canadian market, and says it is used by 40% of the Top 100 fleets in Canada. In its home province of Quebec, 85% of the Top 25 fleets are using its platform, DeLarochelliere said. It has some 50,000 trucks with 500 fleet clients connected to its platform.
Most recently, it has begun a push into the U.S. market, opening an office in Cleveland, Ohio. This, after it opened a 37,000 sq.-ft. headquarters in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Que., which houses the majority of its 200 employees.
For chief technology officer David Brillon, the third co-founder of the company, the 25th anniversary party was among his most meaningful memories of the past quarter-century. “I was proud as I looked at all of our team enjoying the moment,” Brillon said. “It’s similar with our annual summer party, when so many bring their families and have fun together. This is what I am most proud of.”
