2002 In Upgrades
JOHN BENDEL
TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Technology often moves forward in increments — fixes, upgrades and enhancements — and it moves a bit faster than, say, truck model years. Instead of new models each year, technology companies issue new versions as they become practical, sometimes more than once a year.
NOTEWORTHY TWO-POINT-OH
For example, 2002 saw both the launch of XATANET and its upgrade to version 2.0 from XATA Corp., a specialist in private and leased fleet management systems. XATANET makes XATA's established operations and fleet management solutions accessible on web sites with common browser software.
The debut of XATANET followed XATA's short-lived partnership with Qualcomm announced late in 2000. The two companies said that XATA would supply operations software for Qualcomm's new, highly promoted MVPc onboard computer, and Qualcomm would provide communications hardware for XATA's onboard products. But early in 2001, Qualcomm bought the Fleet Advisor onboard system from Eaton Corp. and adapted that software for the MVPc. XATA still supports the MVPc and has customers in common with Qualcomm, but has moved aggressively on its own.
In 2002, XATA announced a number of upgrades to its product line, including support for handheld devices that run the Palm or Windows CE operating systems. There were communications changes too, including a new satellite option. In October, XATA announced the availability of wireless data communication over the ORBCOMM low-earth-orbit satellite system.
NO MORE DRAG-AND-DROP
GEOCOMtms a Canadian vendor with U.S. offices in Atlanta, introduced version 2.0 of its a.MAZE routing optimization software for LTL and private delivery fleets. Enhancements include fast map access and increased ability to deal with constraints — delivery appointments for example. Most notably, however, Version 2.0 can change routes during operations. For example, an LTL fleet can add pickups as they are called in; the system accepts the new stops, re-optimizes and re-routes trucks on the fly.
According to GEOCOMtms President and CEO Bernard Tetu, the new version automates a process that had been left to busy dispatchers. "Most solutions in the market cannot handle the automation of constraint resolution, but rather force the user to drag and drop endlessly to try to find a solution," he said.
Tetu was referring to the kind of trial-and-error method of re-routing using the drag-and-drop functions in Windows software. He claims a.MAZE Version 2.0 will "finally bring about the promised benefits of fleet routing optimization."
In regional and long-haul markets, GEOCOMtms collaborates with the Land Mobile Group from EMS Technologies, a Canadian provider of wireless communications to North American markets. The PDT-100 satellite antenna from EMS provides GPS, text messaging and data transfer over a high-orbit satellite with near-universal coverage. The two companies signed up a number of fleets last year.
VERSION ONE-EIGHT
As trucking software versions go, 18 is a big number. But that's the latest version of Rand McNally's MileMaker software released in September. MileMaker marks its 20th anniversary on December 31, the date of its original release in 1982.
Version 18 of the venerable product is based on the latest Household Goods (HHG) Carriers' Bureau Committee's Mileage Guide. Back in 1982 both groups decided to make the HHG Guide an electronic database. The result was Rand McNally's MileMaker software, which gave truckers automated routing based on their own preferences for the first time.
According to Rand McNally, MileMaker Version 18 includes 7,600 new road segments, 28,000 road updates, 143,000 routable points, 10,000 road classification changes, more than 14.2 billion possible mileage calculations, and more than 726,000 miles of truck-usable highways in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The new database will work with Rand McNally software packages such as MileMaker, IntelliRoute or RouteTools.
According to Rand McNally, MileMaker software was the first electronic rating and routing product in the 1980s and is the only one on the market to use HHG mileages.
