The Year In Trucking Technology
Fleets take new IT systems on a test drive.
John Bendel
Technology Editor
Freight came back big time this year, and the new hours of service rule ate into available road time for drivers. Fleets were looking for technologies to improve efficiency.
For the larger truckload carriers, that often meant substantiating and collecting detention charges, a process that usually begins with some kind of tracking product. J.B. Hunt reported success using Terion trailer tracking - not so much to collect charges as to encourage customers to release equipment quickly. Trailer-tracking providers began to stress exception reporting and collection of arrival and departure data.
Qualcomm, the big guy on the block, introduced automated arrival and departure notification for its OmniTRACS and OmniExpress mobilecom systems. Major truckload software providers - among them TMW Systems and McLeod Software - introduced software modules to take advantage of new functionality from Qualcomm and other mobilecom providers.
Trailer Tracking Finds Its Markets
In October, Qualcomm finally announced the commercial release of its T2 Untethered TrailerTRACS Asset Management Solution, which had been in development since Qualcomm left the untethered trailer tracking market in late 2001. At the same time, the company announced that Schneider National had committed to installing the new system on 48,000 trailers. That installation alone puts T2 among the most widely deployed trailer tracking system in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Terion and other providers continued to build functionality into their tracking products. Terion released FleetView 3 with digital technology enabling remote update of system parameters and the ability to switch off to analog cellular for wider coverage. In May, Terion introduced Tractor ID, which identifies the tractor hooked to a FleetView-equipped trailer to confirm that the correct tractor and trailer are connected and warn of a mismatch. In October, the company launched FleetView 3R specifically for refrigerated trailer operations.
AirIQ of Pickering, Ont., Canada, added GSM to its tracking system, adding digital functionality to its ground-based analog and Orbcomm satellite wireless capabilities. The company also acquired Aircept, a California-based tracking and telematics company, and launched a consumer-oriented tracking product.
SkyBitz added geo-fencing as well as arrival and departure notices to its unique Global Locating System, a variation of GPS.
GE TIP introduced five new features for its GE VeriWise trailer tracking solution, including cargo sensors, door sensors, drop-and-hook notification, geo-fencing and low-battery notification. That was in March. In August, GE TIP changed its name to GE Trailer Fleet Services.
Teletouch Communications of Tyler, Texas, which entered the trailer tracking business in 2003, lowered its prices drastically early in 2004 and later changed the name of its tracking business to Visao Systems. Its trailer tracking product, once known as Geotrax, is now called VisionTrax.
The Technology Name Game
Visao, VisionTrax and GE Fleet Services aren't the only new names in trucking technology. This year we met Affiliated Computer Services Inc. of Dallas, Texas, Roper Industries Inc., of Duluth, Ga. and Platinum Equity of Los Angeles, Calif.
Affiliated Computer Services, better known as ACS, acquired Truckload Management Services Inc., known as TMI, the folks to provide TripPak EXPRESS and TripPak ONLINE, the largest provider of document management services for trucking. TripPak continues to operate with the same name, but now under the ACS corporate umbrella.
In October, Roper Industries acquired TransCore Inc., the company that provides DAT Partners load matching, most truckstop load monitors, SmartPass RFID systems, GlobalWave satellite tracking (which Transcore had acquired earlier in the year), Keypoint operations software and other trucking products. Roper says Transcore will continue to operate without a name change - but that remains to be seen.
Then there's Platinum Equity, which takes a long-running technology saga into a new chapter. Platinum Equity bought the Transportation Division of Aether Systems. Typically, Platinum provides management expertise and investment to tweak performance of acquisitions - among the tweaks expected: a change of name. That means 2004 is likely the last year in which the Aether name will play in the trucking arena. Of course the technology refined and enhanced under that name is another matter altogether. That will go forward, according to Platinum Equity, under the new name, GeoLogic Solutions (see sidebar).
Wireless Builds Out, Consolidates, Innovates
More than most industries, trucking relies on wireless communications for both business and personal communications. In 2004, as in most prior years, wireless services continued to build out networks. And this year, the number of major competitors decreased by one.
In January, Cingular, the No. 2 wireless provider, bought No. 3, AT&T Wireless. In October, the deal passed regulatory muster, creating the nation's largest wireless service provider and furthering the consolidation that typically marks a maturing industry. Cingular itself emerged from the consolidation in 2000 of Bell South, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Ameritech and seven others independent phone companies. AT&T Wireless was spun off from AT&T, the great mother company that pioneered the commercial wireless business in Chicago 21 years ago. Cingular says the new company will serve 46 million customers with the widest digital coverage in the nation. New products and applications that used ground-based wireless came from PeopleNet Communications, WebTech Wireless, Air-Trak, DataTrac, Kenwood Communications and Teletrac, among others.
Meanwhile, wireless competitor Nextel continued to offer more and more trucking-specific functionality. Nextel already offered coast-to-coast walkie-talkie service, built-in GPS and trucking software from providers like @Road, Datatrac, Descartes, AirIQ, Gearworks, Cloudberry and Cheetah. In 2004, Nextel added systems from Prophesy Transportation Software and turn-by-turn, street-level, truck-sensitive directions from ALK Technologies.
Wal-Mart Moves The Technology Agenda
This was the year of the great Wal-Mart EPC initiative, the year major consumer goods company scrambled to comply with technology requirements of the giant retailer.
EPC stands for Electronic Product Code, more often referred to as RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification. Certain Wal-Mart suppliers shipping to specified Wal-Mart locations are to have their merchandise RFID-ready at the pallet level by January 2005.
RFID consists of an electronic reader that emits radio waves in a specific spectrum. When those waves meet an RFID tag, the tag responds by transmitting its identification information. RFID readers can scan items passing by very quickly, potentially a major time saver.
Other companies have followed Wal-Mart's lead, and entire industries - most notably pharmaceuticals - and government agencies are issuing similar mandates. As a result, major trucking technology suppliers, including Intermec Technologies, Symbol Technologies and Transcore's Amtec, among a host of others, have been working overtime on technology that may someday supplant the venerable barcode. Impact on fleets has been limited at most, but change is surely coming further down the road.
Individual Offerings Move Technology Forward
Some developments aren't easily categorized. For example:
• FleetPortal, a project of the Technology and Maintenance Council, of the ATA debuted in March. FleetPortal provides a single Internet source for maintenance literature and updates rather than the constant bombardment of literature, CDs and web updates from various manufactures - what many fleet consider information overload. FleetPortal users find only those updates that apply to the vehicles and fleet and they will be in place and ready for use.
• Acculeon Inc. introduced a genuine black box that records driving characteristics invisible to other systems. Inertial sensors (including a gyroscope), GPS receiver and geographical map database capture tailgating, weaving and excess speed in turns as well as rapid acceleration and sudden stops. It doesn't track deliveries or transmit consignee signatures, but it can connect to a wireless system for real-time use.
• Qualcomm Inc. introduced what they call a vehicle immobilization device that enables a driver to place a truck in a "restricted mobility" mode - the truck won't run. The device looks like an automobile remote and with the push of a button, can shut down a truck at the computer level. If a driver clicks the device while at a truckstop for example the truck cannot be started - period - until the driver uses the device once more.
• CubeRoute debuted its a web-based service for private fleet operators, hosted applications for dispatch and routing, so the customer doesn't license, install or maintain software. GPS and driver location can be provided a number of ways, but the least expensive and the one CubeRoute recommends is GPS equipped Nextel phones. CubeRoute aims at the 20- to 100-truck market.
• KonaWare, Redwood City, Calif., combined low-cost wireless and the coverage of satellite in off-the-shelf hardware that costs less than $700 per truck. The KonaWare software platform switches automatically between T-Mobile ground-based wireless and ORBCOMM satellite networks. Software modules include security authentication, dispatch, load and unload processes, location services, asset management, text messaging, DOT driver logs, and status reporting. Modules can be customized for individual fleet needs.
IT Solutions continued...
