A Wireless World
The three main types of wireless communications in trucking are cellular, satellite and Wi-Fi.
Jim Beach
Contributing Editor
If information is power, truck fleets increasingly want more. They want to know where their trucks are at any point in time; the best routes to move those trucks from point to point; the stops with the cheapest fuel along those routes; and vehicle and driver performance information. Advances in wireless technologies and vehicle telematics make getting that information easier than ever.
More information means more power to improve efficiency and cut costs. For example, fleet managers can cut fuel costs if they know when their trucks are speeding or idling too long. Performing vehicle diagnostics remotely can reduce maintenance costs. Tracking trailers and trucks makes scheduling and routing easier and improves security. Driver communication and monitoring can improve driver performance and increase their job satisfaction.
All of these things rely on getting information to and from the truck.
A number of fleets have adopted such communications technologies, but even more have yet to take advantage of these advances. Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimates less than 15 percent of the current long-haul fleet is equipped with telematic-capable equipment, and that proportion will rise to only about 28 percent by 2012. But the costs of these capabilities have dropped, as cellular systems move to third- and fourth-generation technologies.
According to Joel Beal with Tripmaster, the three main types of wireless communications found in trucking today are cellular, satellite and Wi-Fi.
Satellite communications providers pioneered vehicle tracking in the trucking industry, and those systems are still the only ones that can locate a truck or trailer anywhere in the country (or out of it for that matter). The downside is that satellite transmissions are relatively expensive.
Cellular coverage, while much cheaper, is still unavailable in some rural areas. That coverage is improving. Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) is what puts the "hot" in hot spots at truckstops, coffee shops, hotels and your office or home wireless network. Wi-Fi allows high-speed, wireless Internet access, but hot spots have limited range: only about 300 feet.
"Cell phone technology is the most common today, because the price has dropped and the coverage is good," Beal says. "You can take those methods, mix and match them, have all three at once if you like, but typically Wi-Fi and cellular are the most common. It all depends upon what you want to pay."
Keeping the trucking industry connected is big business, with a number of companies offering various types of services and hardware – much of it targeted at specific trucking applications. "What used to be a very unconnected environment now is becoming very connected, and the amounts of information you can derive is kind of incredible," says Lou Granberry, director of vertical strategy for Sprint/Nextel. "It has become fairly easy for a fleet owner to take this information and adapt their business around it."
Butch Musselman, Sprint's vice president of industry business solutions, says the transportation market has been "a big, big market for us. From a transportation standpoint, GPS location-based service is probably one of the biggest opportunities out there, and a lot of transportation companies are using that to track their assets and personnel."
Truckmovers.com, a Kansas City-based drive-away firm, recently announced it was equipping all of its drivers with Sprint PCS phones that include GPS technology. Integrated into Truckmovers.com's computers, the system checks all drivers' phones periodically and returns latitude and longitude information.
Locating assets is only one of the things fleets can accomplish with wireless communications. "What we've really seen recently is that fleets are taking the wide-area connectivity capability tied to GPS and applying that to documenting hours of service, freight deliveries or engine analytics pulled from the engine's J-bus," Granberry says. "Fleets are taking the connectivity and capability of these systems and tying that back to their business processes and workflows."
Musselman predicts you will see asset tracking extended from the truck and trailer to single shipments or even one pallet of cargo via RF tags. In fact, TNT Logistics of Jacksonville, Fla., was recognized for best wireless practices by Mobile & Wireless World for using RF technology and wireless sensors to track parts to its automobile manufacturer customers.
A wireless truck means more than a cell phone. A truck equipped to make the most out of wireless connectivity would include a "black box" interconnected to the vehicle's J-bus. That box receives information from the truck and also contains a radio and modem that connects to a cellular network, or a dual-mode device that can also connect to a satellite network when outside the cellular network. This black box would handle GPS services and vehicle telematics. Taking it a step further, the driver would be equipped with a laptop with a connection card that can access the Internet over the cellular system. The driver would also have a cell phone capable of accessing the Internet and could receive turn-by-turn driving instructions on the phone's display panel.
Laptop connection cards, such as those used to access Sprint's EVDO wireless network, are gaining popularity among drivers seeking mobile connections. On an Internet driver message board, a number of posters commented on preferring those cards to their laptop's built-in Wi-Fi, mostly because they are not limited by the hot spot's small coverage area. Wi-Fi connections are still popular, however, as they still deliver faster data rates than generation 2.5 or generation 3 cellular systems.
SiriComm of Joplin, Mo., has developed a network of Wi-Fi hot spots in more than 525 locations, including truckstops such as Pilot, Love's and Petro and at fleet terminals. The company places servers at each location and can host a fleet's intranet information such as e-mail, training videos and other content. Founded in 2000, the company's business model is built around "enabling fleets to take advantage of the capabilities of their drivers," says Chairman Hank Hoffman. Hoffman, who spent 25 years as a trucking company executive, says the one thing that frustrated him about the trucking business was that "the business models in trucking companies had not changed much. We believed that the time was right to really take advantage of putting computing power inside the truck and provide new ways of looking at trucking company business models."
But companies can't take advantage of this computing power unless they are connected to the truck. "When we started this business, the only connectivity available required to driver to leave the truck cab. What we believe is that if you provide connectivity and the applications inside the cab and you make the driver part of the decision-making process, then the truck fleet will have much better decisions day in and day out. That will ultimately drive their operating costs down. Without having broadband connectivity and having the applications inside the cab, that's impossible."
While the company started out as an applications provider, it soon became apparent that to provide their products "at a reasonable price" they would need their own network. So SiriComm developed a proprietary satellite network and built its Wi-Fi network from that. The applications "run the gamut" from dispatch to trip planning and more robust forms of vehicle telematics. Offering its services via a truckstop and terminal Wi-Fi network grew from Hoffman's view that for most fleets, "other than a cell phone, there's really no need for wireless connectivity until the driver gets to the truckstop. There are all sorts of radio frequency or wireless coverage and they vary in terms of price and bandwidth coverage. Fleets have to make decisions about what is the best mix for them that meets their operations characteristics and the price points they can live with."
Hoffman also notes that recent technology changes have meant changes in service offerings for fleets. "At one time, solutions were a one-size-fits-all deal." That worked for larger fleets, but now with the amount of bandwidth available, fleets can pick and choose the applications they need for their fleet operations.
Wi-Fi connectivity also works well for terminal sites. Tripmaster's Beal gives a fuel hauler as an example of a fleet that does not need full-time coverage to transmit data. "The trucks return to the rack two or three times per shift," Beal notes. "Data can be exchanged between the truck and dispatch via Wi-Fi each time the truck comes in."
On To WiMax
Wi-Fi's negatives revolve around security and coverage area, both of which are addressed with new WiMax technology. WiMax, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, allows wireless connectivity over a much larger area than Wi-Fi (from 1 to 6 miles instead of 300 feet) and at speeds comparable to T1 or DSL/cable connections.
Sprint recently announced plans to build a new WiMax network to go on line in late 2007. Working with Intel, Samsung and Motorola, Sprint says its new network will eventually cover 85 percent of the top 100 markets in the country.
"WiMax is fundamentally different from Wi-Fi in several ways," explains Sprint's Lou Granberry. "Probably the most important is that Wi-Fi operates in an unlicensed spectrum today, so anyone can power up in that 2.4 Ghz band allocated for Wi-Fi." That makes such systems subject to interference, and there are security concerns. With WiMax, Sprint is using a spectrum licensed from the government. Other difference include the faster uplink and downlink speeds and greater coverage area offered by WiMax.
"Our intention with WiMax is to begin to build chipsets into many more devices than you have traditionally seen with cellular networks today," Granberry says. "When you think about cellular networks, you think about cell phones, connection cards that go in your laptop. Well, some computer OEMs are now building these cards into their laptops. And PC makers that build Wi-Fi into their laptops will start building WiMax into their products as well."
You will see these chipsets in other electronics as well, such as digital cameras and iPods. "Our intent, with Intel as our key partner, is to build these chips into many more devices," Granberry says. " You would perhaps see us building WiMax capability into the tractor, offering a built-in WiMax capability in the truck at the point of purchase."
From an operational standpoint, Sprint is looking at building a "nationwide footprint," says Butch Musselman. "You can have nationwide coverage on one platform that is very consistent, very secure. That's a lot different than someone driving around trying to find a hot spot."
Musselman also says he thinks companies have been wanting to push more data and information out to their mobile employees but have not had the bandwidth or the speed to do so. "With WiMax, you can do that now."
It doesn't seem that long ago that cell phones freed drivers from waiting in line for a pay phone when they needed to check in with dispatch. In those early years, coverage was sparse between major cities, but saving 10 or 15 minutes a day on phone calls showed the potential such technology held for improving productivity. Now your cell phone takes digital pictures, receives and sends e-mail, browses the Internet and contains GPS capability. Other wireless devices on the truck can send vehicle telematics back to the home office, provide routing and fuel-buying information and keep track of a driver's hours of service. And with a Wi-Fi or connection card on your laptop, you can surf the web, send e-mail and log into the company intranet. It really is a wireless world.
