In Touch and Unplugged

By Amy Zuckerman

Delivery and service fleets are big winners as suppliers offer more wireless applications.

In the light and medium truck sector, where wireless technology is often limited to drivers equipped with cell phones and some form of Global Positioning System devices, wireless providers said they are making a major effort to bring new applications and products to this market.

Hardware and applications are already available, and more are coming. A wide range of wireless devices are being used to perform a myriad of functions that promote on-time deliveries and fuel savings and monitor everything from engine and tire conditions to driver behavior.

In the food and beverage delivery world drivers are turning into inventory managers, utilizing radio frequency identification, or RFID, scanners, handhelds or laptops for transmitting data to a warehouse or headquarters for quick inventory processing.

Even municipal waste trucks are being equipped with RFID scanners that automatically tally loads and transmit that information to a central source.

In the lead to penetrate the market are big-gun carriers like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Nextel. Software developers like Intervolve and Insight Distribution Software (recently acquired by HighJump Software of Eden Prairie, N.D.) have been actively promoting wireless applications in the food and beverage market for several years.

Wireless carriers protect proprietary sales and marketing information, so there is no way to determine exactly how much these types of applications have penetrated the light and medium truck sector.

What is clear from interviews with the major wireless carriers and software developers is that the quickly advancing world of third generation or 3G wireless technology is permeating the Classes 3-7 sector.

Referring to recent U.S. Department of Transportation statistics, Harold Allen, senior marketing manager, Industry Solutions – Transportation & Logistics for AT&T, said of the 20 million vehicles in the United States utilizing wireless services, roughly 60% are delivery or service vehicles. Of that 60%, Allen said the DOT reports that approximately 25% fall into the service fleet category and the rest are delivery trucks.

AT&T works with a variety of hardware and software provides such as Trimble, WebTech, Xora and TeleNav, Allen said. For example, the carrier uses TeleNav technology that works on handsets to monitor the driver performance and relays that information to dispatch. T

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