The wireless road taken

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PAUL MUELLER IS leading a technology breakthrough at his company, deploying wireless devices to thousands of remote users and supervising a development staff to write customized software to support that rollout. Changes are occurring almost weekly as the wireless strategy inspires new money-saving ideas.

Mueller’s company is an unsexy, national trucking company, Schneider National, in Green Bay, Wis. And by leveraging wireless technologies, Mueller has his hands full implementing a strategy that is making business sense.

“We’ve been called a technology company masquerading as a trucking company,” says Mueller, vice president of technology services at one of the largest truckload carriers in North America with $2.4 billion in revenues in 2001 and some 14,000 trucks and 40,000 trailers.

Leading IT executives in the trucking and delivery industry are pushing a new wireless strategy as they equip their drivers and vehicles with a range of devices to refine their delivery management systems and drive profits.

The affordable costs of implementing wireless systems, from GPS (Global Positioning System)-loaded sensors to robust information input devices that can integrate with logistics planning back at headquarters, has made technology for trucking an area of growth and innovation.

The CTOs at both short-haul and long-haul trucking companies say they have been able to make a successful case for investment in wireless because of the clear ROI. “What you invest, you can make it up if you can get a few extra miles a day generating revenue or a couple of more loads a month,” Mueller says.

Indeed, at trucking — in essence logistics — companies, more and more attention is being focused on wireless technology to serve their business plans, says Iain Gillott of iGillottResearch in Austin, Texas. “In this industry, time is money and the load is money; anything to get more loads delivered efficiently is attractive,” he says.

Top-level IT executives at long-haul companies such as Schneider National and R&L Carriers are deploying satellite-connected technologies for navigation and information input, while short-haul deliverers such as FedEx Freight, Airborne Express, and Waste Management are using a variety of devices that are significantly enhancing logistics deployment.

Satellite connections

Mueller says Schneider National placed a big bet with Qualcomm and plans to raise those stakes even further to upgrade its IT strategy. The trucker is using Qualcomm’s satellite-based mobile communications and tracking system to provide real-time interactive messaging sent through Schneider National’s 160 dispatch centers throughout North America.

Equipped with an antenna, keyboard, and cable modem, Schneider National drivers can send and receive messages from a terminal in the cab to dispatch centers about topics such as load assignments. These communications are then integrated into the company’s logistics planning.

Mueller says in-house developers have linked the information to the needs of the company. “We have developed our own fleet management system setting up the most efficient matches for drivers and trucks with shipping loads,” he says.

In a major move next year that will hook the company’s 45,000 trailers to a tracking system, Schneider National plans to begin deploying GPS-equipped sensors in some trailers, Mueller says. “We have three trailers for every truck, so the sensors are not always used,” he says. “We want to be able to better understand the status of each trailer — where it is, who is using it.”

Mueller says there is much support inside the company for these technology innovations. “We are very focused on being as efficient and as low cost as we can, so technology is one of the critical enablers for us. It can be a differentiator,” he says.

Bill Seyfried, CTO of R&L Carriers in Wilmington, Ohio, which has 9,400 tractors and trailers in 33 states, says he is also getting support for pushing an aggressive technology strategy.

R&L Carriers teamed up with Sprint and with GOSOF.com, an ASP serving the transportation industry, to create an in-cab wireless information scanning and transfer system. The proprietary system allows the drivers to enter bills of lading into the scanner.

Within minutes after scanning, the bills can be entered into the company’s datacenter for multiple users, Seyfried says. With information automatically entered into the system, both drivers and in-house managers will be spared from filling out forms or entering information from one system into another.

“The technology sells itself,” Seyfried says. “The savings due to the reduction in manual procedures throughout the company are astronomical.”

A document-capture device mounted on the passenger seat “gets information into our system much more quickly than we had been able to do ourselves,” Seyfried says. The Gosof.com device has no keyboard and requires no user interaction other than placing the bill in the scanner. The information is sent via Sprint PCS Wireless Web Modem to company headquarters. “The technology leapfrogs everything that’s been out there,” Seyfried says.

Logistics breakthroughs

IT executives at companies with scores of daily pickup and delivery tasks, such as FedEx Freight, Airborne Express, and Waste Management, are feverishly implementing new wireless devices that give their drivers much more leeway to make decisions and disseminate information during their cram-packed schedules.

As a result, the companies are seeing significant improvements in the efficiency of their logistics management systems, the IT leaders say. FedEx Freight, a subsidiary of FedEx, and Airborne Express are using multiple wireless devices, giving their drivers more information and responsibility.

“We’re using wireless as both a competitive weapon and as a way to better serve our customers,” says Jeff Amerine, managing director of communication and networks services at FedEx Freight, in Memphis, Tenn. Company drivers now carry Research in Motion pagers to send and receive information such as pickup and delivery schedules.

During the next several months, the company will roll out a Pocket PC device that promises to combine barcode scanning capability with a color screen and data transmission. The company has not officially announced the provider of the PC device.

“The device will help the driver do tracking, shipment processing, and eventually will allow them to take sales orders,” Amerine says. “That’s the direction we’re heading in.”

Further empowering the driver has also been the aim of Seattle-based Airborne Express, which is beginning to roll out handheld Motorola data terminals with bar-code scanners to its 15,000 drivers over either the Nextel network or a network run by Cingular Wireless. Until now the drivers used two-way radios. Customers will be able to access to the shipment tracking system.

“Our customers are thrilled to get this information in real time about delivery,” says Bill Ashby, vice president of field services at Airborne.

Even garbage haulers are using cutting-edge wireless technologies. For example, Houston-based Waste Management , is now deploying to its 20,000 trucks nationwide an in-cab wireless terminal from @Road using Nextel networks that offers text messaging and document transmittal.

Alex Popov, Waste Management’s director of fleet services, says that with the technology drivers can now adjust their routes on the fly. “Once you have the data [accessible through a wireless system], you can only imagine all the possibilities it gives you,” he says.

Correction

In this article, we misreported Paul Mueller’s role at Schneider National. He works in unison with the development staff. Also, we misreported the type of place through which Schneider National sends messages and what kind of modem drivers are equipped with. The company has 160 locations connected through a WAN, and drivers use a satellite modem.