Connected and Truckin

Connected and Truckin'

Think that this connected vision is still a vision of the future? Think again. There are already pockets of advanced connectivity hidden away within our society that are doing incredible things with what is available to them now.

Truckstop.net and Sprint have rolled out WiFi service to more than 3,000 truck stops across the United States.^[4] There are more than 4.5 million truckers in the United States, and approximately half of them are avid laptop users. Surprised? Don't be. Laptops deliver many benefits to both truckers and the companies they work for, some of which are not immediately obvious.

^[4] http://www3.sprint.com/PR/CDA/PR_CDA_Press_Kits_Detail/1,3685,146,00.html.

"A trucker's cab is his mobile office," explains Alan Meiusi, COO of Truckstop.net, "and as such, they should be able to access the services that they would regularly enjoy as if they were back at headquarters or at home. Enabling them to do more out on the road allows them more time with their families when at home instead of paperwork and business arrangements. It is more than having truckers surf Web sites and send e-mail. It is an integral part of running their business."

Meiusi goes on to explain that truckers use e-mail for order and delivery confirmation, and they use the Web to post available truck capacity or inventory. They also search the Web for freight opportunities and use wireless/GPS for remote check-in and tracking. A typical tractor trailer is an asset worth more than $100,000, excluding cargo. Add insurance and the driver's salary and the value of that asset triples. There is great interest on the part of the trucking companies to track the asset, maximize usage, and ensure the safety and health of both the tractor and the driver.

WiFi access at rest stops is today being used to upload engine and equipment information automatically back to the operations center. In the future, trucking operations centers will be able to track an individual truck's braking performance, engine efficiency, mileage, and other details. This will greatly increase the safety and reduce the cost of maintaining the vehicle. As importantly, with wireless access, new trip itineraries can be easily downloaded that take into consideration weather, roadwork, and any shift in customer requirements and delivery information.

Some trucking companies distribute training videos and material directly over the Internet to wireless trucker hotspots. Drivers who are required to complete some number of safety-training hours each year can now take those courses from the comfort of their cabsoff road, we hope. By law, drivers are required to be off the road for a set number of hours per day to allow for rest. Tracking the truck in a WiFi hotspot enables the company to prove compliance while at the same time allowing the trucker to be more efficient and catch up on electronic paperwork, training, maintenance instructions, and so forth.

Truckers benefit from and enjoy being connected as well. Being a segment of society that lives largely away from home, WiFi spots give them a sense of community with fellow truckers and open another communication channel with family members. Truckers now rely on e-mail to keep in close touch with their families and can do so at rest stops during normal off hours. Many truckers carry digital cameras and upload pictures of their travels to family members as well as pictures of cargo and receipts back to the operations center. For independent truckers, WiFi connectivity enables them to schedule trips, better optimize loads, and be more accessible to customers during trips. Truckers have also discovered that, by using Voice over IP (VoIP; the technology that allows telephone communication over the Internet) they can place a call to anywhere for free and avoid costly cell phone roaming charges.

So, here is an industry segment that on the surface seems mundane and low tech, but that has not only adopted data connectivity, it now requires it for reasons ranging from increased efficiency to regulated tracking of loads across interstate and international borders. The WiFi technology that allows a large trucking firm's operations center to run its business better is the same technology that allows its employees more comfort and happiness away from home. Large and small firms alike can leverage its values; it is easily within the economic reach of all involved. In the future, we will see tie-ins with more data sources that, for example, could allow a trucker's onboard system to check live road-condition data as reported by nearby truckers and public roadwork databases, access a customer's loading dock status in real time, and so on (from among the many yet-to-be-thought-of data sources).

City-Wide WiFi

A number of cities are either in the process of rolling out city-wide WiFi access to the Internet or evaluating such a venture. Philadelphia is considering creating a $10 million city-wide WiFi hotspot.^[5] If implemented, this would be the world's largest hotspot. They would locate transmitters on streetlights and other public utility areas around the city to form a large, seamless hotspot. Philadelphia officials are leaning toward making access to the service free in an effort to help make the Internet more available to those city residents who cannot afford to pay monthly service fees, allowing more people to cross the divide.

Other cities already have areas with municipal WiFi networks. Among others, these include Corpus Christi, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; Long Beach, California; and Spokane, Washington. A prominent Boston city councilor named John M. Tobin wants to establish a pervasive city-wide WiFi network, believing that it will not only promote community awareness, but get both residents and tourists out of their apartments and hotel rooms and into the parks and restaurants. Although Tobin states that his initiative is all about "fairness and accessibility," we note that it could draw more visitors to the city who will spend money and thereby increase tax revenues. (Similarly, a for-profit company is attempting to WiFi-enable a sizeable chunk of Nantucket Island, including the waterways). However, we surmise that, over time, a price will be paid for accessing city-wide WiFi services, either in the form of a direct payment for WiFi access time (the Starbucks/T-Mobile model) or in obtrusive advertisements as a city tax you pay electronically. Are we as connected cognoscenti at the beginning phases of having pervasive (and perhaps free or low-cost) WiFi access (i.e., WiFi wherever we go)? Keep your PDA-tapping fingers crossed.

^[5] http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/20040901-4149.html.