Consumer Market Shaping Handheld Devices Used by Trucking Industry, Manufacturers Say

This story appears in the March 12 print edition of Transport Topics.

Although today’s handheld devices continue to become smaller, tougher and far more capable than their clunky, limited-application predecessors, manufacturers and officials at the freight companies that rely on them said the next technological developments will be influenced by what’s happening in the consumer market.

“One trend that we have been tracking is what we call the ‘Smart Phone Effect,’ where transportation-based customers are evaluating consumer-based technologies as potential solutions to integrate and utilize in their enterprise environments,” said Greg Payne, senior manager of mobility systems at Honeywell International Inc., a Morristown, N.J., company that offers a variety of handhelds designed for the transportation industry.

New products with “that ‘wow’ factor,” such as Apple iPhones or Google Android smart phones, have caught the eyes of CEOs and operations managers, who are looking at them as alternatives to the handhelds created specifically for the transportation field, he said.

Jim Peeples, vice president of engineering, technology and transportation at parcel delivery company Purolator Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, said some of the intuitive features of consumer products like iPads, iPhones and BlackBerrys “are rubbing off into the business world.”

Michael Lackey Jr., director of operations technology at Estes Express Lines, agreed, saying that smart phones and tablets are clearly influencing transportation handhelds.

“There is no question one of the reasons that today’s ruggedized devices have smaller form factors and are less costly is because of the innovation and market saturation of consumer-grade smart phones and technology in the open market,” Lackey said in a statement.

One important benefit for transportation companies is that a good portion of the workforce already is   using one of these devices for personal use, he said.

“The familiarity and comfort level with the technology really helps tackle the acceptance gap at work,” Lackey said.

Estes drivers use “ruggedized” commercial-grade handheld computers manufactured by Intermec Technologies Corp.

These devices, which are used for both customer pickup and freight delivery, feature a wireless radio, scanning capabilities and the ability to support the carrier’s dispatch application, Lackey said.

“These handheld computers enable us to transmit critical pickup information to our drivers and capture detailed data for our customers and as well as for our own analytics,” he said.

Estes Express, based in Richmond, Va., ranks No. 17 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

Con-way Freight uses handhelds throughout its less-than-truckload business, said Tom Clark, executive vice president of operations.

Roughly 13,000 handhelds are used by all drivers across Con-way Freight’s 300 service centers in North America., he said.

“In our company, drivers play an important role as ‘driver sales representatives,’ and the deployment of handhelds to them has truly made them more effective and efficient in this capacity,” Clark said in a statement.

Con-way’s handhelds, which are manufactured by Motorola, are used in dock operations for both freight load planning and execution and by drivers in their daily pickup and delivery activities, he said.

Clark agreed that the consumer devices are paving the way for improvements in transportation handhelds.

“That industry leads the technology development curve; the handheld devices that are used in industrial environments typically follow,” he said. “It is a good indicator of where the technology will be going in coming years.”

Clark said his company thinks transportation handhelds will continue to become more rugged and more powerful, while using more applications to improve safety, operating efficiency and quality of service.

In particular, Con-way believes handhelds hold “great promise” in safety performance, Clark said.

One safety-related feature the company already has rolled out is a “placarding wizard” for the small percentage of Con-way’s shipments that are classified as hazardous materials.

This handheld application identifies a hazmat shipment and which trailer it’s in, properly classifies it, associates the right placard with the shipment and then instructs the driver on the proper placard to display on the trailer, Clark said.

“It automates the process entirely and eliminates errors from guesswork,” he added.

Con-way Freight is a business unit of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Con-way Inc., which ranks No. 3 on the for-hire TT100.

Mike Maris, senior director of transportation and logistics at Motorola Solutions Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., which offers its own suite of handhelds for the transportation segment, said the handheld devices already are about as small as they’re going to get, and they’re already highly durable. The next step would be including more interfaces to servicing equipment or, in other words, increasing machine-to-machine contact, he said.

Maris said handhelds could be used as more of a “control center within a truck” that receives information from sensors, such as those used to track the temperature in a refrigerated trailer or to detect when a tire is overheating.

Peeples said Purolator, which ranks No. 19 on the for-hire TT 100, plans to begin using new, more user-friendly applications for its handhelds in the next two months.

“The stuff we’re implementing is more intuitive, less process-based,” he said.

UPS Systems Manager Jackie Woods said that as wireless coverage continues to become more robust, it could give companies the freedom to move their handhelds’ business logic to a data center instead of housing it in the device itself. That shift would free up more memory in the handheld that could be devoted to other functions.

She also said handhelds could incorporate contactless payment technology. “Anything that makes couriers’ contact with the customer more seamless is something we’re looking for,” she said.

Atlanta-based UPS sits atop the  for-hire TT 100 list.

Patrick Reed, executive vice president and chief operating officer at FedEx Freight, Memphis, Tenn., said the use of picture technology and improved laser optics will play a larger role in the company’s future handhelds. FedEx Corp. ranks No. 2  on the for-hire TT 100 list.

However, Payne said that while smart phones are less expensive and offer user interfaces and “cool” form factors — such as size, shape and physical appearance — they lack the reliability, battery life and specialized data acquisition technology of enterprise handhelds.

Another communications device that is catching the attention of transportation companies is the tablet, said Maris, adding, “The tablet is the one big game changer right now.”

He said that Motorola offers a durable tablet for business use, its ET1 enterprise tablet, which features swappable batteries for extended use.

While waiting for these new devices to become available, courier executives expressed satisfaction with the handhelds they currently use — which not only include basic scanners designed to read bar codes and capture signatures but have evolved into versatile communications portals with enhanced wireless connectivity, GPS capabilities, advanced imaging and more.

UPS, which refers to its handhelds as its Delivery Information Acquisition Device, or DIAD, is currently deploying the fifth generation of its device.

The DIAD V is about half the size of its previous incarnation and is designed for use with one hand, said Woods, who is responsible for the company’s DIAD system. “The previous DIAD was definitely a two-handed operation,” she said.

The latest DIAD, which was developed by Honeywell International, also features a touch screen and “a very, very aggressive imager” for reading bar codes and 2-D symbology, Woods said, adding that this imaging technology is capable of reading bar codes when they’re damaged, crumpled or covered by packing materials.

That improvement makes couriers’ days more productive, she said.

UPS said the DIAD V is also the industry’s first mobile computer to use “Gobi” radio technology, which enables it to switch cellular carriers instantly if one carrier’s signal is lost.

UPS has deployed about 17,000 units of the DIAD V devices so far, Woods said.

The company said it plans to distribute a total of 100,000 units of the device to its drivers in the United States and around the world. Deployment of the latest DIAD, which is now under way worldwide, will be complete in 2013, UPS said in a statement.

FedEx Freight, meanwhile, was preparing for a March release of its sixth generation of handheld computers for its pickup and delivery drivers, Reed said.

He said the company’s current handhelds feature “the latest, most efficient [data] processor,” an advanced scanner, a radio configuration to accommodate four signals — Wide Area Network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS — and a battery life designed to last through a rigorous city operation without requiring them to be charged in truck cabs.

“More than just confirming shipments as picked up or delivered, these devices are used as a portal for all the necessary business analytics,” Reed said in a statement. “For example, the device monitors real-time location of all equipment, as well as automatically records arrival and departure times at customer locations and our facilities.”

The handheld also communicates state-line crossings for tax reporting and includes a feature that automatically locates dropped and connected trailers, he added.

FedEx said it uses a variety of vendors for its equipment but declined to identify specific manufacturers or models to avoid any implied endorsements.

Purolator’s Peeples said the improvement of wireless connectivity has been an important development for handhelds — as has extended battery life.

“These [devices] are getting used all day long,” Peeples said.

Couriers at Purolator currently use one multipurpose device, a Motorola MC70 mobile computer, which the company adopted in 2007, he said. These handhelds charge overnight in cradles and receive downloads and updates at the same time.

“If we change a customer’s address, that will be downloaded overnight in the scanner,” he said.

Purolator plans to replace some of its handhelds with new devices this year and into early 2013, Peeples said, adding that selecting which kinds of handheld devices to use is not just a matter of scooping up the latest technology but a matter of adopting those features that will truly benefit operations.

“Our business processes drive our technology needs,” he said.

He also said it’s also important to purchase a device that is expandable and can adapt to new changes in technology that are on the horizon.

The development of transportation handhelds has mirrored, in many ways, the development of cellphones.

The devices have become smaller and smaller while adding more and more functionality.

UPS’s first DIAD, launched in 1990, was used mostly to confirm delivery status, said Woods, who started at UPS only one year after the company launched the first-generation device.

“Proof of delivery was the big impetus for us to build and develop the DIAD,” she said.

At that time, cellphones were the size of bricks, Woods said, and the DIAD also was a bulky device, weighing in at 3.8 pounds. That compares to 1.3 pounds for the current DIAD V.

In 1993, UPS included built-in communications applications with the DIAD II.

The DIAD IV, deployed in 2004, was the first to include GPS positional data.

With each successive upgrade, the DIAD became lighter and gained a faster central processing unit and more memory, Woods said.

Reed said FedEx Freight has been using handheld devices for 17 years.

These devices have evolved over the years from one-dimensional tools to “communications portals where we are harvesting and transmitting equipment information, precise locations and automating many driver input functions that previously required a manual process,” Reed said.

Motorola’s Maris said the handhelds used in the transportation industry also have been designed to withstand the rigors of business use and are tougher than consumer devices.

“If you’re a driver and you jump out of the cab and have your smart phone fall out of your pocket, there’s a good chance it’s going to break,” he said.

As handhelds have become more and more functional, drivers have come to rely on them more than ever, Maris said.

“It becomes their best buddy. It’s on them, inside and outside of the truck,” he said.

Peeples said the development of handheld technology has dramatically streamlined the parcel delivery business.

“You can imagine the days before these advanced devices — everything the courier did was with pencil and paper. Today, that’s all done seamlessly on the device,” the Purolator vice president said.