iTECH: Dual Tracking Mode — Best of Both Worlds?

By Daniel P. Bearth, Senior Features Writer

This story appears in the February/March issue of iTECH, published in the Feb. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Some makers of integrated mobile communication systems are adopting technologies that enable their fleet customers to take advantage of both the broad geographic coverage offered by satellites and high-volume, low-cost data transmission over cellular phone networks.

Dual-mode tracking is the latest step in the evolution of asset data transmission.

Qualcomm Enterprise Services, the most prominent supplier of mobile satellite communications services to trucking, for example, transmits position data through a series of terrestrial networks as part of its T2 Untethered TrailerTracs system. Last year, the company added a cellular data modem and antenna to its mainstay in-cab satellite communications system to provide voice and data communications.

Another supplier, GE Trailer Fleet Services, expanded into the terrestrial domain of vehicle tracking with the purchase of Terion Inc. in early 2007.

Terion was one of the first companies to market a tracking system for trailers using cellular analog signals. Truckload carriers J.B. Hunt Transport and Knight Transportation were among Terion’s customers.

After Feb. 20, however, mobile phone networks no longer will be required by law to support analog signal technology.

The change means that service to analog units eventually will “disappear,” said Sam Gill, a management consultant who works closely with several asset-tracking service providers.

Before the sale, Terion had begun switching some customers to a system that uses digital signals. Terion’s new owner, GE, offers a satellite-based tracking system called VeriWise, which has been installed by Wal-Mart and the U.S. Postal Service fleets.

Joseph Salvo, a telematics engineer at GE’s Global Research Center in Schenectady, N.Y., said GE’s approach “is not just creating a connecting device” but developing an “knowledge network” to help companies manage data about their operations.

“It’s not about asset tracking anymore,” Salvo said. “It’s a systems world we are entering.”

At the time GE set up the VeriWise tracking system, Salvo said, satellite was the “only option” that could provide the coverage needed by companies with national and international supply chains. Now with advances in cellular technology, “other features have become desirable.”

“The ability to switch between communications modes will be a value play,” Salvo said. “To some, the ability to get information on demand will be a differentiator. Getting information in a secure manner will be important to others.”

GE, along with several other tracking services, such as AirIQ Inc., rely on a constellation of 29 low-earth-orbit satellites and ground infrastructure developed by Orbcomm Inc. to provide two-way communication. (This is not the same as the federal government’s medium-orbit satellites, which provide electronic triangulation for the Global Positioning System, aka GPS.)

In December, AirIQ announced the hiring of an outside investment bank to conduct a review of strategic alternatives for the company. (Earlier, AirIQ cut its workforce by 23% to save money, in part, because a decline in the value of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar had effectively raised the company’s expenses and hurt profits.)

Other tracking suppliers, such as SkyBitz Inc. and TransCore, rely on geostationary satellites operated by Mobile Satellite Ventures and other satellite companies for messaging.

SkyBitz President Homaira Akbari said users want to connect tracking data to their mobile phones and laptop computers, enabling fleet managers to keep tabs on operations wherever they are.

In one case, a customer was able to move away from an in-cab mobile communications system, Akbari said.

“The market is looking at dual-mode, terrestrial and satellite systems,” she said.

David Sward, general manager of TransCore’s GlobalWave business, said satellite technology is still the best option for tracking assets.

“There are a number of cellular devices available, but the issues are coverage and battery life,” Sward said. “Satellite is the only way to achieve full coverage and provide multiyear power life.”

David Roscoe, vice president of research and development, said TransCore is working on technology that will increase the capacity of untethered trailer-tracking devices to process data, enabling fleet users to reduce the size and cost of hardware and power consumption.

One project is focused on tracking devices for ocean containers, in which data can flow between tracking devices in stacked containers, eliminating the need for a direct line of sight to satellites overhead.

To grow demand for the satellite segment, Orbcomm is counting on equipment manufacturers to install more dual-mode devices that add in terrestrial capacities,

“We expect to see several new applications,” Marc Eisenberg, chief operating officer of the Fort Lee, N.J., supplier, said in reporting financial results for third quarter of 2007.

Among the companies that have agreed to install dual-mode devices are mobile phone operator AT&T, construction equipment manufacturer Hitachi and tracking-system developer Archetype, he said.

Craig Fuller, president of TransMarkets LLC, a company that develops software applications for trucking and logistics, said satellites provide a critical backup to terrestrial communications systems.

The importance of having multiple communication links was aptly demonstrated in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when land lines and cell phone towers were either destroyed or overwhelmed by call volume, he said.

In 2006, TransMarkets introduced a self-powered emergency communication trailer that is equipped with nine satellite uplinks and eight military-grade PCs able to access multiple modes — Wi-Fi, cellular and satellite — to keep track of movements of supplies during a natural disaster or emergency.

Because the amount of data that can be transmitted via satellite is limited, satellites are becoming more “pager-like” in their applications, Fuller said, while high-speed terrestrial networks increasingly handle large amounts of data, voice and video.

“Cellular is where you’re seeing mass adoption, and that’s where you’ll see innovation. You can transmit data very cheaply,” Fuller said.

Orbcomm’s LEO satellites act as a message relayer. They transmit packets of data in bursts when overhead.

In tracking, the crucial information comes from the transmitting device, onboard the truck or trailer, which has collected a position fix from GPS satellites and in-service data from the vehicles. In satellite relay, a ground station receives the tracking signal and facilitates the ultimate delivery of the data. The message can be loaded onto Web servers or routed over a cellular network to the fleet manager’s computer or cell phone.

In cellular mode, the message begins its journey over a land-based cell connection.

One of TransMarkets’ products is in-cab training programs customized for drivers and changing circumstances. It can provide a refresher course on driving in snow to a driver leaving Arizona for a trip across the Cascades or a program that reminds a driver about proper procedures for taking a load across the border into Canada.

Fuller said the integration of GPS, mobile communications and the Internet will give truck drivers the ability to perform more tasks, such as finding freight and transmitting documents, and enable drivers to operate much more independently over the road.

“It’s an exciting time,” Fuller said.