On Land or Through the Air
SAN DIEGO — In a sense, the buzz on the exhibit floor at the American Trucking Associations’ annual conference was transmitted wirelessly as firms touted the benefits of palm-size minicomputers and other gadgets to communicate with drivers.
While wireless technologies hold great promise, however, limitations to areas covered by land-based communications networks mean that certain applications are not right for certain trucking operations. If a driver is not in a coverage area, the message doesn’t get through.
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Technologies are at hand that enable companies to dispatch and route trucks and exchange e-mails and two-way messages with drivers using cellular telephones and electronic devices such as Palm Pilots.
The same communication hardware may also help owner-operators duke it out with high-end trucking firms at a fraction of the cost of satellite technologies and onboard computers.
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