Map-Maker Rand McNally Takes Stake in DriverTech
By Dan Leone, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Oct. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Rand McNally took a minority ownership stake in DriverTech LLC, positioning the Skokie, Ill., map maker to compete directly with other mobile communications providers.
The companies announced the deal in an Oct. 4 statement. Terms were not disclosed.
“We’ve been looking at this space for a while,” Dave Muscatel, CEO of Rand McNally, said of the onboard communications market. Now, he said, “It looks like this market is ready to explode.”
Under the deal, DriverTech’s commercial trucking product will be rebranded “Rand McNally Truck PC,” and Rand McNally will become the sole sales conduit for the devices.
DriverTech will bow out of most customer-facing functions and concentrate on research and development for future trucking products.
In addition, Rand McNally will license its IntelliRoute navigation software for use on DriverTech systems.
DriverTech makes onboard computers and fleet-management software. Qualcomm Inc., PeopleNet and Xata Corp. are the company’s direct competitors for fleet business. Rand McNally publishes the Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas and also makes fleet-management software and personal navigation devices for truck drivers.
Between mounting regulatory pressure driving late-adopter fleets to wire their trucks and the coming-of-age of much of the equipment already installed at U.S. trucking companies, Muscatel said, “We have a very good chance of replacing some Qualcomm systems.”
Navigation is Rand McNally’s forte, and the company said that it has sold “many” of its Intelli-Route TND (truck navigation device) units.
Investing in DriverTech allows Rand McNally to offer its navigation product without forcing fleets to add another piece of hardware to the dashboard alongside their onboard computers.
“To buy a standalone TND device is a tougher sell,” Muscatel told Transport Topics on Oct. 4. Truck fleets already accustomed to systems in the mold of Qualcomm Inc.’s OmniTracs, Muscatel said, prefer to consolidate driver-facing software onto a single device.
DriverTech was founded in 1995 and offers mobile communication systems for industries other than trucking.
Within trucking, DriverTech’s largest customers are U.S. Xpress Enterprises and Interstate Distributor Co., the company said.
DriverTech CEO Mark Haslam said that turning over sales and distribution functions to Rand McNally will put DriverTech’s hardware in the hands of “someone with a marketing budget.”
