Parting the Information Technology Sea

TUCSON, Ariz. – Trucking companies risk being drowned by the flood of technologies and logistics services coming onto the market. And judging by the number of exhibitors at last week's conference of the Information Technology and Logistics Council, trucking may risk being overwhelmed by vendors.

Of the 300 or so people attending the June 6 to 9 conference, those offering products and services outnumbered the information systems specialists from motor carriers. Several of the trucking attendees grumbled that vendors also dominated the agendas of technical sessions, leaving inadequate opportunity to discuss real-world experiences with information technology.

This underlined a quandary for trucking's IT professionals: how to know which technologies will improve the way they do business and which may saddle them with extraneous information.

Experts advised caution in jumping at the latest and greatest technology, but also emphasized the urgency to begin automating systems if their companies are to continue to compete.

In his keynote remarks, Jack Shaw, president of Electronic Commerce Solutions, an e-commerce consultant in Marietta, Ga., said the world is being hit by a "tidal wave of change." As an example, e-commerce (purchasing goods over the Internet), which accounted for $40 billion worth of business in 1998, will grow to $1.4 trillion by 2003. Rapid delivery is part of the attraction of e-commerce, and to compete, trucking companies will have to provide better, faster service and at less cost.

But the opportunities are "mind-boggling," Shaw said.

Several speakers addressing the American Trucking Associations' council said each company must decide how to approach these potential markets without overextending themselves. The decision-making related to investing in new technology is essentially the same regardless of the size of the company, but the scale differs drastically.

For the full story, see the June 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.