Schneider Upgrades Tractors With New Onboard Computers
This story appears in the March 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Schneider National said it has fitted about one-quarter of its 12,000 tractors with new onboard computers in a fleetwide rip-and-replace that, for the first time, will bring graphical navigation and electronic driver logs to every truck.
Schneider has tested electronic logs and piped out text-based directions to drivers on the road before, but this will be the first time the company has tried anything broader in scope than that throughout the entire fleet, said Richard Hardt, vice president of technical services at Schneider National, Green Bay, Wis.
Schneider began in October to install Qualcomm MCP200 units in company and owner-operator tractors alike after a two-year trial. The company expects to complete the project this fall. Schneider has been a Qualcomm customer since the San Diego-based company put out its first OmniTracs units in the 1980s.
The MCP200, successor to Qualcomm’s MCP100 series, still has a touch screen and a pullout keyboard. Unlike the 100 series, the MCP200 has both cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity, in addition to an Internet browser. The latter two are a first for any Qualcomm device.
Schneider National ranks No. 9 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada and is the largest truckload carrier on the list.
Schneider will allow drivers to use the Internet browser to access personal e-mail accounts, but only under certain conditions, Hardt said. In addition, drivers will have Wi-Fi access only at Schneider’s own facilities.
“We haven’t turned on full-blown Wi-Fi access,” Hardt told TT. Drivers, he said, “have Wi-Fi capability at our operating centers but not beyond that.”
Schneider also plans to make on-demand training videos available to drivers. Training modules will include tips on the finer points of hauling specialized loads such as bulk and chemical shipments.
To access training modules, drivers will have to connect from a Wi-Fi “hot spot” at a Schneider operating center. Wi-Fi by far is the most cost-effective way to beam such large chunks of data out to a truck, Hardt said.
He added that drivers generally have responded positively to the new system and to the company’s conversion to electronic logs.
“We had more people lined up and anxious to get their units than we had people resisting it,” said Hardt.
“Once you get used to it, you will probably like it,” Schneider contract driver Sam Mobley said of the electronic log system.
