Saturday March 23, 2002

Truckers are techies too. Why truckers make the best beta-testers discusses the high tech world of trucking. I did a little research into this a couple years ago and found that not only do the truckers have access to some cool technology, but the trucking company's are really digging it too. We talked with companies that setup communications with the trucks to find out their location (onboard GPS), load status, and even to tap into the engine electronics. With some rigs the home office can find out if there are any problems with the rig, download statistics, and tweak a few of the parameters (max speed, jake brake rules, etc...). Companies use wireless and spatial techniques for correlating their network of goods to the location of trucks and drivers, optimizing for mileage, cost, and regulations. In one of the truck stop magazines I read about truck stop parking lots with 10baseT plugins. Check out the Mobile Office setup guide from truckstop.com