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Byline: jim mele, editor in chief

Trucking was one of the first users of the mobile computer, mounting hardened boxes in truck cabs to capture basic operating data. As the technology evolved, mobile computers have become nearly ubiquitous in both business and personal life, handling everything from simple appointment calendars to full-blown office productivity suites freed from the office desk.

However, as an industry based on mobility, trucking remains one of the most enthusiastic and inventive exploiters of this rapidly changing technology, and a look to the near future indicates that that relationship is only going to grow deeper.

For the most part, fleets currently use one of three mobile computer types, or "form factors" - hardened laptop PCs, specialized cab-mounted or "embedded" units, and hardened versions of handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs). The choice of form factor is largely a function of the fleet's fairly specialized niche within the trucking industry and what mobile applications offer the most value for its particular operations.

Laptop PCs hardened to withstand rough handling and weather are currently most often used in field support applications where technicians need the computing flexibility and power. Combined with a wireless modem, they can also provide mobile workers with the same access to a company network and enterprise applications as a desk-bound office worker.

A full keyboard, however, is less than ideal for data entry in most fleet applications and common laptop displays don't work well in outdoor lighting conditions. A full Windows-based environment can also be intimidating and overly complex for many mobile applications.

New tablet portable PCs running Windows solve those problems and could bring much wider fleet use of the full PC, according to Todd Einck, president of JLT Mobile Computers.

"Now the key is application software, not hardware, and we expect to see an explosion of tablet PC use by a number of different types of fleets," says Einck.

Larger regional and local route delivery fleets will be the first to switch from smaller handhelds running limited operating systems like Palm OS or Windows CE because those platforms offer only limited integration with enterprise systems, Einck predicts. "They'll see huge gains in efficiency with Windows-based tablets capturing customer invoice and signature data in the field and tied wirelessly into the corporation's current office application software," he says.

The form, with its large format touch screen display, also offers significant advantages for field service fleet operations. "A field technician, for example, can plot or modify maps directly, build up customer orders on site or access technical data remotely through a web portal," Einck says.

Currently tablet PCs are more expensive than hardened laptops, but as prices come down, even longhaul fleets will eventually see the benefits of moving to fully functional Windows-based PCs in that form, Einck believes.

The specialized onboard computer (OBC) mounted in the truck cab and tied into the vehicle data bus was the first fleet application for mobile computers, and it's still the most popular with longhaul carriers and others interested in capturing driver and vehicle operating information.

"Fleets still want the productivity, customer service and compliance benefits that come with a hardwired system that automatically captures data even without driver inputs," says Tom Lemke, Cadec Corp. executive vice president.

For example, Cadec's Mobius TTS onboard computer automates driver logs and fuel-tax reporting while providing fleet managers with data for dispatch, accounting, payroll and other management functions.

RELIABLE DATA CAPTURE

Portable units like tablets or handhelds are important for pulling delivery or other business information into enterprise systems, but it's much harder to use them to reliably capture truck operational data, especially data tied to accurate location information from GPS systems, Lemke explains.

Remote control of truck diagnostics and even operations also requires an "embedded solution," says Robert Schumacher, the business line executive for wireless products at Delphi Corp.'s Delco Electronics Div. Mounted systems like Delco's TruckPC, which fits in the dashboard's radio slot, are also important for new security applications because they're more tamperproof and can be tied directly to an engine control unit to cripple or shut down a truck if necessary, he points out.

While the original onboard computers all used proprietary operating systems, in recent years there has been a strong move to open, common OS to make it easier to integrate collected data with other applications. The most common candidate these days is Windows CE, a small OS developed by Microsoft to complement the full Windows environment.

A common OS "encourages more developers to offer more applications, which in turn attracts more developers and so on," says Schumacher. "An open system also makes it easier to upgrade and reprogram as necessary."

With new generations of wireless networks offering reduced data communications costs and increased data speeds, the amount of data transferred from OBCs to those enterprise systems should also increase dramatically. "Often information has to be real-time to be useful," says Schumacher. "The whole point of (OBCs) is to reduce overall operating costs by improving productivity and security. The wireless link is critical to that effort, and the next generation of wireless technology will greatly increase the amount of data fleets will have to help them manage."

Handheld PDAs hardened for industrial use and often fitted with integrated bar-code scanners are most popular for route delivery applications and other cargo tracking chores. Combining relatively low cost with simple interfaces, a handheld can be carried into a customer location to capture data at the package level, which can then be downloaded when the driver returns to the terminal or over a wireless network.

Like the two other form factors, handhelds have also migrated to open, common OS, usually Windows CE or in some cases, Palm. Both systems were developed specifically to handle the power, memory and processor restraints imposed by the PDA's small size.

While interest in PDAs continues to grow, the latest trend in handheld devices combines cellphones with the ability to run fleet management applications, according to Tom Allen, chief operation office for @Road, a provider of wireless fleet management applications.

Two new competing technologies called Brew and Java 2 Mobile Enterprise (J2ME) allow web-based services to be accessed by "smart" cellphones and new generation cellular networks. Initially, Brew and J2ME added messaging to cellphones, but @Road and others have developed a range of fleet management applications including tracking, dispatch and inventory control that can be run over the new networks.

MIX AND MATCH

"I believe cellphones, PDAs, combinations of the two and a number of PC variants will all co-exist, and (fleet) choice will depend on the applications they want to run," say Allen.

One major benefit of the J2ME or Brew approach is easier management of multiple units in the field since upgrades and new applications can be automatically pushed out the phones. That, says Allen, will make them particularly attractive to small and mid-sized operations that lack dedicated IT staff.

While Allen also points to back-office integration as an important characteristic for this new handheld approach, he says those small to mid-sized fleets aren't necessarily interested in having mobile devices communicate directly with backend applications. "We offer to capture those transactions, and as a service provide a bridge into legacy or back-office applications," he says.

No matter what mobile computer form factor a fleet chooses, the goal is the same. "Fifteen years ago, desktops came into the office as tools for accounting, but eventually everyone in the office needed access to a computer to communicate within the organization," says Todd Einck. "Then computers were moved into the manufacturing plant and distribution facilities to close the loop inside the building. Now we're closing the last portion of that loop, the portion outside the building and on the road."

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