iTECH: Smart Phone Apps for Trucking

When truck drivers grab their smart phones to search for the best chili dog or shower facilities, or to see how many hours on the road they have left, there’s an app for that.  There were almost 20 times as many transportation applications available for mobile devices in 2011 as there were the year before, technology experts said.

“In October 2010, there were 410 transportation apps available for Android; [now] there are 7,044 transportation apps on everything from finding cheap fuel to finding the closest bus or how to find a taxi,” said Christian Schenk, vice president for product marketing at Xata Corp., Eden Prairie, Minn. “Then, there are apps from companies like ours having to do with compliance, dispatching, EOBRs and fleet management.”

Schenk said that 86% of drivers already are carrying some type of mobile communication device, and 44% of those are smart phones.

“With the growing prevalence of smart phone use, and the innovative apps, devices and platforms that are on the market and under development, we know that drivers are leveraging the convenience and ease of use of these tools to conduct their business,” said John Sarto, senior vice president of business and product development for Qualcomm Enterprise Services, San Diego.

“With the evolution of fleet telematics, we anticipate these will become a staple supplement to in-cab devices, due to the versatility, portability and growing functionality of device platforms,” Sarto said. He added that, according to a survey from online transport marketplace uShip, 6,000 respondents disclosed they had increased their mobile use, with 54% of truckers using e-mail and 27% of them using mobile apps.

This explosion in apps for commercial transportation is expected to continue in 2012.

“Mobile apps will continue to grow in the trucking industry because of their convenience and because more people are using smart phones than ever before,” said Trisha Torrado, a spokeswoman for Comdata Inc., Brentwood, Tenn.

The electronic payment company, which offers fuel cards to fleet managers, recently unveiled its Comdata Mobile app that permits fuel-card updates, one-time overrides and a locator for the cheapest diesel and gas.

Many trucking executives said smart phone apps have proven to be an industry game changer.

“These mobile apps give us a better way to handle drivers rather than just answering radio and telephone calls,” said Mark Stein, director of operations at Central Freight Lines Inc., a regional hauler based in Waco, Texas.

Mobile apps have streamlined communication with drivers, Stein said, adding, “It allows us to look at managing drivers differently than we did in the past.”

For example, apps allow for immediate dispatching decisions on pickups and deliveries because all information is in real-time, Stein said.

“These apps can also give you warnings when you’re about to violate time windows. And because they have maps, a dispatcher can see five drivers in a certain area and make a choice of which one to use,” he said.

While dispatchers are wild about mobile apps that tell them where their drivers and freight are, not all apps support actual truck runs. Those produced by McLeod Software Inc. are geared toward the management of trucking companies and work even if no one’s in the building.

“The job doesn’t stop just because they are out of the office,” said Mark Cubine, vice president of marketing at the Birmingham, Ala., company.

Apps notify managers of important events, provide them with necessary data to understand those events and the ability to respond in a timely manner when quick action can make a difference, he explained.

Motor carriers using McLeod apps with its LoadMaster or PowerBroker systems also are free from the need to always have a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection to access information about customers, orders or loads, Cubine said. Instead, apps allow these data to be accessed anytime and at any place on a smart phone.

Makers of apps have to choose which platform they wish their products to run on: Examples include Android from Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif., or iPhone and iPad products from Apple Inc., Cupertino, Calif. There’s also the BlackBerry platform from Research in Motion Inc., Irving, Texas, and Symbian from Accenture.

Cheetah Software Systems Inc., Westlake Village, Calif., offers its Cheetah Mobile application on three platforms: Java-enabled cellphones, Windows Mobile 6.X, and Android, said spokesman Mark Coppock.

“The Android app represents our latest generation, while we continue to support Java-enabled cellphones and Windows Mobile for customers who have not yet made the transition to Android,” he said, adding that Cheetah is either evaluating or developing products for Apple’s iOS system as well as Windows phone platforms.

In general, Cheetah sees the mobile space (beyond the Java-enabled cellphone) as composed of two converging platforms.

“There’s the previous ruggedized Windows Mobile PDA platform that has long provided a specific set of features to drivers and service technicians, such as bar-code scanning and signature capture,” Coppock said.

“And today, there’s the modern smart phone platform, of which Android and iPhone are the predominant players, that offers the same essential features at a lower price point,” he added.

Xata Turnpike has a mobile application component called tpMobile, which runs on the Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Java platforms, said Charlie Mohn, director of product management at Xata Corp.

tpMobile, which includes electronic driver logs and vehicle inspections, talks through Bluetooth to the RouteTracker electronic onboard recorder to capture and send location and vehicle performance data to Xata Turnpike’s fleet manage-

ment Web portal, Mohn said. The app can even talk to other mobile apps, such as proof of delivery, so drivers can streamline their workflow.

Mohn added that tpMobile runs on consumer mobile devices, eliminating a need to purchase expensive, proprietary in-cab hardware.

While tpMobile is certified to run on the Android platform, it doesn’t work with iPhones. But tpMobile does not require any driver interaction while a vehicle’s on the road; it simply runs in the background, Mohn said.

McLeod’s app runs on Apple and Android devices, and the company has development teams for each platform, Cubine said.

Despite the popularity of mobile apps, not every company uses them.

Farnsworth Logistics Inc. bought its own smart phones and gave them to its company drivers. But the company discovered that many drivers declined to use them. Farnsworth, which is increasing its use of owner-operators with small dedicated fleets, responded by installing trackers on its trailers.

“We need to track our freight, and our freight is on the trailers,” said Scott Houser, information technology director at Farnsworth, Atlanta. Farnsworth monitors its freight by calling drivers and pinpoints the location of a trailer within a half-hour, Houser said.

Even companies that do not produce trucking mobile phone apps, have similar offerings for other communications devices.

“We are making some of our Web-based tools reformattable for mobile-device screens so that people can get management reports on their iPad browser,” said Monica Truelsch, director of marketing for TMW Systems Inc., the Cleveland maker of electronic onboard recorders and transportation management software.

Truelsch added that TMW’s D2Link product, which is more of a tracking and onboard computer product than an operations tool, is offered for Android and BlackBerry RIM devices, she said. But it’s not available for iPhones yet.

The use of apps in trucking is only going to increase, executives said.

“It is clear to us for the back office, sales, and management users that McLeod . . . will need to support both platforms for the foreseeable future,” said McLeod’s Cubine.

And it seems every trucking company has taken notice.

“We’re aware of all the apps, and we want to adapt to the times,” said Robert Ragan, senior vice president of finance at Melton Truck Lines Inc., a Tulsa, Okla., flatbed carrier. “It’s like Facebook. Everybody is on it now, but none of us were three years ago.”