Technology Briefs - June 21 - June 27
The Latest Headlines:
- GeoLogic Adds Cingular Network Option
- Former N.Y. Brewery to Produce Biodiesel
- Celadon Terminal to Get WiFi 'Hot Spot'
- Former N.Y. Brewery to Produce Biodiesel
GeoLogic Adds Cingular Network Option
Communications and tracking systems provider GeoLogic Solutions said June 22 it would add Cingular’s digital cellular network to its communications offerings by the fall.Cingular would be available as a non-satellite network option for GeoLogic’s satellite and its terrestrial, or signal-tower based, fleet management and mobile communications system, GeoLogic said.
John Lewis, GeoLogic’s chief executive officer, told Transport Topics the new option would be compatible with all its 35,000 units currently in the field. Transport Topics
Former N.Y. Brewery to Produce Biodiesel
Entrepreneurs plan to use a former brewery to build New York state’s first biodiesel plant to make motor fuel from raw materials such as soybean oil and french-fry grease, the Associated Press reported.The plant will be built by NextGen Fuel in space leased from Northeast Biofuels, which also is building a refinery to produce ethanol from corn at the same plant, AP said.
The facilities would adapt the vats and other equipment left behind by a Miller Brewing facility that closed in 1994 to make fuel from agricultural products.
NextGen Fuel expects to begin operation by August. The output would be sold to fuel distributors, who would blend it with petroleum-based fuel and sell it to truck fleets or heating fuel customers, AP reported.
The project got a boost June 15 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program, which awarded a $99,500 grant to help the company acquire equipment, AP said. Transport Topics
Celadon Terminal to Get WiFi 'Hot Spot'
SiriComm Inc., an applications service provider and nationwide broadband wireless network operator serving the highway transportation industry, said Celadon Trucking Services will install a SiriComm Wi-Fi Hot Spot at its Indianapolis truck terminal.Celadon drivers will then be invited to subscribe to InTouch, SiriComm’s wireless Internet access service, which will give drivers wireless access to the Internet anytime they are in a Wi-Fi “hot spot.”
SiriComm said it had hot spots installed at 255 Pilot Travel Centers nationwide as well as independently operated travel centers, truck fleet terminals and roadside weigh stations that feature PrePass.
Celadon Trucking is a unit of Celadon Group, ranked No. 49 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of for-hire North American carriers. Transport Topics
