IT’s Bottom Line

September 11, 2000 9:40 AM, EDT

To hear vendors speaking at press conferences and trade shows, you would think that new information technologies grow on trees. But their would-be customers in trucking know that to every piece of software, scanning product and communications device on the market there is a dollar sign attached.

	TT File Photo
	Amid a dizzying array of technologies, carriers must decide which are useful and which are extraneous.

So the question is: How do information technology professionals justify the costs of these investments with corporate decision-makers? The answer isn’t so simple.

Some trucking operations make the investment in computers, scanners, satellite-based vehicle tracking, publicly accessible databases, sites on the Internet and the dozens of other electronic systems for sharing information that comes under the “IT” umbrella because it’s either do or die in keeping up with competitors. Others see it as an opportunity to be on the leading edge, one step ahead of competitors.

But whether a transportation company takes the leap because of its forward-thinking or because it must keep with the Joneses, the majority of truck companies say that they invest in information technology to improve their bottom lines.

For the full story, see the Sept. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.