Major Deals Reshape Tech Landscape; Companies Prep for EOBR Mandate

By Seth Clevenger, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the Dec. 24 & 31 print edition of Transport Topics.

Major acquisitions, the upcoming electronic onboard recorder mandate and a move toward mobility platforms were among the year’s biggest developments in trucking’s technology arena.

In October, Trimble Navigation Ltd. completed its purchase of TMW Systems Inc., the trucking industry’s largest transportation management software provider, for about $334 million.

The deal, first announced in August, brought TMW under the same ownership as onboard computing provider PeopleNet Communications Corp., which Trimble acquired in August 2011.



In December, diversified manufacturing and technology company Honeywell International Inc. announced it had agreed to purchase supply chain technology provider Intermec Inc. for about $600 million.

The acquisition would combine two of the transportation industry’s biggest suppliers of rugged handheld devices. Honeywell said it expects the transaction to close by the end of the second quarter of 2013.

Meanwhile, providers of in-cab communications systems prepared for the upcoming EOBR mandate.

The $105 billion transportation funding law signed by President Obama in July requires the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to develop a final EOBR rule by October 2013, with the rule taking effect in 2015.

However, Dave Kraft, director of industry affairs at Qualcomm Enterprise Services, projected that the final regulation won’t be in place until late in 2014 because of the amount of work involved in the rulemaking process. The final rule would be followed by a four- or five-year implementation process, he said.

In the meantime, the federal government’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program has been driving carriers to adopt EOBRs to improve their results, Kraft told Transport Topics.

The carriers that have already implemented onboard technology and information systems are getting “stellar results” under CSA, he said.

Over the course of the year, many of the industry’s technology vendors developed deeper software integrations with other technology providers.

Although TMW and PeopleNet are now sister companies under Trimble, executives at the two firms said they will continue their partnerships with other trucking technology suppliers.

TMW said it will maintain integrations with onboard communications providers such as Qualcomm Inc., XRS Corp. (formerly known as Xata) and Cadec Global Inc., while PeopleNet said it would continue to work with other fleet software providers, including McLeod Software and Roadnet Technologies.

Ron Konezny, general manager of Trimble’s transportation and logistics division, said in October that the TMW and PeopleNet teams were planning to collaborate in a way that combines TMW’s back-office expertise with PeopleNet’s view from the field.

In another development, in-cab communications companies sought to tap into the proliferation of smart phones and tablets by creating new mobile applications.

At its user event in August, Xata Corp. changed its name to XRS Corp. and unveiled its next-generation fleet management platform, which runs on mobile devices instead of hard-wired, onboard computers.

The new platform is also named XRS, which stands for Xata Road Science.

CEO Jay Coughlan told attendees that XRS aims to lead the trucking industry’s “mobile revolution.”

In March, Continental Corp. debuted its VDO RoadLog electronic onboard recorder, designed to enable drivers and fleets to record hours of service and other compliance data without monthly fees. RoadLog features a built-in printer to provide paper reports at roadside inspections, the company said.

In April, Qualcomm announced the commercial availability of its low-cost MCP50 onboard computer, priced at $799.

In June, Rand McNally introduced its TND 720 truck GPS unit, which features Wi-Fi connectivity. In October, the company unveiled its HD 100 device, designed to turn the company’s TND 720 unit and certain tablets and smart phones into compliant EOBRs.

In October, Zonar Systems demonstrated a new rugged tablet, named 2020, that provides hours-of-service compliance, electronic vehicle in-spections, commercial navigation and other functionality.

Technology companies also introduced enhanced mapping and navigation products.

ALK Technologies Inc. unveiled ALK Maps, a development platform that transportation companies can use to create interactive visualizations that can show routes, location markers and traffic and weather information.

ALK also introduced PC Miler 26, the latest version of its routing software, which includes new interactive map features and the ability to synchronize routes with ALK’s CoPilot Truck in-cab navigation software.

In March, Telogis Inc. expanded its enterprise software platform by purchasing Maptuit Inc., a provider of commercial navigation software.

Cadec hired Pete Allen as CEO, the company announced in August. Jon Bernstein, who was previously both CEO and chairman, became executive chairman at Cadec. Allen was previously senior vice president of global sales at telematics provider Inthinc.