Security & Safety Briefs - Sept. 30 - Oct. 6
The Latest Headlines:
- Motorola Expands Relationship with SkyBitz
- Schneider to Install Qualcomm Trailer-Tracking System
- WestStart-CalStart Gets DOD Funding for Heavy-Duty Hybrid Truck
- I-10 Bridge Reopens in Florida
- Schneider to Install Qualcomm Trailer-Tracking System
Motorola Expands Relationship with SkyBitz
Motorola Inc. and SkyBitz said Tuesday they had expanded an existing business relationship to allow Motorola's sales force to sell SkyBitz products and services in North America.Under the agreement, information services will continue to pass through SkyBitz's Network Operations Center for complete asset monitoring. SkyBitz's Global Locating System technology will be added to Motorola's existing portfolio of asset tracking solutions for business and government users, the two said.
The companies said they would also pursue new security and global logistics markets including maritime, intermodal containers, rail and automotive fleets, while continuing to serve trucking, agriculture and construction equipment markets.
Schneider to Install Qualcomm Trailer-Tracking System
Truckload carrier Schneider National Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. announced Monday that Schneider had purchased a Qualcomm trailer-tracking technology and begin to install it in its fleet of more than 48,000 trailers.Schneider said it recently completed extensive road testing of Qualcomm's T2 Untethered TrailerTRACS solution on hundreds of its trailers. The carrier named Qualcomm its untethered trailer tracking provider in August 2003.
The system leverages GPS positioning and wireless communications technology to help carriers determine and report trailers' locations and load status, regardless of whether or not the trailer is hooked to a tractor.
Schneider, based in Green Bay, Wis., is No. 7 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of the largest North American for-hire carriers. Transport Topics
WestStart-CalStart Gets DOD Funding for Heavy-Duty Hybrid Truck
WestStart-CalStart won a $4.4 million contract from the the U.S. Army's National Automotive Center to develop advanced heavy-duty vehicle technologies for military and commercial purposes, the group said Wednesday.WestStart-Calstart, which co-sponsors and annual meeting on clean heavy-duty vehicles with the NAC, has played a national role as coordinator and facilitator of efforts to advance hybrid technology in the trucking industry.
Truck hybrids are also potentially emerging as a U.S.-led technology and there are already more than 10 different leading U.S. manufacturers of heavy-duty hybrid propulsion systems, the group said.
In addition to funding a hybrid truck users program, the award will also be used to support a joint Dual-Use Advanced Transportation Technology Initiative by the two entities. Transport Topics
I-10 Bridge Reopens in Florida
Two lanes on of a four-lane bridge on Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle reopened Tuesday after being closed for three weeks since being downed by Hurricane Ivan, the Associated Press reported.Bridge contractors working with state and federal transportation officials got two of the lanes of the four-lane bridge reopened 17 days after a $26.4 million contract was awarded, seven days ahead of schedule, AP said.
About 8,000 trucks travel the stretch of I-10 daily, and with the bridge down, drivers had to detour from one to three hours, AP reported.
Contractors are working to meet a December deadline for opening the other two eastbound lanes; traffic will flow one lane each way until then, AP said. Transport Topics
