Software Aims to Keep Freight in Its Place

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n June 2003, lovers of magic and fantasy eagerly awaited the arrival of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the latest in the British novelist’s popular children’s series.

Amazon.com pre-sold 1.3 million copies online before the book officially went on sale and conventional booksellers prepared their stores for the moment they could start ringing up sales.

But before that, the books had to be delivered to the stores at just the right time. J.B. Hunt Transport Service’s tractor-trailers were filled with books and waiting at distribution centers for the green light to begin delivery. They couldn’t be early or late.

So, as Mark Palmer, the company’s director of trailer operations, recounted the story to a trucking technology conference in June, Hunt created an electronic “geofence” around each of the rigs used to deliver the books to monitor in real time the geographical location of the valuable, time-sensitive loads by computer.

For the full story, see the July 12 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.