Trucking’s Market for In-Cab Computers Takes New Shape

May 24, 2000 10:32 AM, EDT

The game is on for in-cab computers sales, with everybody and his brother trying to design a device for carriers to install in trucks.

	Qualcomm Inc.
	Qualcomm’ s MVPc integrates satellite-tracking and the company’s CDMA voice and data network.

Many of the small suppliers that were ahead of their time in building on-the-road data and communications systems now see big-name players like Freightliner Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. jumping into the market by offering computers of their own. Their entrance tends to verify that the market, driven by rapid changes in computer capabilities and customer demands, has a huge potential.

More and more, shippers want immediate information about a truck’s whereabouts, which means the need to contact drivers on the fly is rapidly growing, said Vinit Nijhawan, president of Kinetic Computer Corp. in Billerica, Mass. Kinetic is one of the small players that, to remain viable, is putting its innovation and expertise into software that it sells to its new hardware competitors.

And more and more, trucking companies are turning to computers that can do it all. The transition from single-function onboard computers, such as the engine-management systems that hit the market in the early 1980s, to computers that record every bit of data a truck can produce, plus handle a variety of direct communications links, has been a quick evolution.

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