Asset Tracking: Choices, Choices-Finally

For the better part of a decade, if you wanted to plot the path of your equipment as it traversed North America, Qualcomm Inc. and its satellite-based OmniTRACS product, distributed in Canada by Cancom Tracking Solutions in Mississauga, Ont, were it.

Not anymore. Challengers surrounded Qualcomm on the American Trucking Associations convention exhibit floor in Orlando, Fla., in October.

HighwayMaster Communications was close by, displaying TrackWare, its outside-mounted trailer-tracking product that can be quickly installed even on loaded trailers. TrackWare is being positioned as a low-cost alternative to satellite-based products and a complement to HighwayMaster’s cellular-based voice and data communications system.

A suite of Microsoft Windows-based fleet management software accompanies the product, providing location details and status information from the unit to the customer on a PC, or within his current fleet management software. It also integrates with ProMiles mapping software, so customers can view trailer locations with street-level detail.

Each TrackWare unit includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite receiver, a Cellemetry-enabled cellular transceiver, microprocessor, antenna, battery and cables. It can be attached to the exterior of a loaded or unloaded trailer by one person in about 30 minutes, with no special tools required. The unit is powered by a rechargeable battery that can continue operating when untethered for 30 to 60 days and automatically recharges when connected to a tractor.

HighwayMaster’s cellular-based driver communication products are unchanged, but not the company’s attitude. After excruciating financial crises and a sober reorganization, HighwayMaster was off the defensive and solidly back in trucking’s mobile communications race.

With a blast of Las Vegas-style pizzazz, Terion Inc. introduced the new driver communications system that bears the company name. Shunning both cellular and satellite, Terion uses FM radio bands for dispatch-to-driver messaging and high-frequency radio for the reverse trip.

Terion also showed a trailer-tracking antenna cleverly-and almost invisibly-housed inside a standard trailer marker lamp made by TruckLite (Terion and TruckLite have a common major shareholder-Penske Corp.). The antenna is used by Terion’s FleetView trailer tracking system, available in Canada next spring.

FM coverage compares favorably to a good cellular footprint, according to Bruce Caven, the former Cancom executive who leads Terion Canada’s Toronto-based office. Caven’s team will target small and medium-sized fleets operating in the Windsdor-to-Quebec City corridor.

Meanwhile, at the centre of the exhibit floor, Qualcomm was anything but smug about its commanding trucking market share. The folks from San Diego had some introductions of their own. OmniExpress, for one, is a more compact version of OmniTRACS using the Sprint PCS network, which uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology developed by Qualcomm. Along with TRUCKmail, a kind of OmniTRACS lite, OmniExpress offers lower costs and should widen Qualcomm’s trucking penetration.

Qualcomm also showed a new computer/keyboard/display developed jointly with Symbol Technologies. The MVPc, as it is called, looks as though a standard OmniTRACS keyboard had gone through the Ford Taurus design team. But the important difference is under the keys, where applications can run on the burgeoning Windows CE operating system.

And Qualcomm was promoting its coming integration of OmniTRACS and the Vantage Tracking Solutions satellite-based trailer-tracking product (which, incidentally, also will be distributed in Canada by Cancom).

The Canadian trailer-tracking market will become more crowded in the spring when AirIQ of Pickering, Ont., formally rolls out its cellular-based system.

Bring it on. When it comes to suppliers and solutions, the more the merrier.