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Computerworld - Penske Logistics plans to roll out smart wireless terminals to its 4,000-vehicle fleet starting in September. The terminals are intended to help the company quickly capture and send critical delivery information to customers and manage driver routes and performance more effectively.

The terminals effectively turn the cab of each truck into the hub of a miniature wireless LAN. The system communicates with handheld terminals equipped with bar-code scanners that truck drivers can use to record shipment information as they load or unload their trucks. The shipment information is then stored in the terminal, which runs on Windows CE, the operating system that powers Pocket PCs.

Road Connections Details of Penske’s wireless truck hub: Cab terminal features wireless LAN and satellite connectivity. Driver records cargo deliveries and pickups with a bar-code scanner equipped with a wireless LAN card, which relays data to cab terminal. Time-sensitive information is relayed in near real time via satellite link to back-end Penske and customer systems. Routine shipment information is stored onboard until the truck gets within range of a terminal’s wireless LAN.

The onboard terminal can then immediately relay critical information—such as a change in the number of items slated for delivery to a customer—to back-end systems used by Penske and its shipping customers over a nationwide satellite system. The satellite system is operated by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., which developed the wireless system.

The new system also lets Penske send route alerts to its drivers about traffic jams or changes in schedules using a satellite communications system that "allows us to be more proactive early in the cycle," said Tom Stevens, systems development director at Penske Logistics, a division of Reading, Pa.-based Penske Truck Leasing Co.

More routine information—such as records of all items dropped at a particular location—is stored in the onboard terminal, a Qualcomm MVPc CE unit, until the truck gets within close range of a Penske terminal. At that point, the wireless LAN in the truck's cab senses the wireless LAN in the terminal and starts pumping out a day's worth of data at 11M bit/sec.

The dual-mode wireless system is expected to allow Penske to manage the transfer of its trucking information more cost-effectively, Stevens said. That's because the company plans to use the costlier Qualcomm satellite link only for transmission of time-sensitive information while transmitting routine information over the short-range, wireless LAN link, which Penske can use without paying for airtime, he said.

McLane Co., based in Temple, Texas, announced in April that it plans to install a similar dual-mode wireless system in 1,050 trucks in its grocery store delivery fleet. But the McLane system doesn't offer the cab-to-handheld wireless link.

The cost of adding a cab-to-driver wireless LAN link is relatively low because "wireless LAN cards cost about $99 to $129," said Gemma Paulo, an analyst at Cahners InStat Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. According to Paulo, the Penske system marks the first Qualcomm installation to involve a wireless LAN-to-WAN system.

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