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This month's issue is emphasizing technology, so I thought I would write a few thoughts on technology and trucking, from the way things used to be to today's modern methods.
Communications
Remember when we used to want to talk to our drivers while out on the
route? We'd call ahead to a customer's location where we thought the driver
might be, and ask the customer to have the driver call back in. Drivers
borrowing the customer's phones changed to using pay phones along the
route. Then along came radios and what we thought was practically instant
messaging when we didn't even know what the term meant. We moved on to
pagers, but the driver still had to stop and use a landline phone to call
in. Then we moved on to cab-mounted phones and expensive minutes, but
we were communicating. The cell phones changed and improved over the years
with prices coming down and minutes getting cheaper all the time. Now
we have many members talking instantly with Nextel as if they were across
the building or parking lot when they are across town or in another city
or state.
Asset Control
Remember the days of tracking your cylinders on index cards? Then we moved
up to manually putting serial numbers into a spreadsheet or an invoicing
system. Next we moved up to very large, cumbersome and often delicate
scanners. Today, we use handheld PDAs or scanners that fit into pockets
and have enough memory to hold your entire parts list, inventory and cylinder
population, and they update your main system in seconds.
Invoicing
How about on-the-truck invoice printing? Remember when we had heavy laptops
and either thermal or impact printers in the cabs? Today we have handheld
PDAs and small bubble-jet or inkjet printers to print the customer an
invoice at the point of delivery.
Security
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) let us know exactly where our vehicles
are at any moment. We can see if they are on the proper route or if they
have been hijacked or stolen. With remote engine shutdown systems, we
can even turn off the engines from a remote location if we suspect a stolen
vehicle.
Operations
GPS has many uses other than security. It lets us see exactly where the
truck has gone in real time and over which streets. It tells us how fast
the truck was driven, where it stopped, and for how long. It can show
the exact route the driver has taken that day, including those times the
driver either backtracked or drove across town multiple times in the same
day. It can also show us if the truck was shut off at each stop, or if
it was left running all day wasting fuel and causing extra wear and tear
on the engine.
Regulations and Information
Remember when you had to read about something in a magazine, subscription
service or book? Then you could purchase information of all kinds on a
CD to load onto your laptop or even your PDA. Today, you can go online
and find just about anything you might want to know.
Technology has come a long way in the last few years and I can only begin to imagine what things will be like in the future. All I can say is hang on and enjoy the ride.
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