Palm Handhelds Speed Trucking to Better Service

The trucking industry does not usually come to mind when thinking of the most tech-savvy industries. But, as many innovative companies are showing, Palm(TM) handheld computers are becoming a useful tool in the fast-paced, deadline-driven trucking industry to communicate with dispatchers, report information or problems, and better serve customers.


Truck drivers often encounter electrical or mechanical problems that are hard to diagnose on the road; Palm handhelds can provide drivers with critical diagnostic information to understand and resolve issues. They can also help to avoid communication problems and misunderstood invoices, and save companies money by getting customer information to back offices quickly.

Cat Electronics: Less Note-taking Allows for More-focused Driving

Pocket Technician, an application developed by Peoria, Ill.-based Cat Electronics, coupled with Palm handhelds, provides drivers of vehicles running Caterpillar electronic engines with records of detailed diagnostic information and trip data. This data can be viewed on the handheld or later, after syncing, on a PC. Drivers can choose to view engine information for the life of a truck or for a specific trip, as well as track routine maintenance. Customer-programmable parameters also are available, allowing the driver or fleet manager to later modify the operation of the engine for optimum performance based on the information provided.

Caterpillar's customers did not want to carry laptops to their trucks each time they needed information. They also wanted something more portable than a dash-mounted device. The new handheld process solves that problem, is more convenient, and lets drivers capture vital information necessary to improve driver and trip performance much more easily.

Using Palm handhelds and the Pocket Technician application, Caterpillar's truck driver customers now have the necessary information to better manage the operation and efficiency of their vehicles. The application and supporting hardware are available to customers from Caterpillar dealers throughout the United States.

Cummins Inc.: Owner/Operators Save Thousands of Dollars

Drivers of trucks running electronic engines produced by Columbus, Ind.-based Cummins Inc. use Palm handhelds and either the QuickCheck or QuickCheck II applications, and can view maintenance information and save time researching and reporting problems. Drivers capture vehicle trip summaries, store maintenance information, log vehicle information, read engine fault codes, and can download the data onto a PC for analysis. The ability to log and report information reduces costs by eliminating the need for onsite technicians, improves diagnostics, and reduces time to process orders or solve technical problems. The newest version of the application, QuickCheck II, also reads electronic ABS and Transmission systems.

Cummins' customers once bought full-scale PCs, expensive software and diagnostic equipment costing up to $4,000 per truck. Using Palm handhelds with QuickCheck now costs as little as $300 per truck. Since the solution's March 2000 introduction, more than 5,000 worldwide Cummins distributors, dealers and customers are using Palm handhelds to run the QuickCheck applications.

Seimac Ltd.: Major Cash-flow Improvements Due to Immediate Order

Processing

Seimac Ltd. of Halifax, Nova Scotia, developed an Internet-based application for its drivers called FleetMessenger that gives its dispatchers the exact location of their trucking fleet and lets them communicate in real time. Drivers can receive messages, store customer information and respond to dispatchers via a removable Palm handheld mounted on their dashboards running FleetMessenger. Seimac truck drivers capture customer signatures, scan barcodes or record trip logs on the spot and send them back to the office where the invoices are processed immediately. Real-time billing by drivers speeds cash flow back to businesses -- if a company bills $100,000 a day and can bill in real-time what once took three days, the company can more quickly invest that $300,000 back into its business.

Previously, drivers had to pull over, call dispatch and have the paperwork faxed to their location. Drivers' activity logs were delayed a week or longer until they could be sent to the office, where they were entered manually. Seimac has deployed 720 Palm handhelds and plans to deploy a total of 4,500 in the coming year. Seimac is using Palm IIIc and Palm V handhelds, but the application runs on any Palm OS(R) based device. The new Palm handheld based process increases business efficiencies by moving from slow manual processing to real-time processing.

More information on case studies and the use of Palm Powered(TM) handheld computers in the enterprise is available at www.palm.com/enterprise/studies.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions by offering the foundation for thousands of application solutions. Palm stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at http://www.palm.com .

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