Trucking firm to keep cool with wireless software

From...

By Matt Hamblen

(IDG) -- Freymiller Inc. is rolling out wireless connectivity to its refrigerated trailer fleet, using management software that provides over-the-air software upgrades and that will soon control the trailer temperature to keep food shipments cold.

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Oklahoma City-based Freymiller chose to attach wireless antennas to its fleet of 200 refrigerated trailers rather than to the tractors to enable automated and wireless control of the temperature. Once a trailer is connected, a driver in a tractor cab can also stay in contact via a wired "umbilical cord," said David Freymiller, company president.

The connections to the trailers mean that Freymiller will be able to develop software controls that turn on the refrigeration unit and set the temperature wirelessly before the driver arrives, getting the unit cold enough to handle frozen foods, saving the driver time, he said. Currently, the driver must get to the trailer, switch it on and wait until the trailer is cold enough, which can take hours.

"It helps to control the temperature, since if you get McDonald's frozen pies and they hit 8 degrees above zero, you own them," he said.

Freymiller must build in the temperature-control functionality but already has the ability to communicate in text with drivers to check on order status and location. This information is available for customers to search on the Web.

Freymiller chose Aether Systems Inc. in Owings Mills, Maryland, to provide the wireless communication system called MobileMax2 because Aether could create a system attached to the 200 trailers. In addition, about 30 tractors used to haul freight for other carriers will be outfitted with the MobileMax2 system. It will cost about $3,000 for hardware on each trailer and tractor, plus the cost of sending data, said Freymiller.

Freymiller wouldn't disclose his costs for wireless service but said it's made reliable and efficient because Aether uses a combination of terrestrial cells and satellites, which are helpful in rural areas. The system includes a Global Positioning System that can give truck locations within 50 feet. "The mapping just blows your mind" Freymiller said.

The costs are less than using an established truck communications system from Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego, he said.

Aether is one of several wireless middleware providers that is able to provide device management tools to users, said Ronni Colville, an said there are about 30 million mobile workers, including truckers, analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts, in Latin America, the U.S. and Western Europe -- a number that should double by 2004.

As more companies use software to control devices wirelessly, costs for such systems will come down, analysts said.