Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), the second largest wood producer in the United States, is headquartered in the shadow of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range in Northern California. SPI manages forests with a hundred year time frame in one of the most environmentally protected states in the US.

Steve Gaston, SPI Information Services Manager, has led efforts to improve business results for SPI by introducing, managing, and leveraging our Quadrant solution for their truck fleet. One area of improvement has been for their logging truck operations.

Due to weather constraints, logging in the Cascade Range can only operate for eight months of the year. SPI mills run twelve months of the year, so twelve month’s worth of log supply has to be moved out of the mountains in eight months.

Steve has seen numerous benefits from deploying Quadrant. He, his IT team, and operations have coordinated to make Quadrant part of a complete business solution to drive better results at SPI.

One improvement has been the elimination of daily cell phone calls with dispatch, a time consuming part of every day that has been eliminated by automated messaging directly to the drivers using our MDT3100 in cab solution.

By automating all the business paperwork, using geofences, and training the logging drivers to provide information via our MDT, twenty to thirty minutes of driver overtime has been saved every day. While this cost saving has been significant, dispatch and operations now have a continuously updated view of what every truck is doing, in addition to knowing where it is.

The bottom line is that SPI have used Quadrant to improve their bottom line. They were able to pull the same log volume out of their logging operations with 15% fewer loads at the end of their last season. Significantly lower costs and SPI’s mills have enough logs to keep them running all winter.

This past weekend, WebTech Wireless hit Nashville, TN to take part in TMW Systems’ annual TransForum user conference.

By all accounts, the show was a great success, and in spite of the ongoing economic woes in the transport industry, turnout was as strong as ever, which is testament to the fact that even in hard times, smart companies still invest in technologies and systems, such as location-based services and telematics, that can save them money now and in the future.

Here are some pictures from Nashville.

Entrance to Exhibit Hall	Exhibit Hall
WebTech Wireless Stand	WebTech Wireless Stand

This story, written by Joe Howard, Staff Writer, appeared in the Aug. 17 edition of Transport Topics and presents a very convincing argument about the value of Location Based Services (LBS) in the trucking industry.

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PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Despite privacy and other concerns about the technology within the trucking industry, fleets should consider investing in electronic onboard records for a number of important reasons, economist Noel Perry said.

Speaking here during American Trucking Associations’ Information Technology & Logistics Council’s annual conference, Perry said the tough economic climate was all the more reason fleets should consider EOBRs’ potential efficiencies.

“Fleets have wrung out all of the waste available with conventional management techniques,” said Perry, a principal with Transport Fundamentals, Green Bay, Wis. “It’s not about tires anymore. It’s about where that truck is and what it’s doing.”

He said the efficiencies and protections EOBRs offer outweigh the uncertainty some in the industry have toward the technology.

The devices can also offer information on driver performance, behavior and health.
Perry said all of these kinds of traceable records could also prove helpful for investigating incidents involving either drivers or trucks, and said the time could eventually come when not having an EOBR in the cab will seem negligent.

“The lawyers will push it,” he said. “It will be a sign of irresponsibility not to have it.”
He also said that governments are becoming more interested for a variety of reasons, including for security and emission controls. At the same time, economic shortfalls are causing some to view EOBR’s wireless accessibility as a means to levy taxes.

“Governments are running out of money,” Perry said. He warned that if tax coffers continue turning up short, the transportation sector may be targeted to replenish the funds.
Perry said accessibility to onboard recorders will make it “a trivial matter” for governments to tax trucks.

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Additionally, there is a very good webinar presentation by Perry that can be found on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s website titled: July 2009 Transportation Market Outlook.

According to Perry, even though the trucking industry has taken quite a hit in this recession, there certainly seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Part of the road out of the recession is the industry’s successful adoption of innovative new technologies like LBS and Telematics, which WebTech Wireless has pioneered. In addition to reducing costs, there is the added benefit of reducing CO2 and contaminant emissions.