Truck fleet replaces two-way radio with 3G and thin clients

Posted on Computerworld Australia

By Sandra Rossi 04/10/2007 10:47:01

Furniture removalist company MiniMovers is in the business of mobility. With a fleet of more than 100 trucks and support vehicles operating across the eastern states of Australia, its communication system has to be as mobile as the furniture.

As a result, the company decided to replace its two-way radio system with a 3G network.

According to MiniMovers IT manager, Jason Arthur, the business had experienced annual growth of more than 40 percent over the last five years.

"We had captured 95 percent of the short distance domestic moving market in south east Queensland and we recently set up operations in Melbourne which is a fairly mature market," Arthur said.

"Our next move was to take on the Sydney market. To do this we needed to improve job management processes by upgrading our mobile communications technology."

Arthur said the two-way radio system was only good for its Brisbane operations.

In Melbourne, the fleet coordinator communicated with drivers via mobile phone as two-way radio transmission from the company's Brisbane-based depot did not extend to the Gold Coast, Melbourne or Sydney.

"Communicating with drivers via mobile phone was expensive and unsustainable," Arthur said.

"We needed a mobile solution that would enable drivers to receive job information quickly and reliably. We wanted to streamline job management and deliver productivity gains."

To determine whether 3G was the solution, the company conducted a trial arming selected staff with 3 Mobile broadband cards and thin client PC terminals.

"We could see immediately that the cards and mobile PC terminals would deliver big productivity and cost savings to the business," Arthur said.

MiniMovers made the decision to fit out its entire fleet with thin client terminals and 3 broadband cards providing 10 senior staff with laptops and 3 cards.

The company also deployed a 3 mobile broadband card in one of its Melbourne depots where no fixed phone line was available.

"Using wireless mobile instead of fixed lines saved the company in costly line rental expenses and gave users the flexibility to connect anywhere, anytime," Arthur said.

"It is actually cheaper for us to use broadband cards and mobile phones in our depots than ADSL and landlines."

The PC terminals in the trucks connect to the company's central database via 3's network. Using the PC's touch screen, the drivers can access the job management system. All administrative tasks, such as billing, job status updates and customer service reports, can be done anywhere.

Staff can also communicate with fleet coordinators via the PC terminal without having to talk on the phone.

"Since deployment removalists no longer have to manually calculate what to charge a customer. They also use the PC terminal to clock on when they start a job then clock off. The system calculates all the totals and tells them how much to bill the customer," Arthur explained.

"When a customer has an enquiry or complaint, we can now act immediately. Fleet controllers no longer have to make multiple calls to drivers and then manually update the job system, all the information is entered by the drivers."

Since deploying 3, MiniMovers fleet controllers are effectively managing a 20 percent larger fleet.

"Fleet coordinators can now control 70 trucks per person, 20 percent more than before. Previously they were stretched managing 55 trucks; we can do more now with fewer people," Arthur said.

The Melbourne depot, which has no fixed phone lines, now has access to critical business applications such as e-mail. Staff have access via two PCs and a router connected to a 3 Mobile broadband card.

Arthur said the company's depots are often established on large blocks of undeveloped land to accommodate a fleet of trucks.

"Now that we know its cheaper to use mobile phones and broadband cards than it is to use ADSL and landlines we are going to replace our landline connections at all our other depots over the next two months," he said.

Australia's first 3G mobile network was launched by 3 in April 2003 and today the company has more than one million customers. Globally, the 3 Group has 11.9 million customers worldwide.

Found this article interesting but was curious about 3G transmission costs. Went searching the web.

Eureka! Earlier this year there was a 3G price war.

View the Austrilian IT article "3G Price freefall" posted April 3rd.

Maybe as prices go down, consumption goes up? Just maybe!

Until the next post,

Steve