The 420-plus respondents included IT, technology, and operations executives from for-hire truckload (TL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) companies, and IT, logistics, and fleet managers from private fleets. Nearly half (48 percent) hail from private fleets; 40 percent work for TL carriers, and 12 percent represent LTL carriers.

Usage of wireless technology clearly is picking up steam. Some 84 percent of the respondents use wireless systems for tracking, compared with 75 percent in 2005. Seventy-two percent use them to improve communication with drivers, up from 65 percent in 2005, and 68 percent use them for routing and scheduling optimization, up from 50 percent the prior year.

Usage for other applications, including remote diagnostics and monitoring; yard and dock operations; and security, rose from 2005 to 2006. Only proof of delivery and mobile imaging declined.

The survey turned up some notable differences among the three categories of respondents. LTL and private fleets are heavy users of wireless for tracking and tracing shipments, but only 56 percent of truckload carriers, which typically handle one shipment per vehicle, use it for that purpose (see Figure 1).

The most dramatic change was in the use of mobile phones. The percentage of respondents using mobile phones for voice messages rose from 11 percent in 2005 to 65 percent in 2006. Meanwhile, usage of text messaging to communicate with drivers plummeted from 66 percent to 11 percent, and pagers slid from 33 percent to 9 percent.

LTL carriers led the way in wireless communications with drivers. Respondents in all three categories said that they use multiple applications, including two-way radios and e-mail in addition to those already mentioned.

Respondents said the most important benefits they expect to gain from wireless applications are more internal efficiencies (48 percent) and better customer service (36 percent). Just 12 percent hope to improve security by implementing wireless technology.

Although communication with drivers was the second-highest investment area, improving their work conditions apparently isn’t much of a concern: Only 4 percent saw that as the most important benefit they aim to achieve.

Just over half (52 percent) of respondents said their track-and-trace applications had produced a high return on investment (ROI). That reflects the fact that track-and-trace applications have a direct effect on customer service, Canete notes. Other top performers included proof of delivery and mobile imaging (54 percent) and improving driver communication (42 percent).

Connecting the dots between wireless technologies and ROI isn’t always easy. Although the importance of developing a wireless-communication strategy is clear to some, an October 2006 Aberdeen Group study, New Fleet Mobility Strategies, shows that many companies have been slow to act. Seventeen percent of respondents to that survey reported that their companies either had no plans at all or had incomplete plans for adopting wireless fleet technology. Another 23 percent had not yet implemented a mobile- communication strategy but planned to do so within the next 12 months.

So what’s holding them back? Perhaps it’s the difficulties of implementing new systems or upgrading existing applications. Or maybe it’s the cost associated with these solutions. In the Aberdeen study, 56 percent of the respondents said that justifying operational costs was among their top five challenges in mobilizing a fleet. Selecting the functional tasks to mobilize came in second with 52 percent, and supporting new technologies was third at 48 percent (see Figure 2). Cost was also an issue in the eyefortransport survey: 56 percent of respondents cited initial solutions costs as a major challenge, and 36 percent said that operational and air-time costs were too high.

Despite these and other obstacles, management seems to be warming up to the idea of wireless fleets. This year, 32 percent of all respondents said that creating a winning business case is difficult, down from 50 percent in 2005. Almost across the board, though, fewer private-fleet respondents cited these obstacles than did for-hire carriers. “Overall,” says Canete, “the obstacles appear to be less daunting for private fleets than for-hire fleets.”

Many shippers are already using wireless technologies in their private fleets, or at least they’re thinking about it. At electrical wholesaler The Reynolds Company in Ft. Worth, Texas, Dan Barlow, vice president of operations, says his company is using an electronic proof-of-delivery system with hand-held computers that it plans to take wireless this year.

The company recently started using GPS tracking for its private fleet of about a dozen trucks and “immediately went from red to black” in terms of customer service, Barlow says. “Suddenly we had a much better visual of where our trucks were and how quickly they could get back to our facility. We were able to measure time in relation to delivery, which made the accuracy [of delivery information] go up,” he says.

The company is also using routing- and scheduling-optimization software that, combined with GPS tracking, allows fleet managers to direct a truck from the time it leaves the loading dock until it returns. During the testing period, Barlow says, one driver who previously made 15 stops in a 140-mile radius was able to shave 30 miles off of the route and saved $100 in fuel costs.

Not all logistics managers are keyed up about wireless applications, though. Steve Fisher, global logistics manager at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates Ltd. in Santa Rosa, Calif., says his 10-vehicle fleet has already tested the wireless waters—and retreated from them.

The company implemented a GPS and time/mileage monitoring system three years ago. The results didn’t meet expectations. “Our internal IT people weren’t able to match the route with the driver and the day,” recalls Fisher. “We would wind up having to do it manually. … It didn’t provide any benefit or time savings, so we canceled it and we’re looking at other options now.”

Fisher hopes that whatever he eventually chooses will include a hands-off solution that provides route, time, and mileage data. “We want to better manage the business and not spend man-hours taking each driver’s day, looking at how he did his route, and reviewing his log sheet,” he says. “Our driver pool is relatively low-tech, so I don’t want to introduce anything too sophisticated or too labor-intensive for them.”

Brian Randleman, logistics manager at Generac Power Systems in Waukesha, Wis., does see wireless in his company’s future. Using a leased fleet of six vehicles, the maker of commercial and residential backup power-generation systems hauls its products locally between a warehouse and four manufacturing plants. Within the next six to 12 months, he says, that network will include some type of wireless system.

Randleman wants to know where his trailers and products are at any given time. He’d also like to link that information back to advance shipment notices (ASNs). For now, though, that information remains largely manual or unavailable; he can generate transfer orders and manifests in Generac’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system but can’t associate them with a specific trailer.

A GPS system is one option, but Randleman says that a wireless-communication device that is able to track trailers and power units in the yard would also work. With his eye on going wireless in 2007, he doesn’t see budgetary constraints as an issue.

“I don’t expect a lot of people to go against this because I can sell a lot of visibility benefits to the planning managers and the production staff, particularly when it comes to knowing where the material is,” he observes. “From an operational standpoint, I think we can justify the cost on that alone.”

Overall, says eyefortransport’s Canete, the research report reveals that shippers are strongly interested in adopting wireless solutions to help private fleets run smarter, better, and faster. “Everyone is into tracking assets, and customers expect that as a basic service,” he says. He also sees shippers using those systems to better manage their drivers. “Shippers are challenged by how to deal with drivers, keep them entertained and happy, and stay in touch with them. Wireless solutions are helping them to do that, and more.”

With more companies looking to “cut the cord” between their plants, warehouses, and fleets, Canete says, wireless technology will continue to gain acceptance among fleet managers. And even though some managers have soured on the idea of implementing another transportation technology that may not live up to expectations, many more are willing to take the plunge, especially as product costs decline.

But as some shippers have found, the route to ROI is based not on what you buy but on what you do with it. “Now the obstacles are systems integration and real-time data management,” says Canete. “The two questions shippers are asking now are: How do I best integrate new and legacy systems, and how do I deal with the increasing mass of data?”

There are numerous providers of wireless fleet management products in the market today. The following list includes some of the companies that offer software and hardware for wireless fleet management applications.

* This list does not include wireless service carriers, such as Sprint/Nextel.