Central Transport International Inc. has announced a new agreement with long-time vendor, Hughes Network Systems Inc.
Under terms of the agreement, Hughes Network will utilize Central Transport's VSAT communications network to broadband using HNS' Direcway enterprise broadband-by-satellite service solutions.
Central Transport will utilize HNS' DW2000 equipment to carry Direcway satellite service to nearly 300 interstate trucking terminals across North America by the end of this year. Applications on the satellite network will electronically scan and transmit bills of lading and delivery receipts. Individual Central Transport drivers will communicate with their dispatchers and receive work assignments via the network.
The Central Transport data center in Warren, Mich., will be interconnected with the new Direcway services hub in Southfield, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. The new state-of-the-art HNS facility is a shared access point in the national network, operated from the Direcway Network Management and Control Center at the HNS headquarters in Germantown, Md.
Central Transport has been an HNS customer since 1986, but the company has outgrown its original HNS Personal Earth Station VSAT satellite system. With HNS' Direcway broadband satellite solution, Central Transport drivers will now be able to share critical business information with the headquarters office, enabling nearly real-time tracking of customer shipments and invoicing as well as trucker assignments and employee timekeeping.
With Direcway, Central Transport will be able to introduce user-friendly, Web-based and IP-based applications that use graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and client-server architecture. In addition to tracking Central Transport employee drivers and customer shipments, Direcway will also enable every employee to connect to a central network for general office systems, such as e-mail and desktop applications.