GeoLogic Solutions, a leading provider of multi-mode mobile communications and tracking systems, said Arkansas-based Fikes Truck Line is extending its contract and purchasing additional MobileMax Multi-Mode communications and tracking systems
for use by the carrier’s dedicated owner-operators.
The recent addition of units is in direct response to the growing number of independent drivers requesting the advanced technology.
“Our use of the MobileMax system is somewhat unique in that we are an all owner-operator fleet, and the program is completely voluntary,” said Jerry Davis, vice president of safety and insurance at Fikes, and one of the first contractors to lease on with the company in 1981. “In the last year, a growing number of our contractors have been adopting the system because it enhances their productivity and efficiency. By the end of this year, we’ll have installed about 280 of the GeoLogic systems for our owner-operators, and we expect that number to continue to grow.”
Fikes contracts directly with GeoLogic Solutions for MobileMax hardware and monthly service charges and then supplies the systems to its dedicated owner-operators for a nominal weekly fee.
“Once the driver realizes it will cost less than an average monthly cell phone bill, provide them with guaranteed coast-to-coast coverage, offer the ability to e-mail family and friends and greatly improve their overall productivity, they readily sign on for the service,” explained Davis.
Using the MobileMax system, Fikes designed an after-hours dispatching system that gives drivers access to information about nearby available loads even when dispatchers are off duty. “Simply picking up one of these after-hour loads can easily pay the driver’s entire year’s worth of MobileMax usage fees,” Davis said.