Technology can do more than automate trucking processes; it can change, merge or eliminate them to attain far greater efficiency.

But that kind of success requires a tighter combination of business and technical skills than ever before.
That’s what Marc Mitchell told the third annual EyeForTransport Wireless & Mobile Technology for Trucking & Delivery Fleets Conference earlier this month. Mitchell is transportation practice director for Enterprise Information Solutions Inc., or EIS as it is called, based in Downers Grove, Ill. Among other things, EIS creates and deploys wireless applications for trucking companies.
Mitchell said two major factors help decide the extent and functionality of trucking technologies -- the physical characteristics of computing devices and the potential impact these technologies have on the trucking functions.
“What is possible technologically should impact the attempted level of automation,” Mitchell said. To make sure a technology deployment provides the greatest possible beneficial impact, IT departments and vendors must make every effort to understand a particular trucking business, and in detail. For the same reasons, operations people should learn as much as they can about the devices, software and communications systems as possible.
“Whether it be the technological staff committing to understanding more about the operations, or ops people willing to understand more of the basic technology options and influences, the result will be project leaders who can no longer be content to leave the details of the other side of the coin to someone else for a later date,” Mitchell said.
For more information or a copy of an EIS white paper, visit www.eisolution.com/transportation.