PeopleNet Communications Corp. of Minneapolis, providers of InTouch mobile communications, will add frequent, low-cost GPS positioning reports to its suite of InTouch mobile communications products.

InTouch now offers voice, text and data messaging over a network of analog cellular phone companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. The analog network provides relatively wide ground-based coverage and inexpensive driver-dispatch communications. However, simple positioning reports take up messaging units for which customers pay.
According to PeopleNet’s chief technology officer, Ron Konezny, InTouch will soon offer GPS positioning reports through Aeris.net, based in San Jose, Calif. Aeris.net offers what it calls MicroBurst data transmission over unused portions of cellular frequency. MicroBurst, while not practical for many applications, is ideal for the short "bursty" position reports.
Konezny said customers will get position reports at roughly a tenth the current cost of voice and messaging units. InTouch customers will be able to track truck locations much more frequently and at their option provide access to those location reports to shippers and receivers.
The Aeris.net positioning service will not require additional hardware in customer trucks, he said. The service should be available in the next quarter
The InTouch system, launched in 1997, was the first mobile communications product in trucking that put back-end communication – between the InTouch service center and dispatch – on the Internet. Trucking management accesses driver communications, location maps and data from trucks on a secure web site updated as information comes in. Of course, optional voice communications are direct between driver and dispatch and do not go through the InTouch service center.