NEXIQ Technologies, Sterling Heights, Mich., has stepped into the competitive marketplace for mobile pickup and delivery systems.

Monday, the company officially launched ePod, a pickup and delivery software system designed for private fleet operations.
Until now, NEXIQ has concentrated on vehicle maintenance and diagnostics. Last fall, the company introduced eTechnician, a service that includes a wireless-capable onboard computer. That system enables remote monitoring, diagnosis and reprogramming of vehicles.
The ePod system takes NEXIQ beyond maintenance squarely into fleet operations.
The onboard ePod software runs on any handheld computer on the Palm operating system (version 3.5 or higher) but was designed with the Symbol SPT-1800 ruggedized handheld in mind.
Used on a Symbol SPT-1800, ePod can capture and store signatures as jpeg files, record over, short and damaged information, scan barcodes, import and export data, track and report on COD collections and more. The 1800’s wireless capability enables the user to download an entire day’s run using the popular 802.11 wireless standard which works in limited areas – terminals or warehouses, for example.
Signatures and delivery data is stored for download at the end of the run.
On the office side, ePod requires appropriate Microsoft server software and a Pentium II 400Mhz processor or better.
NEXIQ said that ePOD integrates with existing enterprise systems and its import/export capability works with many existing software products. Future plans include handheld support operating systems other than the Palm OS.
"EPod is a very easy-to-use and easy-to-learn system," said Jack Schang, President and Chief Operations Officer, NEXIQ Technologies. "It overcomes the challenges to implementing a paperless proof-of-delivery system. EPod is designed to be flexible -- it is not a one-size-fits-all solution."
According to NEXIQ, the current launch version is 2.0 due to beta testing and limited release.