Nextel Communications, Reston, Va. , has released an opinion poll of information technology and telecom decision makers at U.S. transportation companies.
In a press release Friday, Nextel said the poll shows increased adoption of wireless technology in day-to-day business operations as a cost-effective way to improve operations and customer service. Nextel said the trend is fueled by the availability of push-to-talk service, wireless local area network, GPS solutions and a desire to extend wireless barcode scanning capabilities.
The survey was commissioned by Nextel and conducted by Harris Interactive, which polled transportation executives. The poll found the industry’s top four uses of wireless technology were cellular calls (98%) for use by executives and sales staff, push-to-talk service (69%), BlackBerry devices (58%) and barcode scanning (60%). In addition, transportation firms highlighted the growing use of wireless local area networks, or WLANs, for their office campuses and warehouses. WLANs usually use Wi-Fi technology.
The transportation sector identified geographic coverage (67%) as the primary consideration for selecting a wireless carrier, outpacing data network speeds (9%) and pricing (11%). A high 69 percent of transportation respondents reported using GPS for navigation and routing updates. A majority (61%) of transportation firms said they see a need for a combination of cellular and Wi-Fi capabilities, while nearly half (45%) of respondents thought a wireless phone integrated with a handheld PC or BlackBerry device would be useful.
“The goal of the survey was to document the emerging role of wireless communications in large and medium-sized enterprises in transportation,” said Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant for the Customer Loyalty Management Research Group at Harris Interactive. “We elicited a very detailed response from participants by investigating not only the wireless devices and applications companies are using, but also by examining the wireless benefits and network attributes they most value, as well as the return on investment and competitive advantage they are deriving. Viewed through these many lenses, this snapshot of wireless communications signals the technology’s strategic significance and growing foothold in the industry today.”
According to Henry Popplewell, vice president of transportation, distribution and retail for Nextel, the survey shows that transportation companies continue to innovate and invest. “That said, more than 40 percent of respondents in this survey identify cost as a barrier to wireless adoption,” Popplewell said.
Harris Interactive conducted the study by telephone in the Fall of 2004 among 78 U.S. executives in the transportation sector who are responsible for the information technology and telecom decisions for their company, of whom 50 work for companies with 1,000+ employees and 28 work for companies with 500-999 employees. Figures for size of class and industry were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.