LAS VEGAS, Nev. – WebTech Wireless has inked a deal with TMW systems that will allow trucking companies to combine WebTech’s real-time tracking solutions with TMW’s dispatch software.

The announcement was made at the American Trucking Associations’ annual management conference in Las Vegas in October.

“Combining our transportation solutions provides our customers with opportunities to realize fuel savings through route optimization,” said David Mook, CTO of TMW. “WebTech’s real-time information with TMW’s software means on time deliveries and productivity improvements.”

TMW is a well-known and widely used provider of dispatch software.

WebTech, meanwhile, is a Canadian company that is making a name for itself in the fiercely competitive world of asset tracking. The company recently introduced Quadrant 5.0 – the latest version of its wireless fleet management system.

It’s a GPRS-based system that offers excellent coverage throughout about 97 per cent of the U.S. population and a good chunk of Canada as well.

Here in Canada, WebTech has partnered with Rogers Wireless to deliver the service.

Lindsay Ryerson, vice-president of sales and marketing for WebTech, said some customers have achieved a payback time of three months.

This is largely because the system allows them to better plan routes, cutting down on overtime and better enabling the company to meet the needs of its customers.

“It allows you to reconfigure a route in real time to avoid incurring overtime,” said Ryerson.

The system is extremely comprehensive and also allows dispatchers or fleet managers to track developing trends.

Some P&D customers have tracked delivery times to frequent customers for extended periods of times and could then chart the time it took to make deliveries to the facility based on time of day.

They could then alter their planning accordingly, reducing overall delivery times by dispatching vehicles to those facilities when they tend to be less busy.

This is made easier through the use of WebTech’s Landmark Drive Time Report, which allows the user to program landmarks into the system and monitor deliver times to these locations.

The company can also compare delivery times among drivers.

Ryerson said some fleets are implementing incentives for drivers who routinely have lower delivery times than their colleagues, while those drivers that tend to take much longer can be red flagged.

Obviously, not all drivers are going to embrace the system but Ryerson said it hasn’t been a huge issue.

“We don’t find covert installations work very well,” he admitted. “But if you use it to add incentives you don’t have just a stick, you have a carrot.”

WebTech’s system also differs from others on the market in that it provides all information in real-time.

Its geofencing capabilities, for instance, will file an exception report the second the truck leaves the area it’s supposed to remain in. Other systems check the truck’s location at intervals of 10 or 15 minutes allowing a thief to put some distance between themselves and the authorities.

One of the new features of WebTech’s Quadrant 5.0 is Route Schedule Adherence.

This allows dispatchers or fleet managers to monitor in real-time whether drivers are maintaining their schedule.

Therefore, if a driver begins to fall behind schedule, a second vehicle can be dispatched to avoid late deliveries.

The end result is that the fleet’s customer service is enhanced, and keeping shippers happy results in a more profitable organization.

Quadrant 5.0 also includes an electronic driver logbook system that is easy-to-use (and interpret, for inspection officers).

Ryerson said anyone operating more than eight or nine trucks would realize the benefits of WebTech’s Quadrant system.

It’s especially effective for local P&D and LTL applications, he said.

A typical startup cost is about US$500 per truck and then there’s a monthly fee of CDN$49 which includes Rogers Wireless service. Ryerson said if used properly, a payback time of three months isn’t unusual.

For more information, visit www.webtechwireless.com or call 1(604) 434-7337.