Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

Qualcomm is best known as the high-flying developer of advanced technology used in millions of cellular phones around the world. But the roots of the San Diego, California, company's success lie in a much less glamorous industry: interstate trucking. Since 1988, Qualcomm has been developing systems that combine cellular, satellite, and IBM midrange technology to track and monitor trucks, and last month the federal government gave Qualcomm the go-ahead to field-test its latest product, an untethered-trailer tracking system.

We'd like to think that Qualcomm, which gave the world the miracle of Code Division Multiple Access cellular technology--sort of a digital-radio version of the packet-routing capabilities of TCP/IP that was years ahead of competing standards--chose to develop its truck and trailer tracking application for the OS/400 platform because it recognized it as superior technology.

In fact, the reason why 70 percent of Qualcomm's 1,600 OmniTRACS customers run their OmniTRACS systems on AS/400 and iSeries servers (as opposed to Windows servers) is that the OS/400 platform is the preferred server of the nation's trucking companies, according to officials with Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions, the division of the company that offers tracking software and services to logistics organizations. OmniTRACS integrates directly with the industry's leading dispatch management packages, including those from Innovative Computing, McLeod Software, TMW Systems, and others. The integration lets trucking companies not only track the location of their trucks and communicate with their drivers directly from within their dispatching application, but it also provides various monitoring capabilities that inform the companies how their drivers and vehicles are performing.

The current tethered-trailer system works like this. A trailer equipped with the TrailerTRACS system must be connected to a tractor equipped with the core OmniTRACS in-cab communication system. The OmniTRACS in-cab system is made up of an Enhanced Display Unit, which is composed of a keyboard and a monitor, and antennae that communicate with the satellite. QUALCOMM operates two network management centers--one in San Diego and a back-up in Las Vegas--that connect the trucks, via the satellite, to the trucking companies' headquarters, which connect to the network management center over land lines or the Internet. Click here for an overview of the OmniTRACS system.

However, when those trailers are unhooked from the tractors, the connection between the TrailerTRACS and OmniTRACS systems is lost, and companies have no way of monitoring the location or condition of their trailers. Trucking companies--even the military, another OmniTRACS user--are left blind to theft and damage to their high-value or hazardous cargo.

The untethered TrailerTRACS system, which Qualcomm began developing five years ago, will offer the same features as traditional tethered tracking, which includes trailer ID, drop-and-hook notification, location, status, and refrigeration information. The untethered version will offer additional features, as well, including door and cargo sensors, "geofencing," over-the-air update capabilities, visibility of assets and loads, and notification of whether a trailer is connected to a tractor. Qualcomm says the software component of the untethered TrailerTRACS system will run on OS/400 servers or will be delivered to customers as a Web service (which means Qualcomm runs it for its customers on its own OS/400 servers and delivers them via a browser interface).

Last month the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is responsible for regulating the nation's commercial trucking industry, awarded Qualcomm and its partner, San Diego defense contractor SAIC, a $2 million contract to begin testing the untethered TrailerTRACS system. Several OmniTRACS users have agreed to participate in the testing, which is scheduled to begin the summer of 2004, including Super Service of Somerset, Kentucky; R&R Trucking of Duenweg, Missouri; and Paschall Truck Lines of Murray, Kentucky.

Following tests and barring any unforeseen events, the untethered TrailerTRACS system will become generally available by the end of next summer, a Qualcomm official said.

While development of Qualcomm's untethered trailer tracking system started before September 11, 2001, the nation's heightened sense of awareness of security issues since then has accelerated governmental efforts to clamp down on security holes in the nation's transportation and logistics infrastructure, and Qualcomm has been a cooperative participant.

For example, in November 2002 Qualcomm agreed to let the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration use its OmniTRACS system to broadcast public service announcements to truckers. In the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration was very active in contacting hazardous materials carriers to evaluate and improve their security measures. As a result of the new threats to American commerce, the federal government is expected to enact security-related forms at some point in the near future.

In addition to homeland security, Qualcomm is active in security initiatives a little closer to home. Last week, the company announced a joint program with Wal-Mart to help find missing children. The new Wal-Mart program, called "Roadwatch: Missing Child Alert," will use OmniTRACS devices installed in Wal-Mart's fleet of trucks to broadcast Amber Alerts to Wal-Mart's truck drivers, "the nation's watchdogs." The Amber Alert program was created in Texas in 1996 to get the community involved in locating abducted children, and since then has spread to more than 35 states.