Published in Western Canada Highway News:
A couple of Saskatchewan firms have built solid reputations in the field of trucking software. QA Technologies provides state-of-the-art fleet management and communications software, and this year launched its AccutreQ.net online subscription service for fleet owners and managers. It was preceded by a non-web-based AccutreQ program.
Reaction to AccutreQ.net has been “very positive,” QA general manager Brock Eidem says from Saskatoon. Among its many services to fleet managers, AccutreQ.net tracks fuel purchases, monitors on-duty time and uses mapping technology to follow trucks’ progress along their routes. It also helps you keep an eye on driver efficiency by monitoring engine idle time, speed and other data. Eidem says these features and others, including electronic logs, improve fleet efficiency and profitability. He adds that the software is flexible and modular, and therefore can be customized for individual businesses.
Axon Development Corporation, also headquartered in Saskatoon, has software designed to ease the tasks in dispatching, planning and financial management. Axon’s website proclaims its real-time software “helps your dispatcher to set up trips and orders, but it also helps your accountant to reconcile the bank statement and generate direct deposit files.” You can get an online demo of its dispatch software at the Axon website.
“We're unique in a sense,” says Axon vice-president Jason Kretzer. “We don’t have version 1 or 2 or 5. Our programmers are constantly updating or improving the software all the time, and that's made available to our customers right away.”
Banks-Hill Systems out of Edmonton has been providing technology-based business solutions to the transport sector for 25 years. The web-enabled BHS Transportation System includes modules for on-line billing, claims, human resources, shipment tracking and more – all of which can be customized for each business’s needs.
From offices in Vancouver, WebTech Wireless sells web-based tracking and reporting through its Quadrant software. WebTech not only provides a vehicle tracking system, it also helps reduce paperwork and improve productivity.
In brief, here’s how the system works: A device installed in each vehicle sends data via satellite, WiFi and cellular technology to the WebTech customer’s office, where Quadrant software turns the digital data into information staff can use. That information includes details on vehicle location, engine diagnostics, driver logs and performance.
WebTech’s in-truck accessories include a mobile display terminal – the latest model being the MDT2000CE, released this year – with messaging, navigation and other functions.
Founded in 1999, WebTech has been busy in recent years improving worker safety (as with a remote key fob device for a driver to transmit a signal when in peril) and developing a system for electronic driver logs to ensure compliance with regulations, regional business manager Brian McKay says.
You can visit the WebTech website for a diagram of how the system works, and to request a live demonstration of this impressive system.