Birmingham-Nashville Express (BNE) is a midsize transportationcompany with a fleet of 80 trucks, 65 of which are big rigs that makedeliveries throughout the eastern United States. Rick Osgood, CFO ofthe Nashville, Tenn.-based company, says that he thought he would haveto put in a wireless system when his customers started demanding toknow where their freight was in real-time. In fact, the customersnever did, but when BNE had to replace its fleet management system forY2K, it bought a system that was wireless compatible.

At first BNE used its old tracking and management method with the newsystem. Every day, drivers would phone in their location between 8 and9 in the morning, and again between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. "Unlesswe had a problem, we didn't hear from them at any other time," saysOsgood. If, for example, a driver was on his way to Chicago and "weheard he was in Bowling Green in the morning, we'd figure he'd make itby mid afternoon." They didmostly. But Osgood recalls lots of timeswhen he'd tell a customer a delivery was on its way and he reallydidn't know. "It's disconcerting," he says. "You have to hope you'reright."

Two things would happen when drivers checked in: 1. they would losedrive time; 2. they would either have short conversations or leavemessages with overwhelmed fleet managers who rarely capturedeverything.

Between December 1999 and March 2000, after upgrading the managementsystem, BNE installed a satellite-based fleet tracking system fromOwings Mills, Md.-based Aether Systems for an initial cost of $15,000plus $2,000 per truck. With training, that added up to $150,000. Thesystem let BNE capture real-time location information about its fleet,and saved the drivers stop time. Cell phones would have also savedtimeand cost lessbut many drivers still would have been forced toleave messages. And always-connected mobile devices don't have therange that truckers need.

Osgood reports that the investment has produced an immediate return.Excluding freight rate hikes, revenue per truck per day has increasedfrom 7 percent to 10 percent, he says. That adds up fast, and Osgoodsays that the increased truck revenue has already led to a 115 percentROI, approximately $175,000. That doesn't even take into accountincreased efficiency at the home office. BNE no longer needs staff toanswer phone calls from drivers and check voice mails, and Osgood saysthat those managers have been reassigned. The additional locationinformation also leads to better customer service, allowing Osgood ameasure of peace of mind when people ask him where their cargo is.