By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer
Published: August 14, 2011 - 06:41 PM
Inspiron Logistics Corp. is taking its emergency communications technology on the road.
Specifically, on big trucks and to other owners of vehicle fleets.
The downtown Akron company, which develops and provides web-based software and hardware used to alert large numbers of people over cell phones, pagers, email, sirens and more, is finding new uses and customers for its technology. The mass alerts, used by governments, hospitals, universities and other organizations, warn people about dangerous weather and other hazards and also for more mundane communications.
“We needed to expand into other markets,” said Scott Dettling, company president. The company calls the technology the Wireless Emergency Notification System, or WENS.
The fleet transportation industry seemed to be a natural fit for Inspiron, he said.
Enter Schneider National Inc., based in Green Bay, Wis., one of the nation’s largest trucking companies.
Schneider has started using Inspiron technology to improve fleet safety by providing emergency communications and by monitoring up-to-the-minute truck locations.
A pilot test involving 1,000 trucks recently came to an end, said Walter Fountain, Schneider’s director for loss prevention and enterprise security.
The result: Schneider will install Inspiron’s technology on its entire 15,000-truck fleet in the next six to nine months and encourage the rest of the trucking industry to follow suit since the company found it improves safety and productivity.
“It worked very well,” Fountain said. “I think there’s a lot of growth potential. We think the value is right. It’s worthwhile for Inspiron and it’s worthwhile for us.”
Inspiron’s technology allows Schneider to communicate with its trucks based on where they are geographically — a capability the truck company didn’t previously have, Fountain said. Inspiron’s computer telecommunications system gives Schneider the ability to define geographic areas that its trucks are using.
That in turn allows Schneider personnel to contact individual trucks as they enter or leave specific areas or travel within defined areas anywhere in the United States, Fountain said. Truck drivers get alerts just for them, which is handy for such things as weather emergencies in specific counties where truckers might be or are heading into, he said.
Previously, Schneider would do mass broadcasts to its fleet, meaning messages were often irrelevant to many of its trucks on the road.
“You desensitize folks to the messages,” Fountain said.
Keep in mind, Schneider since 2004 has not allowed its truck drivers to use their cell phones while driving.
“We had to find another way to communicate,” Dettling said.
Inspiron adapted its technology for Qualcomm-?made communications devices that are in widespread use in the trucking industry and fitted inside Schneider truck cabins. The Qualcomm units include GPS, meaning the Inspiron system can tell where every single truck is located.
That means the Inspiron system can tell individual truckers if they are nearing dangerous travel areas or are heading into bad weather. It also can tell Schneider when a truck strays from its intended route — possibly an indication that the vehicle has been hijacked.
“The system automatically knows the present position of each truck,” Dettling said.
Dettling said Inspiron Logistics sees fleet transportation as a key market to expand into but also doesn’t want to disrupt the company’s core business that involves local and county governments, including in Summit County.
Inspiron’s revenue is about $2.5 million annually and the company is profitable, Dettling said. The new WENS Transportation division is expected to have eight to 12 people working for it within the next several months at Inspiron’s seventh-floor offices at 1 S. Main St., the United Building at Main and East Market Street.
“We’re very good at what we do,” Dettling said. Inspiron has a 97 percent customer renewal rate, he said.
“We’re very, very intuitive and easy to use. At the height of a crisis, that’s what you want,” Dettling said.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
