Hand Held Products adds to its lineup
Hand Held Products, an affiliate of Skaneateles Falls, N.Y. based Welch Allyn, has introduced a new "image-processing version" of its original pocket-size Dolphin PDT (portable data-collection computer).
The Dolphin 7200-2D (two-dimensional) is well-suited for vehicle-based, multi-stop data collection. It boasts a state-of-the-art digital camera with an integrated image processor. This enables it to read linear bar codes and PDF417 and 2D matrix codes, as well as to "capture" signatures and other visual proofs of delivery.
Hand Held says the Dolphin 7200 is the smallest handheld device of its type and is aimed at logistics, transportation and distribution applications where different "symbologies" must be read and signatures or other images recorded. The company states that the unit's suggested selling price of $2,095 is nearly 45% lower than comparable competitive units.
Beginning this month, the company is offering the new all-purpose Dolphin 7400 PDT. It features a 2D-area imager and Windows CE operating system at a price starting at less than $2,500. The unit can automatically read and decode all popular linear bar codes, PDF 417 codes, 2D matrix codes and OCR fonts A and B.
The Dolphin 7400 can also capture digital images of such things as shipping manifests, signatures and damaged freight items. Hand Held says the all-purpose imager eliminates the need to use different data collection devices throughout the manufacturing and distribution process.
The manufacturer also announced a 37% price reduction in its general-purpose handheld Image Team 4410 and 4710 area imagers. Hand Held says these 2D imagers read all popular linear and stacked bar codes, PDF 417 codes, matrix codes and postal codes. The units can be used in transportation and distribution functions. Circle 267 on reply card
The future growth of electronic commerce in trucking will hinge on offering a wide range of services through the Internet, says one e-commerce executive.
"We offer a comprehensive suite of services, including transportation management, auctions and consulting, because it is hard to predict which one will be the biggest draw for customers," said Jim Ritchie, CEO for Transportation.com, in an interview with Fleet Owner.
Transportation.com is one of many new e-commerce ventures being launched to serve the needs of not only trucking, but of the transportation and logistics industry as a whole. Trucking, however, is the biggest slice of the transportation pie, which is why Ritchie says Transportation.com is focused on that market segment.
Transportation and distribution of goods across all industries has the potential to reap huge efficiencies from Internet-based applications, which is why the Internet is gaining wider acceptance in trucking as a business tool, said Ritchie.
"While the greatest share of activities driven to the Internet in the transportation industry are transactional based," he added, "more interactive or collaborative activities will begin to migrate to the Internet in the near future."
So far, however, use of the Internet to manage transactions is paying bottom line dividends to companies, especially in reducing administrative costs, said Ritchie. "It allows customers to focus on other areas of their business, saving them time and money," he said. "Take load matching. They don't have to pour over lists, place phone calls or faxes to verify whether the load or capacity is still available."
Freight rate/billing software, FreitRater v. 4.5.1, from Commercial Transportation Services is designed to provide a fast, accurate rating system that easily interfaces with existing accounting systems for freight bill rating, rate analysis and rate publishing. The software runs on Unix or Windows NT. www.freitrater.com.
Prophesy Transportation Software has launched a free service that allows users to enter available truck or load information to a series of load matching sites. Prophesy Multi-Post is available at www.mile.com, and allows users to upload information to such sites as DAT, GetLoaded.com, and Internet Truckstop with just a single posting.
