Wap technology latest advance for mover

By ADAM GIFFORD

Transport company Mainfreight has gone live with a Wap (wireless application protocol) application, even though it does not expect many customers to track their freight with a Wap phone.

"That requires a mental shift - they have the device in their hand, are they going to track freight or ring you?" said chief information officer Garry Collings.

"Are we worried? No. We are proving the Wap technology works and this is only the start."

He said Mainfreight was looking forward to the extension of Wap to devices like Palm digital assistants, which would give people in the field a far greater range of functionality.

The company is issuing Wap phones to its sales staff so they can have instant access to data about the status of deliveries.

The Wap application, written by Christchurch software house Holliday Group for about $5000, allows users to dial in over the internet to the Mainfreight website, where they get into the company's MainTrak freight management system to query an Informix database which contains information about every stage of a consignment.

Mr Collings said Mainfreight was an aggressive user of new technology, and considered its business was as much about delivering information as delivering goods.

It launched Tracy, the first interactive voice response system in the industry back in 1991. That year it also started producing computer-generated consignment notes which fed into its host computer through electronic data interchange, reducing the chances for operator error or confusion caused by illegible writing.

In 1994 it introduced real time freight tracking from the cabs of its vehicles, connected to the Mainfreight computer by a wireless application called Fleetlink.

The Informix database was rolled out in 1996, allowing web tracking of orders to be introduced. Once that was interfaced with customers' back end systems, many were able to dramatically reduce help desk staff.

"Where we have been able to assist our customers in the past is by giving them information in real time," Mr Collings said.

He said Wap was the next logical move.

"It's all very well having internet access but people in the middle of a large transport yard would like the information right now.

"They might be out in the yard 300 metres from a PC."

Mainfreight rejected earlier radio solutions which would have required proprietary hardware while delivering relatively low bandwidth.

Mr Collings said Mainfreight had a policy of designing applications in-house and getting them realised as bespoke developments by "small, intimate, flexible and fast" software houses like Holliday, Designer Technology and Sanfield Associates.

Mainfreight is one of New Zealand's largest freight companies, with 1900 staff and revenues of $430 million last year.

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