Many fleets use handheld devices to connect drivers to the office and to capture and track shipments – even individual packages. But for the companies that use them, the popularity of handheld devices could make purchasing decisions difficult. Sorting through the latest hardware, software and wireless technologies can be a daunting task.

Businesses have different needs in a handheld device, but the process for evaluating devices is largely the same from fleet to fleet. Some of the factors to consider in selecting the hardware include calculating the total cost of ownership; determining present and future application requirements; and finding the right “form factor” – the physical characteristics – of the handheld that will maximize the adoption rate of the new technology by drivers.

In general, handheld devices can be categorized from “low-scale” to “high-scale” in terms of price, ruggedness and functionality. Devices commonly considered low-scale in price and ruggedness include smart phones, Pocket PCs, notepads and other handheld consumer devices.

These devices have all the voice and data capture functionalities a company may need at an affordable price, but a common shortfall is their lifespan. In many cases, this factor leads to a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) when compared to a high-scale device, experts say.

To evaluate TCO, managers must estimate the replacement rate of lost, stolen, damaged or even outdated equipment. The average lifecycle expectation of handhelds in the transportation environment is 5.5 years, says Jerry McNerney, director of supply chain execution for Symbol Technologies.

Typically, 30 to 40 percent of low-scale devices need to be replaced during the first year, says Kevin Moore, senior business development director for Intermec Technologies. Typically, over 3 to 5 years, a company may have to plan on replacing the hardware completely two or three times.

“Low-cost devices are great for semi-white-collar work. Even then, if you take a scanner and phone and drop it five or six times, you’re looking for a new device,” Moore says. By comparison, high-scale rugged devices, such as Intermec’s 700 series mobile computers, have a 12 to 15 percent failure rate over the lifecycle. This failure rate is primarily a result of lost, stolen or abused equipment, Moore says.