PeopleNet, a provider of intelligent onboard communications and fleet management solutions, introduced its BLU In-Cab Application Platform and announced the launch of its new Tailored Solutions practice. The announcements at the Truckload Carriers Association 2008 Convention follow the recent introduction of PeopleNet’s BLU Driver Center, a driver-oriented onboard platform open to virtually unlimited applications and USB devices.
PeopleNet’s new BLU In-Cab Application Platform, known as BLU ICAP, provides the tools software developers can use to enable PeopleNet’s BLU to perform whatever functions an individual fleet might require. Tailored Solutions is a new group within PeopleNet that will work with fleet customers to develop those solutions, whether they involve in-cab applications or back-office functions. PeopleNet’s Randy Boyles was named as vice president of Tailored Solutions.
“Whatever a fleet needs tracked, flagged or automated, PeopleNet has the knowledge, the creativity and the ‘openicity’ to get it done,” says Ron Konezny, chief operating officer of PeopleNet. According to Konezny, BLU ICAP includes an Application Programming Interface, or API, in the Microsoft .NET framework. It also includes an extensive software developer’s kit, or SDK, to support whatever software project a fleet might undertake.
Konezky says one fleet already has put ICAP to work: the National Cooperative Refinery Association, based in McPherson, Kan., which distributes fuel to affiliates in the North Central region with a fleet of tank trucks. NCRA is developing its own software to track and report pickup-and-delivery information in real time; it will run on BLU. As fuel is delivered, delivery ticket information is transmitted over PeopleNet’s wireless mobile communications system.
“NCRA is using ICAP to meet a specific need,” Konezky says. “Clearly, ICAP is a very practical complement to our new BLU Driver Center platform.” Meanwhile, PeopleNet’s Tailored Solutions practice will provide development know-how for fleets without in-house developers. It also will work with developers in fleets with larger IT departments.
“Tailored Solutions will smartly tailor applications to meet the very specific requirements of individual fleets, whether those applications run on BLU in the truck cab, through PeopleNet’s g3 Services for back-office integration, or any combination,” Boyles says. Tailored Solutions also will build customer reports and applications according to customer need, he says.
In separate news, Frost & Sullivan, a growth consulting company, recognized PeopleNet with the 2007 North American Regional Fleet Telematics Growth Strategy Leadership of the Year Award, based on a recent analysis of the commercial vehicle telematics market. PeopleNet has developed and executed customer-focused growth strategies that enabled it to achieve strong subscriber and revenue growth rates over the 2004-2007 period, resulting in impressive market share and mind-share growth rates, the company says.
