RESTON, Va.-American Mobile Satellite Corp. announced two new customers for its Multi-Mode Mobile Messaging Service-Dart Transit Co. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.
AMSC’s messaging service provides seamless nationwide coverage and combines the ARDIS wireless data network-which it purchased from Motorola Inc. earlier this year-with its SkyCell satellite system, said the company.
Dart is one of the country’s largest truckload carriers and said it selected AMSC’s messaging service because it will enable fewer dispatchers to support more trucks, reduce the company’s long-distance phone bills and for use of its global positioning system service. Ninety-four of 100 Dart owner-operators said they wanted the on-board computing and communications terminals in their vehicles.
“Prior to selecting American Mobile’s service, we were paying a pay-phone surcharge of $60,000 a month so owner-operators could update our dispatchers,” said Dave Oren, vice president of information services at Dart.”
J.B. Hunt Transport Services chose the service to allow for greater coordination of pick ups and deliveries. The company first will implement the mobile data terminals in its Chicago fleet of local trucks, which run several jobs per day that require coordination with the company’s dispatchers.
