By Mark Pritcahrd  USA

There have been some questions in the Blogosphere wondering if the iPhone

can be a credible business tool. My answer is a resounding “Maybe”. As a

geek and a trucker, I say it has some good points. I’ll hit a few high

spots.

First off. is it a good phone? Actually, yes. People I talk to report clear

speech, a reasonable volume, and very little background noise. Paired with a

good quality Bluetooth headset and the sound quality goes up. Of course,

much depends on the network, but ATT is decent. What was a surprise to me

was how far out of town you can go and still get good a good signal. The

antenna in the iPhone completely internal and usually covered by the hand.

Any one who drives the hills of Pennsylvania, back roads of Arkansas, or

anywhere in western Wyoming quickly learns the meaning of limited access.

Again, network dependent. The full screen controls provide easy access to

all the phone features, contacts list, voice mail, recent call lists. It is

a nice change from the tiny buttons on my last Motorola phone. There is not

a one button speed dial function, mostly because there are no buttons. But

you do get a “favorites” list you populate with names from your contacts,

and the phone will dial with one touch on the list. No voice activated

dialing, but I understand ATT offers that as an optional service. And last,

the phone book/contacts list can be synchronized with your favorite contact

list on the web or laptop thru Google, MobileMe, Hotmail, and even Microsoft

Exchange.

The other half of the device is the “Smart Phone” features. There is a

growing population of truck drivers with laptops in their cabs. The big

brokerage houses have web access to post and book loads. Truck stops all

have services and fuel prices on the web. The big money services like

Comdata or TCH have web portals to generate checks and move funds around.

Fuel accounts are managed on the web. I have seen one large company with its

dispatch, driver check-in, and scheduling all up on the web. With full HTML

web browsing instead of that tiny WAP system, a driver can have all of that

information in his or her shirt pocket. Will the iPhone replace the laptop?

No. But your sitting at breakfast, and you remember you need to rebook a

load or pay a bill, the laptop is out in the truck, so pull the phone, tap

some keys, go back to coffee…

About the screen, the Apple spec says 3.5 inch 480 X 320. For a phone, that

is huge. It is bright, in full daylight the screen is easily readable. There

is a user selectable auto-dim feature that responds well to changing light

conditions. In the cab at night, the phone will self-dim down to about the

same as dash lights. So far all of the text and images I have seen have been

clear and crisp. I strongly recommend getting some kind of full face screen

protection film for the iPhone. In the truck there is dust, dirt, diesel oil

fumes, and this will wind up on the glass. You can clean and replace the

screen protector for around $10 at your favorite big box store. Replacing

the iPhone glass is more like $200 and a couple weeks without your gadget.

Google maps on the iPhone offers real time traffic information for major

cities. The Weather Channel has a free app that gives you real time weather,

satellite pictures, and even live video forecasts. The built in mail client

works with all the big web mail services, and supports standard POP3 mail

for corporate server. If something goes wrong, the built in camera makes

documenting the broken freight simple, and keeps the safety director happy.

(neat trick that last) You can email the photos directly to your insurance

man from the phone. With a small expense tracker, a spreadsheet or two, and

the driver can have all the information needed to plan the day, or the week.

For the modern trucking industry, facing tight schedules, thin profit

margins, and complex government regulation; accurate record keeping and

smooth information flow are critical to success. The iPhone has enough

computational power to be a useful information management tool.

So its all roses, yes? No. The iPhone does not have a physical keyboard. You

type on the screen. It does take a little practice, but my fingers learned

after about a week. And the battery life is not wonderful. Real world work,

mine runs about 5 hrs on a charge. By that I mean typing email, surfing the

web, pulling down weather maps, making phone calls, and playing Tetris while

I wait for the shipper to find his pick list. (yes, it has games, and music,

it IS an ipod, too) Apple could have done better with the battery, every one

says so. They could have gone with a removable battery, so we could just

plug in the spare and keep going. Not going to happen. According to people

“in the know” a removable battery is about as likely as the devil wearing

snowshoes or pig with wings…pick your favorite metaphor. I don’t see that

as the large problem some tech analysts have made it out to be. Most of my

day, I am in or near the truck, with all the shiny power plugs my geek heart

could want. If I am in the office for 5 hours, something is very wrong with

my day that batteries won’t fix.

Will the iPhone make me a rich truck driver? Not unless someone emails me

their Swiss Bank account numbers. Will it make me more efficient and

profitable? I believe so. It is one of a growing collection of high-tech

tools that are finding their way into truck cabs. It is convenient and

portable, two must-haves for a Driver. And the original Space Invaders game

is available so you can blast aliens while you wait for that last pallet of

fuzzy dice to come off the dock. See y’all down the road…

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Let me know if you need anything else.

I’m a geek, a trucker, and a grandpa, and so far I am enjoying all 3…

Mark Pritchard

4/3/09

FWCC of Muldrow, OK, and my home

state, Arkansa

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