Computer Use in the Trucking Industry

Haulage contractors are always looking for ways of improving efficiency and reducing costs. These usually rely on better management practices. Computers are now an almost essential management tool and it would be reasonable to suggest that truck operators should be heavy users of computer software. There seems to be a considerable amount of software available to them, but it has been suggested that this is not widely used. To see if this is true a survey of the trucking industry was done in Alberta, Canada. This survey showed an unexpectedly low use of computers, with a preference for general business software rather than specialised packages designed for truckers. Operators often suggested their use of computers was limited by a shortage of adequate software. Overcoming this shortage could offer considerable benefits to both the trucking industry and software suppliers.