HighwayMaster Corp., a
wholly owned subsidiary of HighwayMaster Communications Inc., Tuesday announced a 2,700-unit contract with Harrison, Ark.-based American Freightways Corp. to provide its patented mobile communications system for American Freightways line-haul fleet.
The company has a total of 4,864 tractors. The 2,700-unit
contract includes a three-year service agreement. Approximately 2,000
mobile communication systems are scheduled for installation by
Dec. 31, 1997, with the remaining units paced throughout 1998 to
support American Freightways fleet growth.
The executive team at American Freightways selected HighwayMaster
after ruling out satellite systems because they had no voice, as well
as conducting a serious evaluation of basic cellular phone service and
HighwayMaster’s enhanced-cellular network.
American Freightways quickly realized the HighwayMaster system
provided significant additional benefits, among them position and
location reports with GPS (satellite), immediate nationwide call
delivery, protection from fraud, and the ability to control
unauthorized driver use of the phone.
HighwayMaster’s other features such as Rolling ETA(R), engine
monitoring, the portable unit and MileMaster(TM) added to
HighwayMaster’s distinguishing capabilities.
American Freightways Vice President – Transportation Gary Bouch
added, “What impressed me about HighwayMaster was their willingness to
look at our operations — which are clearly different than a truckload
carrier — and provide a solution that met our unique needs.”
American Freightways is a scheduled, for-hire carrier of
less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments of general commodities, serving
all points in 27 mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, southeastern and
southwestern states.
“Our standard Series 5000 offering was not what American
Freightways needed for their operations at this time, since they
didn’t need the ability to dispatch trucks using data messaging,”
commented Gordon Quick, HighwayMaster’s chief operating officer.
“Fortunately, we were already planning the introduction of a 3000
series service offering in 1998 which met their needs very well, and
can be upgraded to a Series 5000 when the customer needs it.
“The work we have done with a prestigious LTL carrier like
American Freightways is just what we needed to validate the concept of
our new service offerings as we move into new target markets.”
About American Freightways
American Freightways employs 12,000 people operating more than
21,600 pieces of revenue equipment from a network of 210 Customer
Centers. American Freightways began its operations in Oct. ’82 by
opening twenty customer centers to serve all points in Arkansas and
the key points of Dallas; Memphis, Tenn.; Kansas City, St. Louis,
and Springfield, Mo.
American Freightways has been honored with the Nasstrac Regional
Carrier of the Year award in 1993, Nasstrac Inter-regional Carrier of
the Year in 1994, Nasstrac Multi-regional Carrier of the Year in
1995,1997, the Quest for Quality award from Distribution magazine from
1986-1997, and the Multi-regional Less-than-truckload Transportation
Quality Carrier of the Year by Logistics Management magazine.
