Trucking Technology Report - Oct. 13
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Both the online report and e-mail are sponsored by @Track Communications, a supplier of wireless communications and dispatch services.
Today's Technology Headlines:
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Senate Backs Phone-Tax Repeal
The Senate voted yesterday to revoke a Congress-imposed tax that was enacted over 100 years ago to finance the Spanish-American War. As a result, revenue will be cut by $55 billion over the next 10 years in an effort to reduce phone bills.
The vote yesterday comes after the House's approval of the measure in May. Now, the proposal must be presented to the White House. President Clinton will approve the measure, according to the Senate's Democratic leaders. While a veto is improbable, the measure could become part of talks about tax credits the administration is urging for school construction, White House officials said. Washington Post (10/13/00) P. E3; Goodman, Peter S.
FCC Backs Phone-Service Competition in Business Complexes
The FCC decided Thursday to prohibit telecom service providers from forming exclusive deals to serve office buildings that house several businesses and said it would consider broadening the guidelines to include residential apartment buildings. However, in an effort to avoid going beyond its authority, the FCC did not place any requirements on landlords. The guidelines also prevent telcos from holding talks with commercial property owners for exclusive rights to premises where they can deploy gear.Phone companies that have authority over such areas in apartment buildings, campuses, and office buildings would be required to provide open access to other carriers and cable operators. The agency said it would consider additional measures, including barring telcos from forming exclusive marketing agreements or from taking bonuses from property owners. New York Times (10/13/00) P. C5
AlliantLink.com Serves Roadmap to E-Business
Food distribution firm Alliant Exchange is succeeding with its e-business efforts because it understands what many competitors do not: in e-business, it is more important to integrate back-end inventory and fulfillment systems and provide customers with real-time information and relevant content than it is to simply present them with a pretty e-commerce site. When developing its AlliantLink.com e-commerce site, Alliant Exchange built on the foundation of its years of experience with electronic inventory and fulfillment systems. AlliantLink's foundation consists of the pre-Internet systems that Alliant and its retail customers have used successfully for years.
AlliantLink allows customers to check inventories and order status in real time, and allows customers to generate extensive reports on their buying habits, which they can use to strike better deals with manufacturers. There are other, less quantifiable benefits as well, such as the fact that Alliant's field service personnel spend less time taking orders and more time building strong relationships.
The $6.5-billion Alliant Exchange expects 25% of its total sales will come through AlliantLink in 2001, up from about 8% now. "We saw that e-business would have a major impact on the foodservice distribution industry, and we had to get out in front of the trend," says AlliantLink COO Barbara Moss. Consumer Goods Technology (09/00) Vol. 9, No. 7, P. 25; Wreden, Nick
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