THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 23, 1995 TAG: 9510210188
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The minivans of Cox Communications Inc. technicians are strangely silent most times.
The dispatch radio hardly chatters anymore because the cable-TV installers and repair people get most of their instructions by computer. And a satellite tracking system shows the computer dispatchers where every truck in Cox's fleet is at all moments.
Cox's Hampton Roads system pioneered mobile computing in the cable-TV industry two years ago. Now cable operators all over the country are installing similar setups.
It's part of a massive shift by fleet operators to onboard computers.
United Parcel Service has been using cellular carriers for several years to track packages. When a UPS driver makes a delivery, he or she scans a bar-coded label on the package and the person receiving the package signs an electronic clipboard. The image and the bar-coded information is then sent by the driver over the cellular network to UPS's central database.
Police departments are rapidly converting to onboard computers. In several Hampton Roads cities, officers routinely type license-plate numbers into computers before walking up to a vehicle they've stopped. They have access to motor-vehicle and criminal databases.
Virginia Natural Gas Inc. of Norfolk plans to convert all of its field-service mechanics to computer-aided dispatch early next year. GTE Corp.'s GTE Mobilenet cellular unit will provide the air link.
There will be no more early-morning gathering of mechanics in the dispatch room to collect written work orders for the day. ``They'll download all their data while they're at the trucks arranging their tools and getting their doughnuts in order,'' says David Weston, administrator of quality programs.
If Cox's experience is a guide, VNG's mechanics will likely become more productive but less stressed.
Kathleen McGrath, a Cox technical supervisor, said before the cable operator installed its system she averaged about six jobs a day. By the time she was promoted from technician to supervisor a month and a half ago, her average was between seven and eight a day.
``And I actually had more time to spend with my customers,'' she says, ``because I spent so much less time waiting for somebody to come on the radio and dispatch me to my next call. That was frustrating.'' MEMO: [For a related cover story, see page 12 for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
The Virginian-Pilot
Kathleen McGrath
by CNB