Nextjet Mobile Resource Management System (NextjetMobileRM)

Overview

In line with overall transportation and field service industry trends, Nextjet has responded to its customers’ mobile resource management needs to cost-effectively make best use of their driver and field technician resources while providing end-customers greater visibility on the status of inbound shipments and repair orders. Realizing that no single wireless solution pervades the market, Nextjet supports MRM processes across an array of wireless devices and networks, including Nextel®, BlackBerry®, Symbol®, and J2ME® phones.

Achieving Event-level Visibility Across a Mobile Pool of Internal and Third-Party Transportation Resources

Through its Nextjet Mobile Resource Management (NextjetMobileRM) application, Nextjet optimizes the utilization of drivers and their vehicles through intelligent dispatching capabilities that incorporate GPS-based location data and current route detail, dynamically adding incremental stops while still meeting existing route plan commitments. Moreover, NextjetMobileRM pushes detailed shipment data to drivers and field tech resources, while also enabling these resources to update the Nextjet Transportation Management System or client’s existing dispatch system (depending on integration approach) on the progress of shipments across all stages of pick-up, transport and delivery activities.

NextjetMobileRM: FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY

Specific functionality available to fleet drivers, independent contractors, and field technicians on the wireless platform includes:

• Review tendered shipment/load details
• Accept or reject tendered shipment/load
• Receive dispatch notifications or alerts
• Update shipment status: Pick-up, In-Transit, Delivery
• Incorporate bar-code scans
• Add accessorial charges

Consistent with the overall web-native, J2EE Nextjet solution architecture, Nextjet has adopted an open-standards approach to its integration and support of a host of wireless networks and communication devices. NextjetMobileRM interfaces directly with Java-enabled phones by deploying a Java MIDlet application to them. Additionally, Nextjet MobileRM provides an option to incorporate a Symbol barcode scanner phone attachment. The MIDlet records scanned codes and caches the information until communication with the Nextjet Transportation Management server or client dispatch system is available.

NextjetMobileRM also has the ability to utilize embedded GPS capabilities of Motorola® iDEN phones, broadcasting the GPS position of mobile resources to the Nextjet Transportation Management System or client dispatch system at configurable intervals. The NextjetMobileRM application provides a real-time, drill-down map on its web-based interface to track the positioning and trajectory of these GPS enabled mobile resources, which in turn, ties into the Nextjet Route Optimization engine to ensure optimal selection of drivers and vehicles to fulfill specific shipments within overall routes.

Flexibility in Deployment Scenarios