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Managers of large fleets want to buy improved equipment and advanced technologies despite the recent recession but are insisting upon payback periods of four years or less, according to a recent survey.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered a Colorado carrier to install electronic onboard recorders on its fleet by March, after deeming the trucking company in violation of federal hours of service rules.

PeopleNet has partnered with Trinium Technologies to integrate PeopleNet’s communications system with Trinium's software, PeopleNet said.

McLeod Software’s purchase of Enterprise Information Solutions positions the No. 2 provider of enterprise software for motor carriers to compete for the first time for business from less-than-truckload companies — a trucking niche that appears hungry for new technology, vendors said.

McLeod Software has acquired Enterprise Information Solutions Inc., a software firm specializing in the less-than-truckload market, the companies jointly announced.

Rand McNally took a minority ownership stake in DriverTech LLC, positioning the Skokie, Ill., map maker to compete directly with other mobile communications providers.

Considering the treatment that a budding chief information officer once might have gotten on the playground from a budding truck driver, it is no small thing in 2010 to hear that the successful trucking company desperately needs both of these people to move the freight and make a profit.

Long known for its simplistic and low-tech approach to logistics, the trucking industry fortunately has begun to realize how valuable technology can be in improving productivity and boosting efficiency throughout a company.

Two U.S. senators, with the support of some of the nation’s largest trucking fleets, introduced legislation last week that would require all trucks to use electronic onboard recorders to monitor their drivers’ hours of service.