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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.

PeopleNet, in a bid to push further into the trailer-tracking market, is touting integration with Par Logistics Management Systems as the new “core” of the Minnetonka, Minn., company’s trailer-management product.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last week said it will not require the next generation of electronic onboard recorders to use a different type of computer connection than current models, or to operate in temperature extremes beyond the capability of existing systems.

McLeod Software has certified PC Miler 24 and integrated it into its software, said ALK Technologies, PC Miler’s developer.

Garmin Ltd. recently recalled 796,000 Global Positioning System navigation units in the United States, but the company’s trucker-specific GPS navigation handheld was not affected, the company said.

Qualcomm Inc. has released details about the next generation hardware in its MCP100 mobile computing system.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is eyeing an even more expansive mandate for electronic onboard recorders than it indicated earlier this year, sources told Transport Topics.