Hot topic
In the May 2002 issue of PalmPower's Enterprise Edition, we learned how LinCo Services, Inc., a coffee services distributor, migrated its route delivery business away from paper-intensive processes by deploying the MiniMate handheld solution for route delivery on wireless Palm handhelds.

Here again we're going to see how Palm handhelds can be used to automatically generate a driver's delivery route and optimize the order of deliveries, minimizing the distance traveled by each delivery truck. However, in this case, the company is LPG Central (at http://www.lpgcentral.com), which sells a route-optimization solution to commercial and industrial oil, gas, and propane distributors. This helps to insure that the most volatile thing LinCo drivers have to encounter on a given route is a particularly strong cup of coffee. Drivers in the petro-chemical industry, on the other hand, are taking their Palm handhelds into potentially explosive environments.

They don't have to worry though. Recently, the Palm m500 and m505 handheld computers were the first handheld computers to be certified as free from any possibility of igniting flammables that may be present in petro-chemical environments. The two Palm handheld models, which were certified by Underwriter Laboratory, will be labeled with an electrical-classification rating for Class 1, Division II Groups A, B, C, D environments, which include most refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities.

LPG Central sells a route-optimization solution to commercial and industrial oil, gas, and propane distributors. LPG's customers use Palm handhelds and LPG Central's custom SmartFill software to generate the driver's delivery route and optimize the order of deliveries. Now, with the classification of the Palm m500 and m505 handhelds, LPG's software solutions can be run on a mobile platform that's not only proven to streamline operations, reduce paperwork, and improve efficiencies, but also offers the highest level of safety. LPG is free to expand its mobile solutions into those environments where they previously could not due to the possible presence of flammables.

How the LPG Central solution works
Drivers record delivery information on Palm handhelds and generate invoices onsite using a Monarch printer. Delivery and invoice information can be downloaded from the Palm handheld to the office computer via a HotSync operation at the end of each day. Before the handheld solution, customers of LPG Central had to generate invoices from handwritten logs, which then were mailed from the main office.