Freedom to Choose

An interesting lawsuit came to my attention today:
http://www.thetrucker.com/stories/03_05/0330_ooida.html
Looks to me as if North American Van Lines has been operating on the old tried and true 'company store' policy.

Can't comment on the merits of the case but one thing that caught my eye was the independent owner-operator's claim that North American forces the drivers to buy Qualcomm tracking equipment and service through the company.

Some years ago, Qualcomm was the pioneer in this technology, and on the one hand, I have a great deal of respect for Qualcomm ... they are certainly the world's largest player in the tracking world.

However, their equipment, service and customer relationships are 20 years old now and grown rather 'long in the tooth'. There is plenty of choice in the equipment world for individuals or small companies to choose from that can meet or beat Qualcomm in all aspects, particularly price.

One suspects that the alleged requirement from North American is a sort of phony requirement, driven by the fact that Qualcomm denies the existence of competitors and refuses to let companies integrate different brands of tracking equipment. They are very literally a "my way or the highway" kind of firm.

Individuals who are looking into tracking ought to think very long and hard before getting "married" to an all or nothing sort of provider. Do a little searching and/or contact an independent consultant before embarking on a decision like this. There are many services out there that can integrate different manufacturer's services and equipment into the same dispatch center.

Once upon a time IBM tried to tell all their customers that they had to buy IBM hardware and software .. or else. We all know how that ended. It's you business, run it wisely.