Wireless Internet access is just fine with ePaccar, a division of truckmaker Paccar Inc. in Mt. Vernon, Wash. The unit is building a package that will let truck drivers access more than weather and directions using a wireless Windows CE device in their cabs. Margaret Sullivan, director of advanced technologies at Paccar, says the commercial transportation industry is working on razor-thin profit margins and is fiercely competitive, so the ability to provide the fastest and most fuel-efficient route saves truckers time and money. "And providing them wireless access to load-brokering sites lets them pick up more cargo and make more money without deviating much from their original route," says Sullivan. "The two represent a competitive advantage for those using our trucks."

The company formed a partnership with Internet-based content provider Infomove Corp. to provide truckers wireless access to traffic updates and the latest directions. The service will be available by year's end; cost has yet to be determined. Together, they will help truckers steer clear of heavy traffic, closed roads, and other problems that cost them in late deliveries, says Sullivan, who predicts that truckers will be responsive to anything that has the potential for them to earn more profit.

The "p" word is the primary motivator driving financial- service firms to adopt wireless technology. Financial firms can use wireless to expand their potential customer base and make transactions more efficient.

With this in mind, J.P. Morgan & Co. last month launched a wireless add-on to its SynDirect Platform, a Web site used to bring issuers and investors together to facilitate bond transactions. Although the platform already supports this application from PCs, supporting wireless wasn't a tough sell. "Wireless makes it even easier for our clients to do business and to the extent we can allow them to do that in a more efficient way, we'll earn more money in the long term," says VP Dave Olsen. "We hope to underwrite more bond offerings as the result of supporting this technology."

J.P. Morgan clients gain access to the site using Palm VIIs or Nokia phones that use the Wireless Access Protocol. The clients can view a list of upcoming bond offerings with terms of the deals and register their interest in buying them by filling out a brief online form from their wireless devices. They then have their interests listed with all others for the benefit of the bond issuer. Investors can check back in to see how many shares they're allowed to buy. After the offering is closed, J.P. Morgan posts the price per share and investors can check in using the devices to decide whether to buy.

"Much of the information needed is available in a variety of different places," says Olsen. "But the customer benefit we offer to issuers is to consolidate all of it in a single location and provide all constituents a way to communicate more efficiently and without having to be at their PCs." The next-best real-time option, says Olsen, would be setting up a megaconference call with 200 investors, J.P. Morgan, and the issuer. "We're delivering a huge improvement."

The same holds true for discount brokers. At least a few companies view wireless services as such a key marketing tool that they're footing the hardware bill for their best clients. TD Waterhouse Investor Services Inc. in New York plans to arm its top 5,000 individual investors with Compaq's new iPaq Pocket PCs-free of charge. This will let the investors access their accounts from any location; after logging in, investors can check stock quotes, financial research, and trade stocks.

The brokerage hopes these users will perform more transactions, which means TD Waterhouse collects more fees. "It's part of our strategy to create as many access channels as possible to our services," says Richard Rzasa, executive VP and CIO at the discount broker.

Rzasa says his company chose Compaq's device over handhelds from Palm, the market leader, because Compaq uses Microsoft's recently released Pocket PC operating system, a follow-on to Windows CE. "We looked at Palm, but we're already a Microsoft shop, so the integration was relatively simple," says Rzasa, adding that TD Waterhouse developers simply created an HTML interface designed to fit the wireless iPaq's smaller form factor.

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