GPS speeds up WTC cleanup

NEW YORK--A small company that makes tracking technology is one of the unsung heroes of the recovery and cleanup efforts at Ground Zero that concluded on Thursday amid bagpipes and the ceremonial removal of the last steel column from the World Trade Center ruins. PowerLOC Technologies, a Toronto-based company that makes "L-Biz" tracking technology, has been credited with dramatically improving the recovery process by organizing the flow of cleanup operations. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and wireless devices, PowerLOC was able to coordinate and track the scores of dump trucks used in the recovery, track the dump loads for billing purposes, and prevent traffic jams. At one point, over 120 trucks were fitted with tracking devices that communicated with 24 satellites circling the earth, sending the vehicle's exact location to a central dispatcher. The efficiencies allowed the city to go from using over 120 trucks at a time to less than 50, according to Yoram Shalmon, the company's director of product management. The trucks also went from hauling four loads a day to hauling 10 loads a day, he said. The scope of the destruction was still amazing, Shalmon said. --Tiffany Kary, Special to ZDNet News