Using Omni Tracs, a system developed by Qualcomm, Carlile can find any one of its hundreds of trucks 24 hours a day. From Tacoma to Prudhoe Bay, the company keeps in contact with all of its drivers.

"I can get up at 3 a.m. at home, log onto to a Web site and bring up any truck that is having trouble," said Lisa Marquiss, regulatory compliance director for Carlile in Anchorage.

Carlile also has two 42-inch plasma screens in Anchorage with map overlays that show truck locations in real time.

Using the equipment, at an average cost of $3,000 per vehicle, Carlile can also stay in constant messaging contact with every load.

"If a driver has an emergency on the Dalton Highway at minus 50 degrees, that's a life and death situation. They can message us in real time and we can start moving on the emergency immediately from the closest location to the vehicle in distress."

Marquiss says that the equipment which tested four years ago and has been in use for almost two years, was originally developed for special cargo.

"We originally got into using this for munitions loads," Marquiss said.

An added benefit of the tracking is to the driver, who can get all of his or her destination information for each load, with emergency "panic" buttons for security issues.

From the dispatch end, the information also cuts time and helps organize the workflow, as well as the logistics.

"This really helps the back office with giving information to the customer for tracking," Marquiss said.

Carlile dispatch and management can track the trucks, their performance, speeds and break times to better manage for more efficient traffic flows, Marquiss said.

The system also works in the Lower 48, although it requires a different screen to follow the flow of truck traffic.

An added benefit to the system is that it allows the company and public safety officers to know the location of hazardous materials-related shipments at all times.

"We recently tested this and it works," Marquiss said. "The truck can transmit an emergency message, and all levels and different agencies get the signal to make a response more coordinated." Carlile system is linked into the Operational Response Emergency Information System for HazMat emergency response.

Carlile, with more than 500 employees, supports facilities in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Kodiak, Prudhoe Bay, Seward, Tacoma, Wash., Edmonton, Canada, and Houston.

The $90 million company has two modern trans-loading terminals in Alaska and Tacoma that offer cross loading, international freight loading and rail connections.

The new $6 million Tacoma facility has 65,000 square feet and has 50,000 square feet of cross-dock loading and warehouse ability with 80 doors.

The Anchorage Carlile facility is 18,000 square feet in comparison.

The new Tacoma facilities is U.S. Customs-bonded, and has a chill and freeze holding area, as well as a rail spur for loading and unloading rail boxcars or flatbeds.

Only a half a mile from the Totem Ocean Trailer Express terminal at the Port of Tacoma, the Carlile facility also offers heavy- haul capabilities.

The Tacoma facility is very important to Alaska and Carlile, according to Carlile officials.

"Everything that goes through here is headed to Alaska," says Linda Leary, vice president of sales and marketing for Carlile.

"This facility allows us to move the freight faster and safer by organizing it into 'source loads' directly to the destination it is intended for," Leary said.

By cutting down on handling, or re-sorting at several destinations, the loads go from Tacoma to their final delivery point in Alaska all in the same load.