How the electronics company 2Wcom helps Americans protect the environment

1000 television towers in the US are equipped with decoders from Flensburg

With the help of 1000 decoders from Flensburg, a company in the United States can now track an entire fleet of 6000 trucks all over the country. For the Flensburg-based company 2Wcom, this is only the beginning – follow-up orders for Canada and Mexico are expected.

Flensburg. A Flensburg-based electronics company is establishing itself in the United States – all over the country: 1000 television towers between Florida and Seattle, between New York and California are already equipped with a radio decoder from Flensburg. This decoder network allows the US company Terion, a service provider for transport companies, to update information on large truck fleets every half hour – without having to resort to time-intensive and costly mobile phone scans. Is a truck in the Mid-West running empty and could take on additional freight? This is the kind of data that is continuously collected in Terion’s headquarters for a fleet of 6000 trucks.

It was the Flensburg-based company 2Wcom with its 28 employees that sold these 1000 RDS decoders within two years. 2Wcom stands for two-way-communication – the two means of communication: wireless (radio transmission) and wired (via the Internet). RDS stands for Radio Data System, the simple version of which delivers additional information, such as the name of a radio station, to your car radio. In this case it’s a little box measuring approximately 40 cm which transmits digital data. The trucks are contacted from one of the transmitter masts equipped with the RDS device and transmit course, trip data, speed or cargo information via a display. “The Americans use this knowledge on where the truck is going and rent out empty capacities on the truck” says 2WCom’s General Manager Werder Drews (38), almost respectfully adding: “Terion is even supported by the government, as its system allows it to avoid transports and operate in an ecological manner.” Internet, RDS broadcasting and a feedback channel via the CB radio network for the trucks close the communication loop.

The Flensburger’s main competition is in France. Werner Drews and his brother Lorenz are sure, however, that nobody has ever delivered 1000 devices like the ones that the company from Schleswig-Holstein delivered to Terion’s headquarters in Florida. The two brothers, 38 and 39 years old, have grown the business to an internationally active corporation within five years of its foundation in the Technology Center. The order from the US alone provided the company with sales of approximately 3.5 million Deutschmark. For the current year, 2Wcom is planning sales between seven and eight million Deutschmark – particularly, as demand from the USA remains strong: “Terion is now planning to equip Mexico and Canada, and has ambitions in Europe”, explains computer scientist Werner Drews.

2Wcom is also hoping to participate in the American’s market entry in Europe. Their argument: “In Europe, we are supporting 5000 to 6000 of these devices.”

The units themselves are produced on the business premises in the Schleswiger Straße in Flensburg. Only the circuit boards are delivered from a company in Niebüll. The corporate philosophy: keep the entire production in the region.

The small electronics company’s customer list contains large broadcasting corporations and network operators from all over Europe, from the Italian television station RAI to Deutsche Telekom. For the next year, the Flenburg-based company is hoping for a large order from Germany’s first public television channel ARD. 2Wcom is even talking to the German Meteorological Bureau. Following the principle of a radio controlled clock, the service could provide local weather data. With a receiver, this information could then be broadcast to any household or boat in the region. Lorenz Drews emphasizes that this wouldn’t be just any weather report: “This service would offer truly local weather information.”

Caption: From Flensburg to Florida: Werner Drews, Managing Director of 2Wcom (left) delivers the 1000th decoder to US-based company Terion.