Contact: Lynn Brady SMC3770.486.5981 lbrady@talk2smc.com

SMC³ Announces CarrierConnect™, Industry's First Integrated Routing and Scheduling Software

CarrierConnect™ Provides Transportation Professionals Immediate Access to Carrier Points of Service and Transit Time Data

Atlanta, GA – April 19, 1999 Transportation pricing, data and technology provider SMC³ today announced the availability of CarrierConnect™, the industry's first integrated routing and scheduling software. CarrierConnect™ combines the operational capabilities, points of service, transit times and detailed contact information of carriers into one easy-to-use system, providing purchasing, traffic and logistics professionals with immediate access to carrier information.

"With the release of CarrierConnect™, we are embarking on a whole new way for people to route and manage their shipments," stated Jack Middleton, president and CEO, SMC³. "We continue to develop innovative products for the transportation industry and will aggressively pursue new products and services to meet the needs of our customers."

Because the transportation industry is an ever-changing environment, CarrierConnect™ is sold only by subscription with scheduled updates every 120 days, maintaining accuracy and up-to-date carrier information. SMC also maintains service data for over 80 of the most popular national, multi-regional and regional carriers.

The cornerstone of the system is the carrier service and transit engine. This engine allows users to create a custom system to meet their particular business requirements. The points of service and transit time engine works with both point names and ZIP codes to pinpoint shipment sources and delivery points. CarrierConnect™ comes installed with four files, including carrier profile, terminal profile, service points/ZIP codes and terminal matrix. These files provide pertinent information on contacts, office locations, terminal listings, city/state/ZIP lookups and terminal-to-terminal transit times.

For in-house customization and software development, SMC³ has created DLL files just for that purpose. These files include the service information, city/state lookup and carrier detail. With these DLL files, users can build a system that is custom-made for their individual requirements. This allows for a more efficient and cost-effective system tailored to exact requirements.

To customize the software even more, the user default screen allows users to designate frequently used ZIP codes for origin and destination locations as well as sort on all carriers or selected active carriers. This feature displays LTL and/or TL carriers and direct and/or indirect carrier service. To ease the burden of searching through all the carrier listings, users have the option of displaying carriers by transit days, service type, preference code, carrier type and carrier name. CarrierConnect™ provides a full spectrum of options to tailor the software to each user's individual requirements.

CarrierConnect™ includes a nationwide mileage guide derived from SMC³'s MileX product. MileX is an excellent management tool for transportation analysis, pricing and schedule planning. In use by major carriers and shippers since 1984, MileX is a smart alternative to complex, expensive and large mileage products and will be provided as a standard CarrierConnect™ feature.

CarrierConnect™ not only provides routing and selection capabilities but also includes other tools to assist transportation professionals in making intelligent decisions. These capabilities encompass such features as preference codes, notepad, service maps, planning calendar, density calculator, US/metric conversion, carrier SCAC list, directory of state transportation agencies and glossary of transportation terminology.