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September 29, 1999 7:58 AM, EDT

For many smaller trucking companies, getting on the information highway has been a much slower process than getting on the asphalt highway ever was.

But carriers slow to build a home on the World Wide Web can’t put it off much longer, if high-tech service providers are to be believed. They are predicting Armageddon for trucking companies that don’t establish Web sites.

Software developers, shippers and logistics companies are turning to the Internet as the primary means of exchanging information, technical experts say. And small trucking operations are going to have to jump on the Internet bandwagon if they want to survive.

“To provide services economically, 80% to 90% of all small trucking companies are going to need Web sites in the next two years,” Fred Nichols, president of CSIroad.com in Mechanicsburg, Pa., predicted. He estimated that as recently as a year ago, only 2% of trucking companies with between 20 and 100 trucks had Web sites. Now, he said, about 35% have them.

For the full story, see the Sept. 27 print edition of Transport Topics. .