The company has a total of 4,864 tractors. The 2,700-unit contract includes a three-year service agreement. Approximately 2,000 mobile communication systems are scheduled for installation by Dec. 31, 1997, with the remaining units paced throughout 1998 to support American Freightways fleet growth.

The executive team at American Freightways selected HighwayMaster after ruling out satellite systems because they had no voice, as well as conducting a serious evaluation of basic cellular phone service and HighwayMaster's enhanced-cellular network.

American Freightways quickly realized the HighwayMaster system provided significant additional benefits, among them position and location reports with GPS (satellite), immediate nationwide call delivery, protection from fraud, and the ability to control unauthorized driver use of the phone.

HighwayMaster's other features such as Rolling ETA(R), engine monitoring, the portable unit and MileMaster(TM) added to HighwayMaster's distinguishing capabilities.

American Freightways Vice President - Transportation Gary Bouch added, ``What impressed me about HighwayMaster was their willingness to look at our operations -- which are clearly different than a truckload carrier -- and provide a solution that met our unique needs.''

American Freightways is a scheduled, for-hire carrier of less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments of general commodities, serving all points in 27 mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, southeastern and southwestern states.

``Our standard Series 5000 offering was not what American Freightways needed for their operations at this time, since they didn't need the ability to dispatch trucks using data messaging,'' commented Gordon Quick, HighwayMaster's chief operating officer. ``Fortunately, we were already planning the introduction of a 3000 series service offering in 1998 which met their needs very well, and can be upgraded to a Series 5000 when the customer needs it.

``The work we have done with a prestigious LTL carrier like American Freightways is just what we needed to validate the concept of our new service offerings as we move into new target markets.''

About American Freightways

American Freightways employs 12,000 people operating more than 21,600 pieces of revenue equipment from a network of 210 Customer Centers. American Freightways began its operations in Oct. '82 by opening twenty customer centers to serve all points in Arkansas and the key points of Dallas; Memphis, Tenn.; Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, Mo.

American Freightways has been honored with the Nasstrac Regional Carrier of the Year award in 1993, Nasstrac Inter-regional Carrier of the Year in 1994, Nasstrac Multi-regional Carrier of the Year in 1995,1997, the Quest for Quality award from Distribution magazine from 1986-1997, and the Multi-regional Less-than-truckload Transportation Quality Carrier of the Year by Logistics Management magazine.