Q&A: The Pro-Rugged Perspective — Why Consumer-Grade Just Won't Cut It For Our Field Operation

By Sarah Nicastro, publisher/editor in chief, Field Technologies
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Publisher/Editor-In-Chief Sarah Howland talks one-on-one with Michael Lavery of FedEx Ground about the company’s use of rugged handhelds.

Michael Lavery is the manager of mobile and wireless systems development at FedEx Ground and has been with the company for 12 years. In his role, Michael leads a team responsible for the development and deployment of all mobile technologies used to support operations at FedEx Ground. With FedEx being as large an organization as it is (FedEx Ground alone has more than 80,000 mobile devices deployed in the United States and Canada between its pickup and delivery operations and sorting facilities), and an early adopter of mobility, Michael has a lot of experience researching, evaluating, and deploying mobile technologies — which gives him a unique perspective. I recently talked with Michael about FedEx Ground’s use of rugged mobile devices to get his thoughts on the everpopular rugged vs. consumer device debate.