Fleet Management

Fleet Management helps to manage a fleet of vehicle by gaining control of travel records and time. They eliminate the time-consuming task of manually completing mileage logs, trying to track down missing data or verify hand-written information. These advanced systems could help to manage fuel consumption, velocity, load balancing, vehicle positioning. Once data collection of the Fleet activity is automated and accurate, depicting it as comprehensive reports is easy, giving way to effective management and business efficacy in a highly competitive industry scenario like today.

Fleet Management are primarily based on location finding techniques because geographical location converted into meaningful X, Y at a point of time, is the prime data here. Invariably the success, accuracy and economics of a Fleet Management System is dependent on the type of location finding techniques used.

Fleet Tracking is a term commonly used in conjunction with Fleet Management. Main differernce between the Fleet Tracking and Fleet Management being the former is confined to the location of the fleet where as later is largely a managing of the fleet. Fleet Tracking keeps track of the vehicle movements across any part of the UK or Europe.

Fleet Management Software is a complete solution to Vehicle Location in Remote areas. It can be used to locate lorries, car, motor bikes or any object located in remote place. Accordingly Fleet Management can be categorised as Car Fleet Management, Truck Fleet management. This is generally called as GPS based fleet Management or Fleet Management.

Different alternatives

GPS based Fleet Management and their solutions are dependent on the various requirements determining size, accuracy, economic constraints and the like affecting, in turn, efficiency, productivity and profitability.

GPS based Fleet Management could be divided in to three major types: Active Fleet Management Systems Passive Fleet Management Systems Hybrid Fleet Management Systems Active Fleet Management Systems These specialize in Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL). This system is based on tracking real time data of vehicle position. AVL systems allow companies to contact their vehicles any time, day or night, to determine current location and immediately retrieve other vehicle usage data. AVL systems allow greater control over the fleet management. Actual position determination and relay techniques

Architecture of an AVL system using GSM links

The communication system for AVL could be via GSM or wireless network. The GSM is ideal for GPS position information. GPS information is typically about 60 characters in length, leaving room for other information such as the vehicle registration details, average speed and so on to be transmitted as part of the same short message. The GSM again removes the cost of infrastructure and because here we use the existing cellular networks. The disadvantage is the cost of using GSM services. If the messages have to be sent frequently, say every 15 seconds, the cost could propel. GSM costs could also increase with the use roaming services provided by the service provider. Wireless networks are invariably established as a private network or one can use the existing wireless links at a cost. However there are various issues concerned with it. The foremost is the licensing/payment issues in a country like India when one wants to set up a wireless network. Poor wireless coverage could lead to loss of data. The range of wireless network is also limited based on the size of the network. The cost of infrastructure is there but over a period of time and usage the cost effectiveness is increased.

Passive Fleet Management Systems

Passive Systems do not have real time transmission of data. An onboard memory within each vehicle logs the GPS tracking information and uploads it to an office based PC on the vehicle's return to base. The passive system is designed more for companies that need to manage their fleets by reviewing the usage of the vehicles but does not need this information in real-time. Fleet managers often want to track information such as when and where delivery vehicles stop and for what duration or generate speeding reports. Passive Systems are very cost effective. The passive system hardware is typically less expensive than the active system hardware and in addition, there are no ongoing airtime costs for SMS or the bother of a wireless network.

Hybrid Fleet Management Systems

These combine both active and passive systems for companies that want the advanced management information available from passive solutions plus the ability to locate a vehicle instantly.

These systems are definitely more cost effective than AVL systems because here, there is the choice of polling location data at longer intervals cutting down on airtime costs and at the same time having access to detailed location data when the data is uploaded, on return, in the base station.

Varied scenarios and alternatives

Lets us look at two scenarios to analyse the requirements and the alternatives.

Security is essential for vehicles transporting bank cash and a Fleet Management System seems a must for this scenario. What kind of a system should this fleet use? We suggest, an Active Fleet Management System.

This system is needed because real time information about vehicle movement, speed and direction is of prime importance. The base station needs to track the vehicle at very short intervals because of the cost of the cargo involved.

An important feature of real time systems is the use of two-way communication between the vehicle and base station and vice versa. This feature could be effectively used for enhancements like added security in terms of programming door locking, vehicle stopping, transmission of distress signal by the driver of the vehicle. Advanced features like routing and navigation could also be provided.

Alternatively a cargo company could use a Hybrid System for Fleet Management for increasing cost effectiveness and at the same time enabling advanced management techniques.

A cargo company may not want real time tracking of vehicle at small intervals but it could require the location, speed and direction data for advanced analyses and reports. Therefore polling of location data could be done at longer intervals of 2-3 hours and when the vehicle returns to the base station the entire onboard data could be uploaded for detailed analyses.