Innovation Benefits Fleets

Light & Medium Truck, Aug 2007 by Bennett, Stephen

Wireless coverage via onboard computers linked to Web-based systems enables fleets to monitor drivers, vehicles, fuel economy and maintenance needs around the clock.

For some fleet managers and maintenance superviiors today, a routine part of their job is accessing a iecure Web site to view, say, last month's fuel expenses or a report on which trucks need servicing in the ming week.

They can do that, thanks to the convergence of the Internet, wireless communications and onboard computing technologies that generate information and a need for software and hardware to manage it for fleets, said executives who work in information technology.

"From a technology trend point of view, everything today is Web-based," said John Mines III, president of the Asset Solutions division of Maximus, Reston, Va., which provides management software to fleets. "We have not sold anything but Web-based software for the last few years."

Web-based software is appealing to fleets because it can be accessed for use over the Internet, and it can run on vendors' servers; fleets thus avoid the installation and updating tasks that would be required if software were installed on their own computers.

In a typical case, data from a driver's handheld device, or from a truck's engine control module, can be transmitted over a wireless network to Web-based software, which then presents the information on a secure Web site for the fleet. This setup depends on reliable data transmission, and that's where the advent of widespread wireless coverage comes in.

"We've been talking for years in the industry about ubiquitous wireless coverage," said Bill Presler, senior business development manager of Panasonic Computer Solutions, secaucus, N.J., which manufactures the Toughbook line of ruggedized laptops. Now it has become a reality, he said.

Today's cellular networks are also high-speed offering what Presler called "a fat pipe" - enabling nearly continuous transmission of large volumes of data from drivers and vehicles to fleets, and vice versa. Data from the field can include information about deliveries that drivers have completed, for example, or details on fuel consumption and vehicle speed from trucks' engine control modules.

With the combination of mobile communications and onboard diagnostics, "It's almost like the vehicle is now announcing diagnostic type information," Hines said. Some of that information could be useful to fleet maintenance managers making warranty claims.

"One of the big things in fleet maintenance has always been and will continue to be warranty recovery and managing warranty records," Hines said. He envisions a time maybe three to five years from now - when diagnostic data from vehicles will be transmitted directly to original equipment manufacturers and parts manufacturers to speed processing of warranty claims. A fault code indicating an alternator problem, for example, could be sent directly to a parts supplier. But demand hasn't built for that capability yet, Hines said. "It's a matter of enough people asking for it."

Plenty are asking for another software application - fuel management, Hines said. Fleets could justify investing in such a system when fuel was "at two bucks a gallon. Now we're up to three bucks a gallon."

Fleets use automated fuel management systems to authorize and record fuel transactions. The Maximus system, for example, can work with a wireless device installed on a truck and a transponder attached to a fuel nozzle. When the nozzle is inserted into the truck for refueling, the transponder transmits the nozzle identification to the wireless device on the truck as part of the authorization process. The wireless device on the truck also can interact with a wireless control device on fuel islands as an additional part of the authorizing and monitoring function.

Open Architecture Systems Increasing

The trend in software development is for "open architecture" systems, as opposed to closed or proprietary systems, and that is a turn for the better, said Presler. Proprietary systems are custom-designed, and for that reason integration with software applications created by other developers can be "very costly, time-consuming and difficult" for both vendors and fleet users, he said. In contrast, the specifications of open architecture systems are public, meaning any company can create add-on applications that can be more easily integrated.

Microsoft's Windows operating system is an example of an open architecture system, Presler said. Its standard for creating Web content is extensible markup language, or XML, which provides more flexibility than hypertext markup language, or HTML, another language used on the Web.

Open architecture systems also follow a common protocol, or technical standard, for transmitting data over the Internet, which is important to the data-heavy fleet management business. "When you have XML and Internet protocol as a standard, it's so much easier to provide for communication and system integration," Presler said.