Tech Comparison: Fleet Management

Modern fleet management systems are capable of much more than simply calculating the optimum collection route. A number of systems specifically developed or customised for the waste and recycling industry offer the ability to manage vehicle servicing schedules, measure bin and load weights and record customer service issues in real time. In the long run, picking the right fleet management system can lead to significant savings in costs and downtime while improving both service and safety. WMW gives you run down of the some of the options on the market. P&L Software P&L Software is a UK-based firm which focuses solely on developing software for the waste management industry. Its Integrated Waste System (IWS) comprises a suite of software modules with specialist features which add to a core system, providing specific options tailored to the needs of any company. IWS integrates all the procedures within a specialist waste management business, whether they are administration, operational or financial, and makes the complexities of waste management simple. For companies with vehicles on the road, the IWS Mobile add-on will improve the efficiency of the fleet. Using GPRS technology, the mobile device enables the operator to interact directly with IWS screens via a touch/stylus sensitive display – retrieving routing, order and customer details; adding additional job details and data; electronically collecting customer signatures and much more. All the potential problems with paper trails are a thing of the past. The handsets can be configured to make sure the operatives carry out every task − every trip. There are many additional benefits including: GPS Satellite positioning Mobile telephone communication Satellite Navigation Vehicle tracking Geofencing Driver logon, safety checklist & vehicle acceptance routines Barcode reader. Moba MAWIS With its expanding fleet management system MAWIS U2.0, MOBA offers a web solution that allows waste collection and other urban services such as city cleaning and maintenance to be optimised for efficient management. The system can handle route planning and optimisation, incident management, vehicle maintenance, reporting and statistics. MAWIS U2.0 is designed in several separate modules, which allows MOBA to configure the software the customer's specific requirements. Adding further to its flexibility is the ability to integrate several additional devices into the system, such as on-board computers, GPS tracking, handheld terminals and bin level sensors. The system's cartography also includes many different map formats: Tom- Tom, Open Street Maps, Satellite, Terrain, Cadastre and many dedicated municipality map layouts. Thanks to an open design structure customer's existing applications and databases to be fully integrated. The operator works via web access which provides an overview of all vehicles and services, including their current location and route history, from any internet connected terminal. With GIS visualisation of the route and a comparison to the planned route, all events are identified. The system not only indicates the services performed, but also immediately reports unattended containers and un-actioned services. In conjunction with MOBA's on-board vehicle computer 'Operand', the driver receives all the necessary information regarding the route, address data and emptying information directly in the vehicle cabin. With the additional 'CG-1'communication module mounted directly on the vehicle, all data is transferred directly to MOBA's server, allowing remote access to the entire fleet via telematics at all times. Also available via remote access, the system provides the ability to perform a full remote system diagnostics, which significantly speeds up service management. An additional feature is the creation of different user profiles with specific levels of information access, with the secondary option to choose different working languages. The customer can also implement MAWIS U2.0 as a 'Software as a Service' solution, which means that MOBA hosts all IT assets in its own data centre. In this way the customer does not have to take responsibility for the infrastructure with data storage. Ron Turley Associates Ron Turley Associates' (RTA) Fleet Management System is built to fit the needs of specialised vehicle fleets. The software is versatile and works the way your fleet works, adapting to the user's modus operandi. Onboard GPS records and sends location data back to central command, allowing fleet managers to ensure fleet reliability and minimise delays. But it is not simply a routing package. The system also monitors the vehicle's on-board diagnostics for faults. Allowing fault codes to be managed by a fleet management system enables the vehicle maintenance team to know about an engine problem even before the driver The system also features a 'Paperless Shop Module', which acts as a time management system for the maintenance workshop, giving 100% accountability of the mechanic's workload. Key features of the RTA fleet management system include: Same-day Tech Support RTA provides free, fast tech support to all of its customers. RTA promises to return every tech call within minutes not hours and provide easy to understand guidance through all of software issues. Annual Software Updates RTA upgrades its fleet management software with one major update per year. Smaller updates that contain smaller enhancements and customer requested features are released throughout the year. Cloud Hosting Services Access to the RTA system is available from anywhere with its Cloud Hosting Services. Rather than hosting the fleet management software on the customer's servers, data can be stored at use RTA Fleet's data centre in Phoenix, Arizona. Customisable Software Working with companies in the Waste Management industry, RTA recognises the necessity for customised software features in certain cases. RTA provides custom software development solutions to increase efficiency and optimise workflow. Routesmart Comprised of geospatial technologies from Esri RouteSmart software integrates with client-side systems to form a complete routing solution for meeting the demanding operational needs of industries including the waste and recycling sector. Key features of the RouteSmart software include: Unique methods to balance routes and cluster workloads including trade-offs between methods (e.g. time to complete the route vs. capacity of each route). It enables users to specify whether they want to balance routes based on time taken, number of personnel or vehicle assets available, a target volume parameter - such as number of homes serviced or tonnage of waste collected - or whether the user wants to manually seed the geographic locations of each route to keep drivers in the same area with which they are familiar. Sequencing stops and street block-faces in optimised travel order to minimise time or mileage through the route. Factor for time-of-service restrictions at each stop location. Restrict vehicles from servicing stops before, between or after certain times of day. All routing calculations performed with side-of-street, address-specific routing precision. Support for routing down alleys from which service is performed. Comprehensive support for restricting or penalising all classes of turn movements at an intersection (left, right, straight and U-turn), variable travel speeds to account for physical restrictions and access characteristics of the road, and other travel restrictions such as eliminating non-productive travel through areas or along specific sections of road Paragon Software Systems Paragon Software Systems provides a range of products for routing and scheduling optimisation, resource management, transportation execution and logistics modelling for fleet management. Using an algorithm designed specifically for optimising road-based transportation operations, Paragon's software uses digital mapping to calculate the most effective routing sequences with accurate journey times, allocating loads to appropriate vehicles and drivers accordingly. This ensures that the schedules are geographically feasible to meet promised arrival time windows, while improving fleet utilisation and productivity through efficient routes with minimal total mileage incurred and empty running reduced. Vehicle Routing & Scheduling Optimizers: Paragon Single Depot: Calculates effective transportation schedules for trucks and drivers based at a single depot. Paragon Multi Depot: Calculates schedules for all their trucks and drivers from multiple depots centrally as a single planning task. Paragon Integrated Fleets: This option adds a further level of sophistication to its multi-site transportation optimisation Fleet Management & Truck Tracking: Paragon Fleet Controller: Fleet Controller is Paragon's fleet management software solution that enables real-time truck activity to be tracked automatically against the planned routes and schedules. Case Study Heritage Environmental Services, which has waste and recycling facilities across the U.S. and transports significant quantities of hazardous and special waste on behalf of Fortune 500 companies, uses Paragon's Multi Depot and Integrated Fleets. The company uses the system for the live daily planning of its 60-vehicle fleet moving loads between client locations, transfer centres and disposal sites throughout the U.S. With Paragon automatically factoring a diverse range of industry-specific constraints, such as road use and product mix restrictions into the plan, it helps Heritage comply with the law and avoid heavy fines. The software is also improving overall fleet utilization, early signs of efficiency gains pointing to a likely 20% fleet reduction, and Heritage has been able to reduce its 14-person dispatch planning group to one centrally based planner, freeing up the original team to concentrate on generating new business. "We chose Paragon ahead of other routing systems on the basis of its ability to handle the complexities of our operation," says Alan Palmer of Heritage Environmental Services. NexTraq NexTraq GPS fleet tracking and asset management solution allows fleet managers in the waste industry to track employees, vehicles and assets while also providing detailed fleet reports and analytics that help identify any operational inefficiencies. In an industry that relies heavily on drivers operating company vehicles, waste management businesses should have a comprehensive GPS fleet tracking tool that monitors vehicle location, fuel usage and can provide efficient routes and directions. The routing feature sends optimised routes and stops to an in-vehicle Garmin device or the NexTraq Connect mobile app on a smartphone. Companies are able to increase revenue by completing more jobs in one day and saving fuel and driver time with efficient routes. However, NexTraq's hardware goes beyond just fleet tracking, and includes technology that monitors aggressive and dangerous driving behaviours such as harsh braking, cornering and jack rabbit starts. This is accomplished by built-in accelerometers that allow business owners and fleet managers to proactively monitor driver behaviour and gain a thorough understanding of how vehicles are being driven. In addition to this, the system offers tamper alerts to inform fleet managers if a device is tampered with and to ensure accurate readings. The solution also places an emphasis on driver safety and behaviour with its driver safety solutions, including the Driver Safety Scorecard Report. The report helps companies reduce the number of driving-related incidents and aggressive driving behaviours, while also protecting a company's reputation. NexTraq DriveGuard® can be utilised to prevent drivers from talking, texting or emailing while operating a company vehicle. Fleetmind Fleetmind's solution features General Dynamics' Ruggedised GD4010 Smart Display FleetMind fleet management system features a new GD4010 Ruggedised Smart Display supplied by General Dynamics Canada. It's a lightweight yet rugged touchscreen display that provides waste and recycling organisations with a robust and onboard computing platform. In a complete, fully integrated and easy-to-install package, the GD4010 provides high levels of real-time information to drivers and dispatchers about a truck's load-weight, route status, service completion, vehicular telemetry, driver activities and much more. The GD4010 is part of the General Dynamics tactical computing and display product line for vehicle and handheld applications. It manages a wide range of inputs from the vehicle's on-board systems including cameras, scales, RFID readers, tyre pressure and fuel monitoring, as well as other devices. Developed for tanks and harsh military environments, the GD 4010 includes an advanced feature set within a smaller, more compact package that reduces the need for multiple individual components. FleetMind offers an end-to-end solution that includes all the key components required to run waste and recycling collection fleets more efficiently and profitably, including on-board computers, wireless communications, driver terminals, automated service verification, fleet tracking, business intelligence systems and more. Features: 10.4" diagonal 1024x768 pixel, sunlight view-able display Intel™ Atom processor Camera/video input and digitization Video switching Paradox Engineering PE.AMI SWINGS (Solid Waste Integrated Network Gathering System) is one of the vertical applications of PE.AMI, Paradox Engineering’s IPv6/6LoWPAN based solution ready for the Internet of Things. It provides a hardware- and application -agnostic unified communication backbone building a system of hardware (wireless nodes and gateways) and software (Central Management Suite) allowing the bidirectional transmission of data and commands from/to any existing energy distribution and management system and smart as well as non-smart devices (water, gas, electricity, lighting, waste bins, etc…). Data gathered from the devices on field in fact are the basis for real time decisions and actions, which enable any services to become ‘smart’ along with multiple variables and growing complexity in Cities. PE.AMI platform supports multiple Smart City applications for the management and control of different urban services (lighting, advanced meter reading, traffic signals, parking lots, solid waste…), supporting actual and future cities’ needs. Since it is based on open standards, it ensures superior scalability, flexibility, interoperability, and full independence from any proprietary protocol or infrastructure. PE.AMI SWINGS helps managing the complexity of urban solid waste building a ‘dustbin network’ and providing detailed information about its usage. With PE.AMI SWINGS, users are provided with e-keys to access dustbins, hosting PE.AMI SWINGS wireless Nodes which register when the dustbin is accessed, only collecting date and time. It is proven that any persons tend to generate constant amounts of waste overtime: no volume or weight sensors are needed to determine when a dustbin is full or not. It is a matter of statistics getting more and more precise overtime based on the number of uses recorded. PE.AMI Nodes then communicate with PE.AMI Gateways, located either close to the ecological area or onboard the dust trucks, providing information regarding the number of accesses to the dustbin and helping determine if collection is needed or not. The Gateway also acts as intermediary among PE.AMI SWINGS Nodes and the central server where the Central Management Suite is hosted for remote management. The “dustbins network” would provide information about the number and times of access for each dustbin, and its location; and it also supports the tracking of trucks activity and paths. As a consequence, the utility Company would access all information needed to operate careful analysis and subsequent optimizations in order to offer an improved service to Citizens. Among the multiple benefits, PE.AMI SWINGS enables better workforce allocation and optimization of trucks collection paths overriding door to door collection, with significant costs reduction (up to around 40%). Cities get cleaner and dustbin locations can be optimized along with real needs and usage; furthermore, the system allows to change waste tax into a variable tariff calculated as a function of variables, including a credit and reward system which can be personalized upon the Cities goals. Ultimately, thanks to accurate statistics, it helps determining how much energy can be generated by the waste collected. Additionally, PE.AMI SWINGS can be integrated in the wider PE.AMI network (or be the first of its multiple applications), serving and accommodating multiple urban services and creating a Smart City infrastructure helping liveability, sustainability and economy. Fleetmatics Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, Fleetmatics' fleet management solutions has over 20,000 customers and 417,000 actively subscribed vehicles worldwide. Its GPS vehicle tracking system is designed to make managing a fleet easy and effective. Whether a business wants to simply know where its fleet is located at any given moment, reduce fuel costs, automate timesheets or improve customer service, the system's GPS tracking technology offers real-time insight into vehicle activity and thus enables fleet managers to improve their businesses' efficiency and health and safety. The tracking system includes GPS-based fleet tracking application accessed over the internet, a command centre dashboard for real-time fleet monitoring over the internet and comprehensive management reports. With over a quarter of a million vehicles being monitored, Fleetmatics also offers benchmark statistics, which can be used by customers to compare their results to other similar businesses. One way in which Fleetmatics can help fleet managers run their fleet more efficiently, whilst improving health and safety, is by identifying and recording a range of aggressive driving behaviours. The 'Driving Style' reporting feature on the system is able to capture data on hard braking, quick starts and hard cornering, with sensors calibrated to the vehicle class. This allows fleet managers to measure, manage and help reduce aggressive driving styles. In addition, this function allows users to set acceptable threshold limits for work hours, engine idle times, and mileage. Whenever these thresholds are breached, fleet managers are instantly alerted in real time and also have them flagged in the system for later reporting. Thanks to its integration with Google Maps, the Fleetmatics system also helps managers ensure that each vehicle takes the most direct route to any job site and avoids heavy traffic. In addition, the Route Replay function on the system enables fleet managers to replay a vehicle's journey, with the route being displayed on a Google map with hybrid mapping and Google Street View. This function can help fleet managers better manage their drivers' behaviour whilst providing proof of service for customers and improving routing efficiency. In addition, Fleetmatics integrates fuel cards into the GPS tracking system, with fuel reports and real-time data allowing fleet managers to have complete knowledge of their overall fuel usage. Thanks to its 'Fleet Maintenance' reports, the Fleetmatics system also alerts the user when a service is due or when tyres are scheduled to be changed, which contributes to helping improve each vehicle's efficiency and helps reduce fuel cost.