-COMPUTERS IN TRANSPORT)
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Although not legally accepted as a substitute for the tachograph, computerised in-cab recorders are capable of fulfilling all of its functions and many more besides. Seabourne Express told Brian Weatherley how it was using such recorders on its fleet to considerable advantage
NOT SO LONG AGO Sunday magazines regularly delighted in printing enlarged and undeniably impressive close-up photographs of minute silicon chips. These, we were told, were capable of performing a fantastic array of functions, such as handling thousands of simultaneous trans-Atlantic telephone calls or running an entire steel rolling mill.
Nowadays these pictures, if they are used at all, are relegated to the back pages. People are far more blasé about new technology and a distinct lack of computerised sophistication is more likely to provoke comment.
The tachograph is a good case in point. With micro-technology, the current method of recording drivers hours by scratching a wax-coated paper disc with a stylus must, as 'Janus' remarked (Topic, CM, August 4), seem to many operators positively archaic.
Few would deny that since tachographs finally became mandatory for all goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes on December 31, 1981, they have made it easier to enforce statutory driver hours. The advent of the tachograph has also prompted a rise in computerised fleet management programs based on the data indelibly marked on each disc. But the same data currently supplied by a tachograph — plus a great deal more, could be provided far better by a less cumbersome electronic in-cab device using modern solid-state circuitry.
Several companies, including (not surprisingly) the tachograph manufacturers, have been actively developing an electronic microchip-based 'black box' type of vehicle recorder. Earlier this year Goldcrest Electronics launched such a system called VEDAC (CM, Tech News, April 28).
VEDAC, short for vehicle data collection system, consists of a small in-cab microprocessor module into which are placed re-usable memory cartridges. These cartridges, which are no bigger than a pack of 20 cigarettes, incorporate a 4K RAM memory chip, battery and crystal time clock. They can record vehicle and driver movements for a minimum of 10 days before they are then placed in an office console where they 'download' their stored information. This programmable console can be linked to a printer to provide a transport manager with a hard copy of the data recorded on the cartridge, or to a micro-computer which can use the results in a fleet management program. Like a tachograph, the onboard cartridge can record a wide variety of vehicle-related data such as duration of driving and non-driving periods, finishing time and vehicle speeds, as well as final 90second speed trace which gives evidence of acceleration or deceleration in the event of an accident.
But in addition VEDAC can monitor five other functions such as the operation of a power take-off, tail lift or fridge unit, opening of vehicle doors or the operation of low oil or coolant warning lights.
Vehicle speed is determined by the use of an electronic sensor which measures the rotation of the speedometer or tachograph cable. The sensors can be fitted in line with the cable or for commercial vehicles fitted with triplex boxes to the second triplex outlet. The speed transducer fitted to the gearbox produces a pulse for each revolution of the gearbox outlet. These pulses are used by the incab module, not only to monitor speed, but also to determine the distance a vehicle has travelled.
Using one of the five channels on the memory cartridge VEDAC can provide accurate fuel data such as quantity drawn, fuel used, amount left in the tank and average consumption. Engine temperatures throughout the whole driving period can also be monitored.
Although officially launched earlier this year, prototype VEDAC units have been used since 1982 by a number of Britislhauliers, including Barking. based Seabourne Express which chose VEDAC to help ir one particular area of its opera tions-fuel monitoring.
Seabourne operates 5: vehicles on European parcel; work and, like many large trans port companies operating ove long distances, fuel bills are . major part of its capital outlay With an average monthly bud get of £23,000 for diesel it wa vital that Seabourne's fleet eng neer Steve Rose should be abl to keep track of consumption.
Problems arose, however, du to the company's fuel purchasing methods. With no bunkering facilities to draw on, drivers use DKV cards to purchase dery throughout Europe and submit fuel dockets at the end of each trip. While this system allows great flexibility, Steve Rose found there were often discrepancies between the driver-entered fuel dockets and DKV's monthly invoice.
This was further exacerbated by lost or mislaid dockets. As a result it was becoming difficult to know how accurate the DKV demands were or to plot fleet fuel consumption figures.
In an attempt to establish a base line for fuel consumption Seabourne began looking at a number of monitors, going as far as carrying out a year's trial with one of its Barking-based vehicles fitted with a Germanmade Howa flow meter. The results proved disappointing, with inaccuracies of anything between 3-10 mpg being recorded.
In late 1982 Steve was approached by Cowlard Computer Services. The company had already carried out the tachograph analysis on Seabourne's vehicles. Cowiard was one of VEDAC's early distributors and, knowing Seabourne's fuel problems, it suggested a trial. This resulted in the fitting of a microprocessor module in one of Seabourne's Mercedes 2419 6 x 4's.
VEDAC records fuel levels from either a sensor fitted to the vehicle's fuel gauge or directly to the tank sender unit. The sensor measures the voltage generated by the tank sender unit and, by using a built-in program, the office console analyses this voltage data producing fuel consumption information. Before any results can be gained, however, the vehicle's tank has to be emptied and the VEDAC equipment calibrated. Fcr Seabourne this was done by adding precise 16 litre (3.52 gal) increments to the tank and analysing the changes in voltage levels. Total calibration time proved to be around 45 minutes according to Steve Rose.
Seabourne's choice of vehicle was by no means arbitrary. For the VEDAC figures to be worthwhile the vehicle had to have a fairly high trip mileage and its tank filled more than once. The pilot vehicle chosen for VEDAC was used on a regular 2,225-mile round trip to Italy incorporating five fuel stops, drawing on average 700 litres (154gals) per journey.
Comparing his standard monthly DKV returns for the Italian vehicle with the VEDAC data, Steve Rose found the incab monitor to be consistently accurate to within 10 litres (2.2 gals) of the DKV figures. Across a total fuel figure of 700 litres, this difference works out at 1.43 per cent — well inside VEDAC's claimed accuracy for fuel monitoring of within 3-5 per cent.
While the final degree of accuracy is hard to determine, particularly as the DKV data is based on diesel dispensed by pumps that may not be maintained to the same high British Weights and Measures standards, Steve Rose considers the VEDAC fuel information more than accurate enough for the purpose of keeping track of Seabourne's fleet fuel consumption.
With two more VEDAC modules fitted in 1983 — again to Mercedes 2419 6 x 4's — Seabourne has been able not only to monitor individual truck performance, but also to use the VEDAC data as a yardstick for consumption throughout the entire fleet. The sets can be transferred to any vehicle in five hours. Steve Rose has also been using the speed trace information entered into the memory module to determine fuel consumption for vehicles across varying stages of their journey.
So far the on-board units have proved reliable in the 'hostile' environment of Seabourne's cabs, although if the VEDAC goes wrong it is not always as easy to recognise the fault as in a tachograph. Once, a worn gear in the triplex box on one of the Mercedes meant no figures were recorded, although this was only discovered when the memory cartridge was removed and downloaded.
While many drivers have accepted the tachograph as an instrument that can be seen to record data, the idea of a black box recording information away from the driver's eyes may arouse the old 'spy in the cab' suspicions. According to Steve Rose, however, Seabourne's drivers soon got used to operating with VEDAC.
One advantage of VEDAC over a tachograph is that the memory cartridge continues to record even when it is not fitted inside the vehicle module. This means that any attempt to prevent data being entered by removing the cartridge will be detected as a timed blank space on the print-out sheet.
While VEDAC obviously has the capability to record far more than just fuel data, Seabourne has used it specifically to help control its diesel spending. Consequently Steve Rose has restricted his VEDAC equipment purchase to six cartridges and the three modules using Cowlard to download the memory cartridges on average every 14 days at a cost of £0.75p per cartridge.
In spite of the obvious potential of microprocessor-in-cab data collection systems like VEDAC it is highly unlikely that they will replace the tachograph at least within the next five years. There are still operators and drivers who resent the tachograph, and changes in transport legislation (coupled inevitably with more expenditure) to make black boxes compulsory would surely be met with the same resistance as shown towards the tachograph.
EEC law makers certainly are not in any hurry to change the current method of recording drivers' hours. Indeed, the reading of such devices at the roadside would require substantial investment in equipment on the part of police, traffic examiners and trading standards officers.
There is, however, an increasing demand among operators for more in-depth fleet management data that cannot be supplied directly by a tachograph and will only come with the advent of new technology. How soon these electronic devices are universally and legally adopted, however, will ultimately depend on the amount of interest hauliers show in the non-compulsory equipment currently available.