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Continuing Ms series of hands-on tests of fleet management software, Robin Meczes takes a look at Roadbase for Windows.
Roadbase, from Chevin Computer Systems, started life as a DOSbased fleet management package and has more recently migrated to Windows. It has a fair degree of pedigree and a wide user base and contains all the key modules you need for successful fleet management, including vehicle details, driver records, fuel consumption, costs analysis and service and maintenance records.
Installation
Although we requested a full end-user version of Roadbase, we were sent an evaluation copy on CD without one or two key modules. A second CD was duly dispatched which we patched over the first to get the full version, but still in evaluation mode.
The software took no time to put on our initial test machine—a nifty Pentium II 350 with 64Mb Ram—and took up 29Mb of disk space. This was strange as the stated minimum spec suggested only
7Mb of hard disk space. This was at least due partly to the sample user data included in the evaluation version—one of several reasons CM always prefers a proper version—but 22Mb of sample data sounds a lot. A short cut for the software duly appeared on the desktop, and it also appeared on the Start Menu under Program Files.
Using the software
The main thing to hit you when you start up Roadbase is how familiar it looks, with the opening screen designed to be like Windows 95 Explorer. The left-hand side shows the broad module headings under folder-like icons and the right-hand side the various options within each module. Clicking on these brings up the relevant function. This makes moving around intuitive for existing W95 users and is a major plus.
Another strong point is that data entry, for example for a new vehicle or driver, is very easy. The screens are generally logically designed and easy to work with, but if you are not happy, you can always tailor them using some straightforward design tools (assuming you're using the Professional version—see "The bottom line", right).
Most of the dataentry screens include at least a couple of lines for additional comments, a nice touch sadly spoilt by the fact that only about two-thirds of the width of each line is actually usable and the lines are not linked. If you want to type in a comment across two lines, you have to select and type into each box—hardly ideal if you want to edit it afterwards.
The diary note function is particularly useful as it allows you to schedule in events of importance with a date for completion, such as a licence renewal. And the fleet status feature shows due dates for vehicle servicing, annual testing, VED, breakdown insurance and warranty, applying familiar traffic-light colour coding to indicate the most urgent tasks—another nice touch.
The software's reporting functions are perhaps its greatest strength. On fuel, for example, you can track every transaction for every vehicle individually or together and analyse the results in numerous ways, including fuel costs at different suppliers, miles-per-gallon graphs, types of fuel used and the total fuel used.
Accident analysis is another useful feature, allowing you to record the details of accidents and prevailing conditions and generate reports to help identify any trends. The trips and loads function will produce running totals and average statistics, by vehicle, for mileage covered, days worked, tonnes carried, number of loads, and number of drops.
A bonus to the already strong textbased reporting is the software's graphical abilities. These make it quick and easy to get a handle on, for example, how your fleet breaks down among different suppliers, or the main causes of your company's vehicle accidents. You can choose from several graph formats and rotate the results on screen to best advantage.
Windows problems
We did have some problems with the software, however, the main one berg that Roadbase continually crashed on us, usually for doing no more than attempting to print a report to screen or access a pie chart. The subsequent error messages sometimes offered us a chance to ignore the problem and carry on: sometimes only to abort and get kicked back into Windows.
On far too many occaslons, the option to abort failed to do anything other than produce further errors and, eventually, a full crash which froze Roadbase. We were then unable to close the software by any of the usual means, or to reboot the machine through the Start menu or Ctrl-Alt-Del. Our only eventual option was to switch off.
We also found Roadbase affected the performance of our Windows 95 screensaver, leaving the Windows taskbar and Office toolbar both inexplicably present on screen during screensaver activity
Problems were also experienced with individual windows within the software: some of them opened up much wider than the screen; others refused to be moved or resized; and one just would not close at all.
All this made us wonder if there might be problems with the software running under Windows 95. Chevin's managing director, Ashley Sowerby, was puzzled by the problems and sent us another, more recent evaluation version. This cured the screensaver oddity but not the tendency to fall over continuously. We installed the software on two further machines, but nothing changed.
Finally, when we tried to remove Roadbase from these three machines, Windows was not able to uninstall it fully Apart from these Windows-related hiccups, there was not much to quibble with. Roadbase did fail our 'idiot' test— allowing us to enter details for a six-yearold driver without a licence and subsequently allocate him to a Renault Magnum without any query—but so has all the other software we have tested!
Our only other gripe was that some parts of the help section were unfinished. One of the subject headings (Interaction with other modules) had no text associated with it while another area (Screen Design Tools) promised a step-by-step guide to common customisation operations 'below" but didn't include the guide.
Conclusions
Roadbase's core functionality is good, although job scheduling and invoicing modules would doubtless prove useful for some users; as would data backup. We liked the Explorer interface and found the reporting functions to be good.
Sadly the software was badly let down by its apparent instability under Windows 95 which we experienced.
It is a shame, because underneath it is a competent piece of software that is capable and powerful. But until Chevin addresses the problems we encountered, we cannot wholeheartedly recommend Roadbase for Windows.
Potential users might prefer to look at the DOS version, but the Windows offering is really a question of patience. And ars ran out