Keeping tabs on your assets is becoming easier as equipment
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comes on to the market which can not only tell you where your truck and driver are, but also how efficiently they are performing. Oliver Dixon looks at the latest systems off the blocks. Haulage used to be a simple business. Truck, driver, load and points A to B about summed it up. But things have changed. And if, according to figures released by the Inland Revenue, you are making in excess of a 2% return on capital invested in your haulage fleet, then you're not doing badly. Put simply, road transport is no easy meal ticket.
There are two ways of improving this situation. Hauliers can either ask their customers for a bit more by way of remuneration, or they can take a long, hard look at the bottom line. While the first approach may prove beneficial if you live in a part of the world where a hollow laugh has a fiscal value, the second may prove to be more practical.
The advent of the Euro-2 unit and inbuilt electronic engine management systems now allow for more information about both driver and vehicle behaviour to be gathered. Moreover, as commercial vehicle theft is on the increase—£30m worth of insurance claims for stolen trucks were processed in 1995—any management device which can offer both management information and a security function is likely to result in reduced vehicle running and insurance costs.
VeMIS, the vehicle monitoring system developed by Tamworth-based Leafield AVM, uses an in-cab computer and sensors to assess the performance of vehicle and driver. Using a driver-specific card, data can be downloaded to a PC whenever required, giving fleet managers a driver by driver breakdown of operating efficiency.
After a successful trial period, NFT, the transport arm of the Northern Foods Group, fitted the system to its Haydockbased fleet. Depot transport manager Tom Starkey argues that the system has proved valuable both in terms of vehicle and driver efficiency.
"We already had a fuel management system in place," says Starkey. "The main problem with that sort of system is that it shows how much fuel is being wasted without providing a reason for it." Because the VeMIS system provides an audible warning when the driver behaves inefficiently, NFT anticipates that it will see overall fuel savings of around 6%, and has already noted a reduction in idling time to 0.4%. At the same time, the system has proved to be a valuable training aid for drivers changing to Euro2 engines: "These new engines need fewer gear changes," says Starkey. "VeMIS encourages the drivers to hold on more, taking full advantage of increased torque while operating within the parameters of modest horsepower limits. Since we introduced the system, time spent in the green band runs at 96%."
While the VeMIS system offers a valuable amount of management information, it does not offer the facility to stop unauthorised use of the vehicle. Lucas Kienzle launched its Fleet Logger system two years ago, and, while it offers arguably less than the VeMIS system in terms of management reports, it does offer the option of a driver authorisation mode, which, the company argues, should reduce vehicle theft.
Tag reader Like VeMIS, Fleet Logger is based around an in-cab computer module and a driver specific card. This records information which is then downloaded into a PC via a tag reader, allowing operator-specified analysis and driver-specific reports to be created at the touch of a key.
Fleet Logger offers a certain degree of security, insofar as it prevents, in theory, the unauthorised use of the vehicle. This facility may reduce opportunist thefts, but a determined hijacker faced with a highvalue load will not be so easily deterred. Optimum security can really be achieved only through a real-time vehicle tracking device.
Within its Fleet Ware range of software, Lucas Kienzle offers a facility for near realtime or realtime tracking through the GSM cellular telephone network.
This offers a couple of advantages: not only is the driver offered the option of easy communication with the traffic office, but the traffic office can keep an eye on vehicle movements. As hauliers are required to journey further and further away, and into regions which are less than secure, this is, on paper, a benefit. In practice, however, any information about a truck going missing in, for example, Kazakhstan, is not going to prevent major headaches for the operator, and, more pertinently, danger for the driver. Moreover, GSM can be both expensive, and, in less-developed parts of the world, intermittent in coverage.
Securicor's TrakBak system is one of the longest-established vehicle tracking devices on offer. Securicor claims a retrieval time of under one hour for stolen vehicles equipped with TrakBak, and, as a result, points to a reduction in insurance premiums of around 20% as being the norm. TrakBak has a major advantage over other systems in that it takes the initiative when a vehicle is stolen, alerting the police, who in turn carry TrakBak tracing devices as part of their equipment.
Last year, Inmarsat, better known for its ship-to-shore communications systems, also entered the vehicle tracking market through its D System. Marketed by Station 12, an offshoot of KPN, the Dutch Post Office, Inmarsat's D System offers a short message service of up to 128 characters, as well as realtime vehicle location tracking. Because Inmarsat has its own established satellite network, the D System offers hauliers working at the edges of the GSM network, the former Soviet Union, for example, improved coverage.
Most vehicle tracking systems offer information about a vehicle's location. That's useful in situations where both driver and load may be vulnerable. Berkshire-based Symbol Technologies has refined the tracking idea, and applied it to a more prosaic aspect of the haulage equation, offering a pre-alert facility for the consignee.
Lomas offers standard vehicle tracking through the GPS system. Additionally, it also offers a facility described as a tripwire. When the vehicle reaches a predetermined point, it crosses a notional tripwire, which, in turn, generates an automatic message to the destination, alerting recipients to the imminent arrival of the vehicle.
This, argues Symbol Technologies, allows space to be made for the vehicle before its arrival. Both consignee and haulier benefit: the former through a reduction in the delivery window needed for a load and the latter through quicker turnaround. For vehicles operating in a true just-in-time environment, the tripwire facility could prove invaluable.
Money saver So vehicle tracking systems generally fall into two camps; those which serve only to protect the vehicle and load, and those which offer ongoing management information. Both types provide the operator with a chance to save money, be it through improved vehicle and driver performance or simply as a result of reduced insurance premiums.
The growth of IT in transport means that these systems are likely to become ever more common. VeMIS is now a linebuild option on Foden Trucks, for example, and, as the demand for information and security becomes greater, it would pay operators to explore all the options available. After a I, if the technology is both available and beneficial, then the arguments in favour of its use are, while not necessarily overwhelming, certainly worth listening to.