Last December, we visited Steve Minter at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Steve has been rolling out our Quadrant solution throughout the state in the vehicles he manages. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is responsible for a wide range of activities, including:

• Regulation and inspection, (including every retail weigh scale in the state, eggs, amusement rides, pesticide use, and fuel pumps)
• Teens and tobacco
• A veterinary office
• A marketing division, (which runs farmers’ markets and promotes Kentucky agriculture products around the world)

Many people at the Department of Agriculture work remotely and by themselves. There are obvious safety concerns, which Steve has addressed using Quadrant to gain visibility into where vehicles are located. Steve helps ensure safety of workers by conducting remote physical vehicle inventory checks using Quadrant—something that was impossible to do before Quadrant. Steve has used Quadrant reporting to move from re-active to pro-active management of his fleet.

With innovative solutions like this, Steve’s long-term vision will provide a positive impact in all areas for which the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is responsible.  Customers, such as Steve, continue to show us new and innovative ways to use Quadrant on a day-to-day basis as a great telematics, automated GPS, and automatic vehicle location solution.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Last week, Michael Smith, CTO of the Webtech Wireless NextBus division attended an invitation-only meeting with the US Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra and Deputy Secretary, John Porcari. NextBus is the #1 provider of public real-time transit information in North America. Using information from transit agencies like Los Angeles, Boston, Toronto, and New York, Michael and the team at NextBus created the best real-time passenger information system in North America. Their leadership is why they were at the White House Executive Office Building meeting with US thought leaders on public access to real-time transit information.

In addition to vendors like NextBus, there was representation from the Association of Public Transit Agencies, Open Plans, and Google. The focus of the meeting was how to make more real-time transit information publicly available. For example, some GPS vendors require transit agencies to sign exclusive contracts that preclude them from sharing the GPS information with the public.

Aneesh Chopra reminded participants that the Obama Administration’s Open Gov initiative suggests that, “Openness empowers people with information to make decisions”. This has proven the case with examples such as JP Lick’s Ice Cream Store in Boston, which uses NextBus information to provide customers with real-time arrival information. Store patrons can enjoy their ice cream while an illuminated sign in the store  scrolls through the times of the next two buses on Route 39, which passes their store (full story here).

NextBus has shown the way in providing openly accessible data feeds. The White House wants to see more leadership like this in real-time transit information systems.

Making a big business change often feels like storm clouds are brewing on the horizon. Just as sailors must decide whether to stay safely in harbor, you must decide where the business benefits are and whether the storm of working through the change is worth it.

Today, every project involves IT in some way and there are no projects with more storm clouds than those involving IT. For years, IT project failure rates have been averaging 65% or more.

Creating business change success means focusing on a few key elements:

Business Case: The business case has to drive the change, not IT or technology. The business benefits you are trying to achieve must be clear, measurable, and focused on the results you want to achieve.

Executive Buy In: The senior executive team must buy in to the change and have clear insight as to why the change is taking place.

Project Plan: Key individuals must be identified and assigned specific who, what, and when tasks which they are held accountable to.

Organizations often change key business systems once a decade or two. Leading vendors are helping organizations successfully through business change every week. Their experience, people, and processes are what insure that projects finish on time, on budget, and solve the business problem they set out to solve.

At Webtech Wireless, we have seen lots of storms over the years of assisting clients make business change to use the information from our telematics solutions to make measurable change to their business, while taking the risk out of projects with our proven methodologies, systems, and people.

Do you have the all the knowledge and experience that you need to make it through the storm of business change of deploying an automated GPS and AVL solution?

The GPS/AVL and telematics industry has been developing for a long time. Webtech Wireless started business in 1999 and today we have over 100,000 subscribers using our telematic solutions. While creating a new technology market can feel like climbing a mountain, now is a good time to join us on the trail. The routes are well defined and we are here to make it easy for you to gain the insight, benefits, and cost savings of deploying a telematic solution.

To give you some idea of the growth of the telematic market, here are some of the latest statistics:

• The total Mobile Resource Management (MRM) US market will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.9% from 2010 to 2013 (Source: Licht & Associates).
• The North American forecast for the number of fleet management systems in active use will have a CAGR of 12.6% from 2010 to 2015 (Source: Berg Insight).
• Global telematic component markets will grow at a CAGR of nearly 21% from 2011 to 2016 (Source: BCC Research).

These growth predictions demonstrate that telematic solutions have moved out of the early adopter category and into the mainstream. The reasons for adopting and deploying a telematic solution for your fleet include the following list from an MRM presentation by Licht & Associates:

Increased Productivity: Increase the number of jobs per day and more productive driving miles.

Improved Customer Service: More timely response times, real-time status updates, and tighter service windows.

Cost Savings: More efficient routing, fuel reductions in the 5-15% range, and reduced maintenance costs in the 10-30% range.

Risk Management: Accident reduction, lower insurance costs, accident reconstruction, and asset recovery.

Regulation/Green Initiatives: U.S. Senate Bill 3884 (installation of electronic on board recorders), CONTRAN 245 in Brazil (installation of a GPS tracking device on new vehicles), and vehicle re-routing as a key way to reduce miles in a transportation green initiative.

We have helped clients in all these areas and are enthusiastic about being part of the growing telematic market in 2012 and the future.

At the Fleet & Asset Management 2011 conference, Conal Deedy, Solution Manager for Volvo Group Telematics gave the presentation “Fuel Management Systems: The Indispensible Investment”. In his talk, Deedy highlighted the fact that 31% of operational costs in trucking are fuel. In a low margin business like trucking, the effect of lowering fuel consumption by 5% can lead to an increase of 18% in company profitability.

Deedy asserted that these are the biggest factors affecting fuel consumption:

• Vehicle specification and configuration
• Aerodynamics
• Weather, road, and traffic conditions
• Vehicle maintenance
• Driver behavior

Take something as simple as tire pressure. According to Deedly, 50% of all truck tires are more than 10% under-inflated. A -10 PSI tire inflation equates to a -1% mpg reduction in fuel economy.

As we have documented in our white paper “Telematics ROI: The Human Factor” each 1 mph increase in speed over 55 mph reduces fuel economy by 0.1 mpg. Deedly stated that the most efficient drivers get about 30% better fuel economy and idling can account for 30-60% of a vehicle’s operating hours.

To save costs and increase profits, trucking companies need to focus on fuel savings. The best performing ones know that altering driver behavior requires both coaching and monitoring of drivers. Telematics solutions like ours give you the tools to both monitor and provide drivers with feedback to improve their fuel economy.

Wayne County in Detroit, Michigan has released an innovative new portal called Compass. Combining information from many different sources, including real-time information from our InterFleet solution, citizens can see what is happening on their streets as they happen.
Dealing with snow and keeping roads clear is a challenge for Wayne County. In the article Wayne County drivers get high-tech link to roads, The Detroit News documents how Wayne County is deploying Compass so that citizens can both see what roads have been plowed and view projections of where the snow plows will be next.
Wayne County, like many of our clients, use the unique features of InterFleet to provide a seamless view to stakeholders by using the information interfaces of InterFleet to connect disparate systems together. The creativity of customers like Wayne County results in an enhanced user experience for the viewer.

As the article reminds us, InterFleet also provides critical information such as the speed of snow plows, salt usage, and coverage. Customers use this information over time to reduce their winter material costs by up to 30%.
How can you use real-time GPS and Automatic Vehicle Location information to create information for your stakeholders?

At the TMW Transforum 2011 conference, I was interviewed by Michael Carpentier, CEO of Big Truck TV on risks that keeps fleet managers away at night. Michael has published the interview where I share my thoughts on how to mitigate risk and let managers sleep at night.

The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) introduced the CSA initiative in 2009 to improve truck and bus safety and reduce commercial motor vehicle (CMV) – related crashes, injuries, and fatalities.

For more information on the CSA initiative, view the following resources and tips:

• Why is CSA needed?
• How does CSA work?
• What is the timeline?
• What is your role?
• Frequently Asked Questions about CSA
• Review Data

Find out how Webtech Wireless transportation fleet management solution can help you comply with CSA and improve the safety and security of your fleet.

• Greater insight to driving behavior
• Monitor vehicles and track vehicle diagnostics and maintenance information
• Receive notifications of auto-enabled maintenance schedules and alerts for upcoming brake inspections, engine oil changes, vehicle trouble codes, etc.
• Set speeding thresholds and receive email alerts when your mobile workers have exceeded the defined limit
• Pinpoint dangerous driving behavior, and the option of a flashing LED in the vehicle also alerts your driver to slow down
• Support Text-to-Speech and Voice Command Recognition
• Configure in-cab Mobile Data Terminal devices to prevent messaging use while driving vehicle
• Leverage hands-free dialing or 1-button push options
• Access comprehensive vehicle scorecards that provide speeding, unsafe maneuvering, and hard braking counts to help you assess your mobile workers’ driving behavior, any unsafe driving habits, and guide your mobile worker into becoming a better driver

Automated Hours of Service and IFTA Fuel Tax Reporting

The Webtech Wireless Driver Log feature in Quadrant addresses both the US Department of Transportation and Transport Canada’s Hours of Service regulations. With instant access to driver information such as the duration a driver is behind a wheel (starts and stops), when breaks occur and the length of time between driver shifts, Transportation companies are able to meet regulatory requirements, maximize driver efficiency and eliminate manual errors. Integration with ProMiles IFTA, provides operators with accurate data on miles driven within each state and automatically generates fuel tax reports for efficient compliance with tax regulations.

The American Transportation Research Institute just released their 2011 Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry 2011 Report. This annual report surveys more than 4,000 carriers to produce a rank ordering of the key issues the trucking industry sees for itself.

For Webtech Wireless, it was good to see that Onboard Truck Technology is a top 10 issue from the survey respondents. In fact, the graph above shows that for 85% of the trucking industry, onboard technology ranks 5 or higher. For 70% of the industry, it ranks 7 or higher.

Automated GPS and AVL solutions, like the ones we offer, can have an impact on several other of the critical issues raised in the survey. For example,

#2. Hours of Service. Both Quadrant In Cab and Quadrant Manager offer key HOS capabilities, including predictive in cab alerts.

#3. Driver Shortage. Customers tell us that it is the best drivers that stay around when they deploy a telematics solution. A professionally run organization that uses telematics and reporting to level the playing field, making all drivers accountable, is more likely to attract better drivers.

#4. CSA. Good compliance with CSA rules can be enabled through a telematics deployment and automated HOS solution (see #2).

#5. Fuel. Customers use our solutions to monitor idling, driver behaviour and fuel economy, which enables them to increase their fleet fuel economy and lower their fuel costs.

#9. Onboard Truck Technology. Need we say more?

We are pleased to be positioned to help customers solve five out of the top ten issues that the American Transportation Research Institute has identified for 2011.

As the #1 winter fleet GPS and AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) solution in North America, we know what it takes to get ready for winter. All fall we have been helping organizations like the City of Chicago, Ville de Québec (City of Quebec), and the City of Ottawa prepare their winter fleets to be ready for when it starts snowing. We work with Departments of Public Works, Ministry of Transport, and Departments of Transport to give them the solutions they need for their snow plows and winter fleet operational information. Our years of experience have taught us that this is what to look for in a top performing winter fleet telematics solution:

Real-Time Information. When a storm event occurs, supervisors need to know what is going on in their jurisdiction every moment. Our InterFleet ten-second reporting and automatic map updates, means that you have the information you need to make decisions as events occur.

Working With You. We work directly with our winter fleet customers to prepare them for winter. We collaborate to make sure that everything is working before the first storm arrives. Because we work with the largest set of spreader controllers of any vendor, our customers know that their equipment will be reporting and responding correctly when it is needed.

Salt Management. We save our customers millions of dollars every year in the cost of salt, by monitoring and automatically adjusting the amount of salt being put down on the roads. We provide management with year by year reporting so that they can compare and improve their salt use and costs, no matter what the weather is.

It is easy to take it for granted that your streets are cleared when the winter storms arrive. The truth is that it takes a great deal of planning and work to make sure that everything is ready. Top performing organizations work with us to look after their citizens, while saving money, and ensuring that the roads are clear once the snow starts falling.