Communications company Comtech launched IntelliTruck, a feature-rich, affordable telecommunications system for fleets and individual vehicles at the at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition.
IntelliTruck is the first commercial vehicle tracking system to be developed by Comtech, whose robust data communication technologies underpin the U.S. Army’s two major mobile tracking programs.
These programs are the Movement Tracking System (MTS) - used by Army’s transportation and logistics specialists, and the Blue Force Tracking (BFT) System - used by the US Army’s combat armament groups. In both cases, Comtech provides world-wide satellite coverage for assured, secure data communication requirements in the toughest, most remote environments.
IntelliTruck streamlines the reporting requirements imposed on owners and drivers by the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010), going beyond compliance to provide a powerful tool for managing driver behavior and fleet optimization, according to Dan Wood, president of Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation.
“Fleet management today is not just about driver safety and regulatory compliance - although of course that’s the industry’s focus given the FMCSA regulations,” he said. “It’s also about doing more with less: sifting through data to get the operational intelligence you need to deploy the right vehicles, efficiently use personnel and other resources, and obtain critical equipment condition checks to improve fleet readiness.
“IntelliTruck’s easy-to-use, web-based back office application generates multiple reports around driver safety, behavior, fuel consumption and vehicle condition. By capturing and processing this high quality data that flows from the truck to the base, we enable our truck operating managers to efficiently take on significantly more work with the same sized fleet.
“Additionally,” continued Wood, “by exploiting the new information, truck operators can adapt and prioritize tractor and trailer usage and maintenance on a real-time basis. The operating efficiencies enabled by IntelliTruck provide quantifiable and tangible value in a competitive market and a challenging economic environment.”
The new tracking system will enable a truck fleet to expand its capacity by as much as 25 percent, he said.
IntelliTruck’s electronic onboard data recorder is fully compliant with new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requirements, providing a number of important cost-saving benefits, including:
• The technology can read all available vehicle data bus types, reducing the time and errors associated with manual recording of driver logs and other on-the-road metrics. • Diverse communications paths (including cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth and Satellite) provide coverage across the most rugged and remote landscapes, continuously evaluating the best path for communications to reduce operational expense. • An open, applications-friendly design means that IntelliTruck can host different applications on its architecture and receive software upgrades over the air, enabling fleet managers to run applications remotely without having to haul in their vehicles.
