1 Technology The key success criteria for any technology company is the concepts of INSIGHT and INNOVATE. The name INSIVATE was thus derived through combining these two key concepts. Applying these two key concepts to real-time vehicle tracking and integrated fleet management has led to the selection of the technologies described below for INSIVATE s Integrated Fleet Management Systems (IFMS). 1.1 MT4000 Vehicle Tracking Unit (VTU) Novatel Wireless offers an extensive range of vehicle tracking units and their MT4000 is a feature rich quad-band GSM/GPRS unit. Key features include: Flexible application customization through Smart Agent programmable rules and event engine Innovative internal cellular and GPS antenna design Configurable driver behaviour reporting, polygon geo-fencing, driver ID, and multiple GPIO capabilities Deep sleep and low power management for 12 V & 24 V passenger cars, trucks, and transit vans worldwide Figure 1: Novatel Wireless VTU The Novatel MT4000 is distributed and supported in South Africa by Vodacom. 1.2 Microsoft Bing Maps Platform Today s economy intensifies the need to improve fleet management for effective asset tracking and efficient fleet utilization levels. The Bing Maps Platform supports software-based monitoring and tracking solutions that help mitigate loss and control operational costs for transportation companies and other organizations with fleet vehicles, mobile assets, or mobile workforces. 1.3 Rich Internet Application (RIA) using Microsoft Silverlight 5.0 Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the.net Framework for building and delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA) for the Web. Silverlight uses the Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) to ease UI development (e.g. controls, animations, graphics, layout, etc.) while using managed code or dynamic languages for application logic. 1.4 Microsoft Windows Services Figure 2: Microsoft Bing Maps The Real-Time Vehicle Tracking Server (VTS) is implemented as a multi-threaded Microsoft Windows Service and executes on a server hosted at Vodacom. The VTS receives and stores all the tracking event data sent by the VTU s. When a VTU connects to the VTS, a dedicated thread with its own UDP port is allocated to the VTU. This design approach enables the VTS to support more than 60 000 VTU s per server depending on the processing power of the server. Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 1 of 8 info@insivate.com
Tracking event data received by the VTS is processed to detect events (over speed, harsh braking/cornering, geofence violations, etc.) and create associated alarms. Communication between the VTU s and the VTS is via a Vodacom Corporate APN using UDP messages. 1.5 SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports Intuitive Design Environment o Design elegant reports quickly using a "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) layout that offers popular design, integration, and deployment options. o Use rich design tools to create the precise report layouts you need o Reduce tedious report formatting efforts with templates and wizards o Set parmeter values and get results without refreshing data o Explore results interactively with on-report sorting and filtering o Set sorting and formatting to match local language customs Powerful Report Viewer Figure 3: SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Report Designer Figure 4: SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Report Viewer Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 2 of 8 info@insivate.com
2 INSIVATE IFMS Overview Leveraging the above technologies has enabled the development of a fully integrated real-time tracking and fleet management system. A select sample of screenshots is provided to demonstrate some of the basic functionality. 2.1 Secure Authentication and authorisation Figure 5: Secure Authentication and Password Expiry Users are assigned unique usernames and passwords are encrypted in the database. Password expiry policy is implemented and users must periodically change their passwords. 2.2 Real-Time Tracking Figure 6: Real-Time Tracking For the purposes of the development and testing, the VTU has been configured to report event data at a high frequency and coloured pins are used to indicate alarm conditions. Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 3 of 8 info@insivate.com
2.3 Organisation Hierarchy A multi-tiered organisation hierarchy is supported with no programmed limitation on the number of tiers. However for practical usage purposes, it is recommend that the number of tiers do not exceed five or six. Vehicles can be assigned to an organisation entity at any level of the hierarchy. The IFMS reporting supports selection of a single organisation entity or an organisation entity inclusive of all child organisation entities. This is especially useful when doing cost reporting for the entire organisation, a business unit with sub-departments or just a single selected department. 2.4 Vehicle Search Figure 7: Organisation Hierarchy To support any fleet from small to large, vehicles can be searched on a combination of registration number (including wild cards) and organisation unit. If an organisation unit is included in the search criteria, all vehicles belonging to the organisational unit and child organisation units are available for selection. 2.5 Vehicle definition Figure 8: Powerful Vehicle Search functionality An extensive list of information can be captured for each vehicle. The information captured is used for: Service and Warranty Management Depreciation Reporting Monitor vehicle usage (average speed for trip validation and maximum speed for alarming) Figure 9: Comprehensive Vehicle Definition Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 4 of 8 info@insivate.com
2.6 Vehicle Cost Management A key aspect of fleet management is the accurate recording of vehicle operational cost and cost reporting. The list of cost items is configurable and additional cost items can be added without requiring software code changes. Figure 10: Capturing Vehicle Cost Items Where vehicle cost items are received via text files from suppliers, these files can be uploaded and processed. 2.7 Indicating Alert conditions In this specific example, the vehicle has been configured with a maximum speed of 90 km/h and as a speed of 91.674 km/h was measured, the event has been marked as an alert condition. Figure 11: Flagging Alert Conditions Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 5 of 8 info@insivate.com
2.8 Real-Time Alert Monitoring Alerts can be monitored in real-time per vehicle or for fleet. The Alert list is periodically refreshed with a configurable refresh period. Alerts are created for: speeding, acceleration, braking, cornering and geo-fence violations. Figure 12: Real-Time Alert Monitoring 2.9 Person Configuration Figure 13: Typical Geofence Alerts Persons are configured and categorised as User, Driver and/or Administrator. Each Person can be linked to an organisation unit and can only access and view vehicles associated with the organisation unit and sub-units. 2.10 Email and SMS Alert Notifications Figure 14: Configuration Users, Drivers and Administrators For each vehicle and email and SMS recipient is configured and when an alert is created for a vehicle, the recipients are notified immediately. Drivers for vehicles are identified with i-buttons and when an alert is created for a vehicle, the driver is also notified immediately. Notifying drivers of alerts whilst they are busy with driving, encumbers good driver behaviour. Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 6 of 8 info@insivate.com
2.11 Geofence configuration Multiple complex polygon, polyline and circle geofences can be configured and associated with vehicles. Geofences can be configured as alert when entering areas or alert when leaving areas. Figure 15: Geofence definition Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 7 of 8 info@insivate.com
2.12 Sample Report: Vehicle Trips A wide range of reports are available and below is an extract from a weekly vehicle trip report. The report can be used to easily asses the correct usage of the vehicle as the distance travelled per week, the time travelled per week and the average speed per trip is included in the report. The specific extract below indicates excessive idling times as many trips have a distance of 0 km. Figure 16: Sample Weekly Vehicle Trip Report Copyright: Insivate CC 2014 Page 8 of 8 info@insivate.com