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Until just a couple of years ago, in-cab navigation systems were regarded as an expensive luxury or an executive toy. And no wonder, with prices ranging up into thousands of pounds.
Yet in a remarkably short time they have turned into a consumer item, often running on Pocket PC handheld devices or even smart mobile phones, and sometimes costing just a few hundred pounds. And this means that for fleets doing local deliveries, they are quickly becoming a must-have.
However, the market is still divided to some extent between consumer-style systems running on general-purpose computer devices, and dedicated systems with their own in-cab display, usually wired into your vehicle. So how do you identify the most cost-effective navigation solution for your company?
With independent satellite-based navigation systems, each vehicle has a separate unit containing GPS modem and gyroscope (to work out location and direction), plus a CD-ROM containing digital map data (to show the information graphically). Such systems can cost as much as £1,000 and £1,500 depending on the specification, and you need to update the CD-ROM with the latest map from time to time.
However, makers such as Siemens VDO have persevered with this approach, and reckon it can give more comprehensive and reliable results than others. Siemens offers a range of terms, including time-related licence fees. Several vehicle manufacturers have incorporated such technology in their own telematics systems, including for instance Volvo and DaimlerChrysler.
The alternative is to use one of the growing number of software-based navigation packages such as those from TomTom, which run on the same PDA that you use for other functions. In this case the mapping in held in non-volatile memory, and again can be updated as required. Some vehicle manufacturers such as Scania have gone down this route for the navigation part of their in-cab telematics systems.
There is a line of thought that suggests it is easier to integrate the fixed type of navigation system with other on-board activities than to do the same with a detachable unit such as a PDA, but in reality both kinds if system can usually offer a degree of integration. Suppliers of scheduling and field service software, for instance, are likely to tell you that they can happily deliver the map coordinates of the next delivery wirelessly to a driver, feeding them into the navigation system in order to show him or her the way to the destination.
One point you need to look out for is whether the system you choose can take account of the size of your vehicles. There’s not much point in directing large articulated trucks along narrow lanes, or expecting them to turn round in a confined space if the driver overshoots a turning. Some are better than others on this count.
You’ll hear a lot about the attractions of linking on-board navigation with real-time traffic information. So far not many systems do this comprehensively or convincingly, but it’s only a matter of time before more of them will.
Clearly an attraction is that the combination of tracking information and traffic information can help managers and drivers regain control of delivery schedules when they’re disrupted by unforeseen events such as accidents or congestion.
Companies that provide real-time traffic data in the UK include ITIS Holdings and Trafficmaster. ITIS has the UK licence to broadcast traffic information on the RDS/TMC channel, while Trafficmaster uses subscribers and partnerships with mobile communications networks to deliver its information.
ITIS compiles traffic data from a variety of sources, including police and traffic control centres and the Highways Agency, and also monitors real-time vehicle movements using “floating vehicle Data” (information gathered from large fleets as they travel around).
Trafficmaster derives its data from infra-red sensors on motorway and main road bridges, and from the familiar blue-pole roadside cameras on trunk roads.
Both data sources figure in on-board navigation systems, and ITIS data is also available for use in the office conjunction with map datasets such as Navteq’s. One of the main suppliers is MapMechanics.
In a typical navigation application ITIS data is decoded by on-board equipment, allowing drivers to see exactly where current congestion problems are on the map, and ask to be re-routed round them.
© Spice Court Publications 2005
