April/May 2002

A low-cost, real-time vehicle and consignment tracking solution called Cab-Link has been added to the Roadrunner fleet management system from Watford-based Road Tech Computer Systems.

Roadrunner is one of the UK's leading transport management systems, and can already include an Internet-based job booking module. Road Tech sees live links with vehicles themselves as a logical development of this.

Last year it acquired an interest in the Northampton-based company that originated the Cab-Link on-board computer, and now it has relaunched this under Roadrunner Cab-Link branding as part of a comprehensive integrated package.

 

According to Road Tech, the combined cost of Internet access and fitting on-board computing and location devices to vehicles has put tracking beyond the budget of many vehicle managers. With Cab-Link it aims to make the concept much more affordable.

One of its secret weapons is the use of one of the GSM data networks to handle the positioning "fixes" and other transmissions to and from vehicles. Managing director Derek Beevor maintains that this is far cheaper than the more common SMS approach ­ "and yet very few other suppliers seem to use it." Although individual SMS messages are cheap, costs can mount up, and he says GSM is more economical overall, costing a few pence per minute.

The on-board Cab-Link unit records data such as vehicle location every five minutes, and can store two days' worth of data on a smartcard. However, essential information is transmitted back to base in near-real time, then integrated with the Roadrunner system and fed to suppliers or customers over the Internet.

Beevor says many operators want to use AVL to allocate jobs to drivers, so need the information in real time. "Hourly updates are not good enough. Since the last position fix, the vehicle could have travelled fifty miles in the opposite direction."

Cab-Link is a proactive system. As well as collecting data for later analysis, it warns drivers when certain parameters are exceeded ­ for example, when they are about to reach their hours limit. There is a waterproof touch keyboard in the cab for text messaging, and provision for one-button confirmation of deliveries or other activities.

Roadrunner operators back in the office have complete control over the information they share, and which customers have access to the data. Customers are able to view up-to-the-minute data and progress-chase consignments. They can select individual job numbers and drill down to show specific details such as POD status, signatory, time of delivery, or any item of data the operator makes available. And all this is linked with Roadrunner Internet EDI, the company's Internet-based job-booking service.

Road Tech also has the benefit of being a Web site developer and ISP in its own right (it runs sites for many leading haulage companies, as well as for the Road Haulage Association). Beevor says this allows it to offer an integrated service at a much lower rate than rivals. He is ascornful about suppliers who suggest that even small users can easily set up their own secure Web site to run such a system. "Putting effective firewalls in place is no simple matter," he says.

www.roadrunnercablink.com