Sept/Oct 2003

An integrated fleet management system called Thales Fleetmatik has been launched by Thales Telematics, extending its existing Thales Trak system into a much more wide-ranging package. It aims to cover everything from vehicle functions to driver activities, and to report back to operators in real time.

Software supporting the system is now called Fleet Management Software, or FMS. This displays each vehicle's position on a map, indicating the road it is on, the direction of travel and its speed.

In addition, the system can handle journey and call scheduling, optimisation and management of customised reports, and the use of traffic and delivery information. All this data is said to be available on demand in real time.

The system draws on outside products where appropriate; for instance, Overview Mapping has supplied its RoutingX routing and scheduling engine. This is intended to allow operators to update delivery schedules in real time to take account of events happening out on the road. It also enables the Thales system to provide accurate delivery time forecasting for customers.

The system is built round an on-board device which Thales calls its Telematics Control Unit (TCU), which handles tracking and transmits data in encrypted form back to the Thales Telematics Hub. Users can have their information delivered in customised form to multiple locations.