Jan/Feb 2005

Transport operators have been benefiting from a "free" telematics and tracking service over the past year. So says Road Tech Computer Systems, whose Working Time Directive monitoring software has been available as a free Internet download for most of that time.

Using just a mobile phone or wireless PDA, mobile workers log on to record events in their working day, and in the office their activity is logged and displayed on screen.

"It's not the most sophisticated telematics system, but that's not what it's meant for. Yet some users tell us it does the job," says managing director Derek Beevor. He adds that lately five to six companies a day have been signing up to the service, which will cost £1 per vehicle per week from March.

It is just one of a number of solutions that have popped up in anticipation of the Working Time Directive, which comes into effect on 23 March. Another is a new HourTrak service from Masternaut - an extension of the company's existing satellite tracking solution. It automatically calculates working time, including each driver's running average throughout the reference period, and also highlights potential problems.

 

Fargo Systems is another company that has added a WTD calculation capability to its transport management software, and was demonstrating this at the Logistics Link show in February.