Feb/Mar 2008

Fleet Observer is the new name adopted by the telematics and tracking specialist that used to be known as Three Counties Management Services, or 3CMS.

Following its change in identity last year, the company has refined its tracking system, adding more detailed Navteq mapping from MapMechanics, and augmenting it with new mapping for the United States and Australia.

The Navteq street-level vector data for Britain and Northern Ireland is said to allow the system to display the location of tracked assets with a high degree of precision - useful in managing 'watch boxes' (places checked for arrivals and departures) and congestion zone monitoring.

Reverse geocoding is used to work out addresses from the Navteq data from the coordinates supplied by the tracking system.

 

Prior to founding 3CMS in the early 1990s, the team behind the company were instrumental in developing the Datatrak network. Managing director and founder Tim Ryland says the name change is meant to identify the company more closely with its tracking and telematics products.

The system is entirely Web-based, and was one of the first tracking systems to move to this operational model. It is marketed entirely through resellers such as Weighsoft in the UK.