Where Innovation Meets Imagination
When you think about managing a fleet of vehicles, you might stop and think: “Man, that’s a tricky job!”
C’mon, between maintenance costs, keeping track of vehicle performance, and avoiding breakdowns, it’s a lot to juggle.
But with the right tools, fleet management is relatively easy.
How? [Read more…] about Fleet Diagnostic Systems: Revolutionizing Fleet Management
Companies with road vehicle fleets are prime targets for automation. Fleet managers often have to control many processes, from dispatching drivers to overseeing fuel consumption patterns.
To take care of it all, they’re utilising fleet management software, which has evolved to do more than just store data or track vehicle locations.
Fleet camera systems, remote tachograph downloads, and driver behaviour analysis are just some of the automation innovations that are transforming different vehicle-related industries. Let’s discover how!
These days, many companies install cameras on their vehicles for a variety of reasons, such as to get accident footage, help drivers check blindspots or for live monitoring in general.
As you can imagine, if a camera records the full journey of a long-haul truck, there’s going to be a whole lot of material to go through to find that one relevant moment.
That’s where automation kicks in – modern fleet cameras have sensors that can detect noteworthy events, such as collisions. With proper fleet management software, you can remotely view that specific moment, complete with metadata, like who was the driver, when it happened, and where.
To save even more time, fleet managers can set up and receive notifications when cameras detect relevant events. Humans are left with the most important part of the process – deciding what to do about it.
In some cases, that would mean quickly jumping to the camera’s livestream to find out more, while in other situations the material would be stored for future reference.
The tachograph is an essential part of the long-haul transportation industry. It records the duration of drivers’ work and rest periods, among other things.
Where things get complicated, however, is that the data generated by a tachograph needs to be downloaded to an external storage every once in a while. Imagine having to visit hundreds of trucks and manually connect to every tachograph, then keeping the data on a specific computer in an office!
Here automation can provide a huge benefit to trucking companies. If a vehicle is equipped with a compatible telematics device, it can receive the data from the tachograph and then upload it to fleet management software.
The process is completely automatic, the download intervals can be customised, and data can be easily presented to authorities. This process is called remote tachograph download and is a no-brainer for larger fleets.
For the time being, most fleets still employ drivers behind the wheel. To improve their performance in terms of efficiency and safety, managers need information on what exactly to improve.
How to get it? You can, of course, sit next to them during daily routes and make notes, but what if there are hundreds of drivers? Time for automation!
Like tachograph downloads, driver behaviour analysis utilises an advanced telematics device installed on a vehicle, and a fleet management platform. The device can detect various driving actions and events, such as the usage of cruise control, sudden braking, aggressive manoeuvring, and more.
This data gets sent to the fleet management platform where it’s analysed and presented in an easy-to-understand way. Depending on the configuration, the system will assign a better or worse score for each driver. Then it’s up to the fleet manager to act on this data – provide coaching, award a bonus, and so on.
What’s more, driving behaviour analysis can be supplemented with data from other systems. Commonly, companies track fuel consumption of a vehicle and check how it fluctuates depending on who’s behind the wheel.
Another option is to use the previously mentioned fleet cameras in conjunction with a telematics device, giving fleet managers a full picture – video events plus practical driving parameters.
These three areas – cameras, tachograph downloads, and driving performance analysis – are not the only ones when it comes to automation in the fleet management sector.
There’s an automated alert for just about any situation that’s worth alerting about; there’s automated working time tracking so drivers don’t need to worry about clocking in and out; there are even systems that can automatically assign drivers and plan the best routes for them based on a variety of factors.
All that is to say – to stay competitive, you need to start automating your fleet management!
Brain Corp, a developer of software for robots, says its fleet of over 37,000 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), powered by the BrainOS Robotics Platform, has now “autonomously covered more than 250 billion square feet of space globally”.
The vast majority of the robots which use BrainOS are industrial or commercial large floor cleaning machines (see main image), manufactured by other companies, such as Tennant and and SoftBank Robotics.
Brain Corp says the new milestone emphasizes the “global trend towards automation” as industries around the world increasingly move to intelligent robotic solutions to optimize operations and address rising workforce challenges. [Read more…] about Brain Corp’s autonomous robot fleet reaches ‘250 billion square feet milestone’
Pre-owned trucks are the bread and butter of many business fleets, and while they might have a lot of miles on the clock, modern tech is having a major impact on how these vehicles are managed.
If you’re unfamiliar with the influence of automation on the operation of second-hand commercial vehicles, here’s a look at the ample number of upsides that are made possible by this relationship. [Read more…] about How Automation and Robotics Drive Fleet Efficiency for Pre-Owned Trucks
The advancement of fleet tracking technology has significantly enhanced how companies oversee their vehicles, particularly in terms of fuel consumption. In this article we will discuss the impact of fuel consumption on fleet management, encompassing costs and environmental implications.
The benefits of utilizing fleet tracking for fuel management encompass enhanced route planning and efficiency, as well as decreased idling and speeding.
The implementation of fleet tracking for fuel reduction involves selecting a suitable fleet tracking system, providing driver training and communication, and evaluating progress to enhance performance and address any potential resistance. [Read more…] about Role of Fleet Tracking in Reducing Fuel Consumption
Most travel businesses always insist on proper fleet management, but they hardly pay attention to fleet maintenance. With the ever-increasing challenge of catering to all types of customers and the higher costs, businesses must employ effective strategies for smooth business operations.
To steer clear of the issues related to customer satisfaction, fleet maintenance offers an efficient solution for safe and secure services.
While fleet management covers overall fleet availability, vehicle monitoring, and drivers’ performance on the road, fleet maintenance specifically covers vehicle safety, health, and all the aspects of vehicle repairs. [Read more…] about Why Fleet Maintenance is Crucial for Travel Business?
ForwardX Robotics, a provider of vision-based autonomous mobile robots for warehouses, has once again teamed up with L’Oréal following their successful 2022 collaboration.
Together, they have launched the world’s first case-picking solution featuring AMRs integrated with an automatic weighing system.
This groundbreaking system significantly enhances operational efficiency and reduces manual picking errors. It is now operational in L’Oréal’s first Smart Fulfillment Center worldwide, located in Suzhou, China. [Read more…] about ForwardX and L’Oréal unveil mobile robot with built-in weighing system
Serve Robotics, a maker of autonomous delivery robots, has integrated DriveU.auto‘s connectivity platform on Serve’s commercially-operated robotic fleet.
Serve will leverage DriveU’s platform to enhance the performance of remote monitoring of its autonomous delivery robots – adding to the suite of tools Serve utilizes as it works to deploy up to 2,000 robots on the Uber Eats platform.
Serve evaluated DriveU alongside competitive offerings and determined that DriveU’s platform provides reliable, low-latency and uninterrupted connectivity that allows robots to share real-time telemetrics, access cloud computing, and enable remote supervision in edge cases. [Read more…] about Serve Robotics integrates DriveU’s connectivity platform into fleet robots
Swiss robotic navigation company BlueBotics has released a new version of its ANT server fleet management software, which can now control not only the 100+ ANT driven customer vehicles on the market, but also VDA 5050-compliant AGVs and AMRs.
BlueBotics – whose ANT navigation technology drives over 5,000 AGVs and AMRs around the world – says its new initiative expandS the scope of its ANT server mission and fleet management software by adding compatibility with the German AGV interoperability standard VDA 5050.
As a result, ANT server can now manage not only the 100+ ‘ANT driven’ customer AGVs and AMRs currently on the market, but also VDA 5050-compliant AGVs and AMRs from non-ANT driven brands. [Read more…] about BlueBotics releases new version of its server fleet management software
Guident, an autonomous vehicle teleoperation technology company, is planning to open its new office headquarters in Boca Raton on April 18, 2024, at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC), joining a growing suite of innovative companies in this distinguished landmark.
Guident says the occasion marks a significant milestone in the company’s growth and expansion strategy.
The inauguration event for the Guident office will welcome city officials and business leaders, offering an exclusive preview of an autonomous shuttle monitored by Guident’s state-of-the-art Remote Monitor and Control Center (RMCC), featuring the best-in-class video wall displays and a visualization system. [Read more…] about Autonomous vehicle tech company Guident to establish headquarters at Boca Raton Innovation Campus
