The contactless CANbus connector enables the CANbus unit to connect with the vehicle tracking system without having to be wired into the vehicles electronics. The big advantage of this is that it means you do not risk voiding the vehicle manufacturer’s warrantee.

Masternaut have called this new device the Engine Management Unit and it is to be sold in conjunction with their GreenerFleet solution.

CANbus for those who are not aware is a feature of vehicle tracking that collects information on the vehicles fuel consumption, how it is being driven and also information on how the vehicles maintenance and safety.

CANbus technology is not installed on the cheaper tracking systems as it is expensive to fit. Often haulage companies are keen on CANbus integration. HGVs use a lot of fuel and the extra cost of CANbus integration is often paid for many times over in the fuel that can be saved. With cars the fuel consumption is not so high and therefore the added expense is often not worth while.

Much of this information is displayed as a snail trail on the map within the vehicle tracking web application. The snail trail shows you where the vehicle went and marks on it points where the vehicle idled excessively, broke the speed limit and many other useful pieces of information.

It can be very useful to view these snail trails if you need to prove where a driver was at any point in the past. This can help in a myriad of situations including false insurance claims, unjust speeding tickets, proving that staff skived off, proving the staff used the vehicle at times they should not and many other things.

Snail trails are common place on tracking system applications these days and are a very popular feature of GPS vehicle tracking systems. Being able to see not only live but retrospectively where you vehicles were is incredibly useful.

Many vehicle tracking systems use point of interests, but in a slightly different way from satnavs. With a vehicle tracking system you can input your own points of interest. These may be your customers depots and offices, your head office and locations of your drivers homes.

An alert can be sent out if a driver enters or leaves the predetermined area of the point of interest. These alerts can be emailed or sent via sms. Also a daily or weekly report of the POIs that have been visited by each driver and at what times they have been visited can be viewed via many tracking systems

These POIs can often be imported into the tracking system via an .CSV file. Although this is only really useful if you have e a lot of POIs to import.

On a tracking system POIs are often referred to as GeoFences or a Ring Fence.

The in-vehicle sub-system is then expanded so that users can use the data communications function. The addition of further electronics means that additional data-streams can be acquired and returned to fleet managers via the a mobile telephony network such as GPRS. Systems may be extended to include the sending of alerts for a variety of mechanical warnings such as high water temperature, low oil pressure, low battery and brake light failure; even scheduling for routine maintenance can be left to the GPS system, saving the fleet manager a raft of tasks and freeing him up to focus on other tasks. Even fuel usage can be monitored, with sudden changes in fuel level (eg following theft) showing up instantly

Business intelligence resides within the tracking server, allowing the system to be configured to the requirements of a particular user.. The server sends data to other business support systems if required., for instance, alerts generated and transmitted to specified individuals such as the driver, in the case of excessive speed or wasteful fuel use.

A GPS tracking system can help companies reduce costs in many ways, inserting GPS tracking devices in each of their vehicles enables them to monitor each and every one of their fleet vehicles in real-time. Being able to know where your vehicle is at any moment of the day can help keep your insurance premiums come down, if they happen to be stolen the police will be able to track the vehicle at the touch of a button.

Another way in which a GPS tracking system can save companies money is by reducing their fuel costs, being able to monitor the vehicle’s location in real time allows a fleet manager to re-root a vehicle that is heading towards heavy traffic. A GPS tracking system can replace your old-fashioned system of employees submitting paper timesheets, timesheets can now be automatically generated by a GPS tracking system, this means ensures Timesheets we’ll always be accurate without false claims for overtime or inflated hours.

Driver behaviour monitoring is increasingly popular by firms who are concerned that their staff drive responsibly in company vehicles. Many company vehicles have the company name down the side and therefore it can give the company a bad reputation if staff do not drive carefully.

Sat nav is always a popular feature and it is very useful to have this integrated into the tracking system.

Traffic services helps driver keep on top of where congestion is and therefore give them the opportunity to avoid it.

2 way messaging helps improve communication between drivers and managers. Comunication is always an important thing which helps day to day operations go more smoothly making for a more efficiently run business.

Fuel monitoring is by far one of the most popular features. Rising fuel prices have caused  businesses to now take a close look at ways they can cut down on the amount of fuel they use. Vehicle tracking helps businesses to cut fuel bills considerably.

Live fleet tracking systems work by communicating the information via GPRS. GPRS stands for General packet radio service and is the same system which mobile phones work on. In the UK the GPRS network is fairly extensive and a fairly reliable way of communicating live information from the GPS vehicle tracking device.

The tracking device does not give 100% live information. It gives the information to the central computer in intervals. Depending on what tracking system you have and with which company you have it the intervals that you receive updates varies on average from every 10 seconds to every 60 seconds. This is as good as live tracking and therefore is named live fleet tracking.

Before tracking systems were live they were not nearly so beneficial to businesses and were therefore not so popular.

Unless the GPS tracking systems give real time information on the whereabouts of the vehicle it does not help to improve security. So that benefit goes out of the window right away. Other benefits such as being able to give customers up to the minute information on when deliveries will be made we another benefit that these older systems did not have.

Real time vehicle tracking systems use GPRS (general packet radio service) to communicate the location and any other information that the tracking system collects regarding the vehicle to a central server. This information can then be viewed via the tracking system application on a PC connected to the internet.

GPS real time tracking systems are now the norm in the vehicle tracking world. Very few people use the old systems as they lack many of the benefits that real time systems have.

PDAs of Smart Phones with touch screens serve several purposes. They collect signatures of deliveries made and connect to the central computers backend to give information on operation on the ground so that companies can increase service and cut down on paperwork and administrative tasks. In turn this cuts costs and increases customer service.

Some of these mobile devices also have bar code scanners to buzz products through for a variety of reasons.

In a nut shell mobile worker solutions is a way collecting data from the driver relating to the job he or she is doing and giving that data to head office so they can do their job better. Such devices are run on software which is often unique to the company so that it has the specific features to do the job the business requires of it.

Mobile worker solutions are incredibly popular these days especially with deliver companies. You have probable signed for a parcel on a PDA screen. This would record all this information to be stored on the central computer to save having to keep large amounts of paperwork.

The Transport Workers Union there maintains that the tendering process is to blame, causing the cheapest person to win a contract without any check on the hours worked and pressurizing drivers into working illegal hours.

Queensland Transport has started carrying out regular spot checks at two sites in North Brisbane. The biggest sub-contractor on the project already requires drivers to produce proof that their licenses are genuine, but now has been sending text messages warning drivers that they will be sacked if GPS tracking shows them speeding.

Truck drivers say the inspections began after a CB radio channel revealed that one of the drivers working on the Airport Link tunnel had described almost causing a crash by falling asleep at the wheel following a stint of working four back-back 12-hour shifts.