Keep on tracking

Networked vehicles with Scania Fleet Management enable companies to track their vehicles’ performance and optimise their routes. Hauliers can run a smarter transport operation with improved cost control.

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Scania Fleet Management Photo: Stefan Almers

Scania Fleet Management gives operators fast and easy access to of all kinds of data from their vehicles.

TEXT: ALEXANDER FARNSWORTH

Scania’s Fleet Management offer was highlighted at the IAA fair in Hanover, Germany, in September 2008. The service includes a logging and communication unit on-board the vehicle (Scania Communicator).

“The Scania Communicator is basically an enabler for our extended service package,” says Kenneth Larsson, head of fleet management development within Research and Development.

Fleet management to improve cost control

Scania Fleet Management is a set of computer-based services that connects vehicles to a vehicle operator’s office system via wireless links and the Internet.

Communication between drivers and office staff is thus greatly improved. Companies can provide a faster, more efficient service to their customers and run a smarter transport operation with improved cost control.

The Scania Communicator is a silent box that continuously transmits data concerning vehicle and driver performance, physical position, vehicle (fuel consumption) and driver data (digital tachograph) information as well as trip reports, maintenance planning and emissions reports back to the office for analysis on Scania’s fleetperformance.com web portal. The data is stored on Scania servers.

Information on fuel consumption and vehicle and driver performance, for example, is provided in an easy-to-understand red-yellow-green “traffic light” format that enables vehicle operators to see where improvements can be made.

Efficient transport operation

The value of this new technology lies not in the hardware, but rather in offering service solutions that add value to the customer’s business by providing analysed vehicle and driver information in a form that can be easily used to enhance the transport operation.

The Scania Communicator can be hooked up to Scania vehicles and other makes to optimise the productivity of each vehicle in a fleet. Via Scania’s web based Fleet Management portal, trucking or bus companies can generate emissions reports on how 2,500 litres of petrol were consumed, for example.

“If a company can save 1 percent of its fuel costs per vehicle with this system, it has paid for itself,” says Larsson.

The new support

  • Traffic lights: Operational data reported on Scania’s fleetperformance.com portal.

  • Trip reports

  • Positioning and tracking

  • Geofence Alarm: Generates alerts when a vehicle leaves or enters a specified geographical area.

  • Maintenance planning: Generates reminders based on mileage or service dates.

  • Environmental reporting: Generates emissions reports.

  • Digital tachograph wireless downloads