The Future Of Fleet Management Is Here
Technological advances are the top trends for fleet management

Fantastic fantasies like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the super-car series, Knight Rider, all have one thing in common. They each played up some fictional technologies that have now become realities in our modern world.

Tracking earth-bound objects from orbit;
self-diagnostic vehicles that communicate directly to their owners; screens that remotely monitor workers from around the corner or around the world—all these things were once the stuff of make-believe.

Now, according to AUTOMOTIVE FLEET Magazine, such technologies are the very top trends in fleet management for the next five years.* But with FleetBoss GPS fleet management solutions, your business can experience the power and productivity of the future today.

GPS Vehicle Tracking: Much like the starship Enterprise, which surveyed a planet's surface from orbit, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology can track vehicles from orbit. GPS is a navigational system consisting of 24 satellites orbiting the earth, sending information to receivers on its surface. The satellites, launched by the U.S. Department of Defense, are now controlled by a joint civilian/military board of the federal government. They transmit radio signals. When received by a device mounted in a vehicle, these radio signals are used to calculate the vehicle's position on the ground and relay that information to a computer at a business's home base or to remote servers which allow anywhere, anytime monitoring via the internet.

Almost eight years ago, GPS technology was introduced commerically as a supervisory tool to track drivers who were underperforming or engaging in dishonest behavior. The new trend in GPS is total fleet management which goes far beyond simple supervision. Over the next five years, GPS systems will empower total business operations, improving productivity, efficiency and profits. As AUTOMOTIVE FLEET recounts, "The adoption of this technology will not only help make drivers more efficient and allow fleet managers to track and monitor use with real time reporting, but in the medium- and heavy-duty truck market, it will help meet future legislation related to Homeland Security."* FleetBoss solutions are ahead of this trend, offering exact reporting on fleet fuel usage, idle times, speeds driven, service stops performed, routes taken, driver productivity and much more.

Remote Vehicle Diagnostics: The super-car, KITT, from the TV show, Knight Rider, was protective of its driver and could actually talk about its mechanical troubles. Remote vehicle diagnostics lets fleet vehicles do something very similar. Remote Vehicle Diagnositics is the automatic monitoring of the condition of fleet vehicle engine components, via engine sensors, which provides early warnings of possible failure or maintenance reminders for optimum efficiency. Such remote vehicle diagnostics have the ability to unobtrusively examine automotive fault codes and wirelessly communicate readings to a server, where the information is stored and may be reviewed by managers and drivers.

AUTOMOTIVE FLEET reports that GPS systems will monitor a vehicle's engine system to identify mechanical and electronic problems or other maintenance issues. Staying at the forefront of fleet management, FleetBoss already offers solutions that combine GPS fleet tracking and remote vehicle diagnostics.

FleetBoss SERIES 5500™ identifies diagnostic trouble codes and maintenance due issues, then automatically notifies fleet owners of any problems via email.

Features include:

Contact a FleetBoss representative to learn more.

*AUTOMOTIVE FLEET Magazine, February 2005; page 54-55.

© 2005 FleetBoss Global Positioning Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.