Commercial Vehicles
Pre-clearance and safety inspections
Control of credentials and other documents, safety status, and weights causes delays for commercial vehicles which increase the cost of transportation. Transport telematics can help in minimising the length and quantity of such stops. Pre-clearance systems enable commercial vehicles to have credentials, other documents, safety status, and weights checked automatically at normal road speeds and without lengthy controls.
Fleet telematics
Fleet telematics systems (FTS) allow the information exchange between a commercial vehicle fleet and their central authority, i.e. the dispatching office. A FTS typically consists of mobile vehicle systems (VS) and a stationary fleet communication system (FCS). The FCS may be a stand alone application maintained by the carrier or an internet service running by the supplier of the system. The FCS usually includes a data base in which all vehicle positions and messages are stored. Digital maps are often included which allow to visualise vehicle positions and traces. The following figure shows an example of such a FCS:
The communication between VS and FCS is realised by trunked radio, cellular communication, or satellite communication. Positioning of vehicles is usually realised by satellite positioning systems and/or dead reckoning using gyroscope and odometer. Usually, the VS is equipped with a simple input device that allows drivers to send predefined status messages. Drivers may add simple content, e.g. numeric values, but usually cannot enter arbitrary text. Besides of the messages sent by drivers, some VS can also automatically submit messages, e.g. the vehicle's position, data from sensors in the cargo body, or vehicle data from the CAN-bus. Typical components of VS are illustrated in the following figure:
