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GPS based fleet management system: Different alternatives
 Premal Mehta  Pavitra Aggarwal Project Manager pavitra@riskinc.com  Puneet Sharma Deputy General Manager puneets@riskinc.com  Reena Shukla Software Engineer reenas@riskinc.com RMSI, A-7, Sector - 16, Noida
Introduction
One of the most exciting domains today is LBS or Location Based Services. Location Based Services deliver geographic information between mobile and/or static users via the Internet and/or wireless network. LBS received impetus with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) mandate (E911) that by the end of 2001 all US wireless operators will begin to provide the location of mobile emergency callers to safety officials and emergency dispatchers. According to Strategy Analytics’ research location based services are expected to generate over $16 billion in revenue worldwide by the year 2005.Hosts of services have emerged under this umbrella like mobile yellow pages, enhanced safety calling and roadside assistance, location sensitive billing, personal navigation and tracking services. Fleet Management Systems, is a technologically advanced method of remote vehicle tracking and monitoring. It has emerged as a widely used LBS application in developed countries and it has had a major impact on the conscious of developing countries like India. Fleet Management Systems help to manage a fleet of vehicle by gaining control of travel records and time. They eliminate the time-consuming task of manually completing mileage logs, trying to track down missing data or verify hand-written information. These advanced systems could help to manage fuel consumption, velocity, load balancing, vehicle positioning. Once data collection of the Fleet activity is automated and accurate, depicting it as comprehensive reports is easy, giving way to effective management and business efficacy in a highly competitive industry scenario like today. Fleet Management Systems are primarily based on location finding techniques because geographical location converted into meaningful X, Y at a point of time, is the prime data here. Invariably the success, accuracy and economics of a Fleet Management System is dependent on the type of location finding techniques used.  Architecture of an AVL System using GSM Links Why GPS? Location finding techniques are of various kinds with each technique implying impacts on requirements like accuracy, coverage, location determination, speed and ultimately, costs for the operator, just to name a few. Location finding techniques can be broadly divided into Network based techniques, use of smart devices at fixed locations and GPS based techniques. Network based positioning relies on various means of triangulation of the signal from cell sites serving a mobile phone. It uses various techniques to determine location like:
 Overview of RMSI Case Study The basic advantage of using network based techniques is that one uses existing Cellular towers and base stations, therefore there are relatively low costs involved in using this technology. In India, mobile network has infiltrated the cities to a wide extent and Fleet Management within the city could use the existing network-based infrastructure. However, the hindrance for effective Fleet Management is the accuracy of location data. The accuracy of the location data is greatly dependent on the cell size (the smaller the better) or the number of /visibility of Location Measurement Units for Cell-ID and AOA/TOA/E-TOD respectively. The congestion of the urban areas and the reflection caused by presence of buildings etc can also cause severe problems to these technologies. Besides this, all mobile service providers may not provide these services. The use of Smart Device is another technique that can be used for Fleet Management. Smart Devices are planted at fixed locations and once the vehicle (also having some sort of smart device) comes within its range required parameters are recorded which either get stored for later retrieval or get transmitted to base station in real time. It does not require any location finder device because you know the position of where device in installed. Thus the cost of its operation is very low. The only hindrance to this type of system is that your vehicle should pass through that route which is not suitable for all type of fleet management requirements but may be used for fleet plying on fixed routes, like routes of DTC buses or State Transport.
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