Many companies are looking at telematics solutions for their fleets. This may be in the form of a simple question ("Do we need to track our vehicles?"), seeking quotes ("I see a need but what will it cost?) or even full-blown requests for proposals ("I have specific requirements and need a vendor to meet those requirements").
In all these situations, it is easy to gravitate to the easiest answer.
Some companies will select on price. They will focus on meeting their budget or choosing the lowest-cost solution, perhaps without analysing what they will get for their money. Others will tick through their list of requirements and choose the supplier with the closest match to their needs. All too often the value and vendor selection is based on what is available now, without consideration of the future.
Most telematics agreements have a 3-5 year contract. If you choose the wrong vendor, what you buy today might not have advanced by the end of the contract, even though technology has.
While price and features are important in any decision, some other considerations are discussed below to ensure that the supplier you choose today will be the best decision into the future.
Company focus
It is important to have a supplier that is aligned with your focus areas. For example, if you are installing telematics to improve staff wellbeing, the provider may be more interested in compliance matters than actively focusing on enhancing their product in this area. Also, consider the size of your business: if you operate only locally, a large multinational may not be the right fit.
Another consideration is the company's innovation philosophy. Do they innovate for the masses - you will only get whatever enhancements are delivered to all their clients - or are they customer focussed, delivering a solution that matches your evolving needs?
Innovation
A focus on constant improvement of the system is critical to the success of any telematics solution. This can come from incremental improvements but, more importantly, it comes from the company listening to and working with their clients to come up with solutions that will solve the customers' real problems (design-led thinking). An example of this is when the two companies work jointly to develop a solution that meets a known industry problem.
Partnership mentality
For a telematics company to innovate with their customers in mind, they need to embrace a partnership mentality throughout their organisation. An example of a partnership model includes things such as Customer Success Managers (rather than Account Managers) whose primary purpose is to help customers get the most success from their system.
The provider should also be garnering insights and information from customers and using this to drive how the system is being developed and share what is learnt with others.
Thought leadership
As telematics is a technology with broad applications, it is important for a provider to be constantly showing 'thought leadership' with customers and the wider industry. A provider that is always challenging and thinking about the future will make smarter decisions about the future of their technology. Similarly, as they scan and understand the market they will be able to provide insights to their customers that will ultimately lead to the customer having a better experience of the solution and getting more out of it long term.
Telematics is not simply 'speeds, feeds and price'. There are a number of other factors that make a telematics company great. Consider those factors next time you are talking to your provider.
Pool fleets are often the hardest to manage. They rely on people understanding the rules and, more importantly, following them. You need to keep the right number of vehicles, know where they are being parked, and ensure they're left clean and tidy as well as refueled.
One of the most important aspects to successfully running a pool fleet is key management.
Feedback from our customers is that one of their biggest headaches once a fleet is up-and-running is ensuring keys are managed effectively. Critical to that is they are returned to the right place and on time. We've been told stories of people taking keys for their booking first thing in the morning, even if their booking isn't until the afternoon. Others return from a booking and head out to lunch (or home) with the keys, not thinking of the person who needs the car next.
Another issue is people booking a vehicle, following all the procedures but then taking the wrong keys and therefore the wrong vehicle. This can cause headaches for you as well as other staff with bookings.
While there is no simple answer to all these issues, Smartrak's latest offering the KeyMaster enables better management of keys. The KeyMaster is a secure cabinet installed on your premises. It holds keys in their own slots within the cabinet. The keys are locked in place and are only released to an appropriately authorised person through entering a pin or using their access card.
Additionally, linking the KeyMaster to Smartrak's Pool Booking system will give additional value to your organisation and to the KeyMaster system.
Smartrak's Pool Booking module communicates with the KeyMaster to let it know what vehicle a person has booked and therefore the keys required. When the booker logs into KeyMaster it will only release the keys for their booking. If the person has no booking, no keys will be released. This stops people taking the wrong keys or taking vehicles without a booking.
When a booking is finished the booker has a simple, single location to return the keys. When they open the cabinet, the keys can be returned to any slot and the KeyMaster / Pool Booking system integration will update where those keys are located for the next booker.
Smartrak's KeyMaster cabinet will also remove the need for people to manage keys manually. No more keeping keys at the front counter, in a cupboard or on a rack. They are secure and ensure vehicles can only be used when appropriately booked. To ensure access in case of a power outage, network issue or administrative requirement, there is a failsafe access override. This is only available for authorised staff.
Smartrak's KeyMaster solution is great for taking your Pool Booking system to the next level. It will alleviate much of the pain associated with key management and free up your time to focus on managing the fleet as a whole
You may have heard someone in your IT department talk about APIs and dismissed it as yet another bit of jargon that they tend to use so often. This article explains what APIs are in a way everyone will relate to and understand.
The first thing everyone does is Google a term to try and gain some understanding. This may or may not be useful for API, depending on your understanding of the words used to explain the term. The Google result we got was:
That's enough to make your head spin. Another definition, which is better but still quite 'dense' is:
Let's try something more relatable
Just knowing that API stands for Application Programming Interface will earn you brownie points in any geek-speak conversation. So, what does it do and how does it work? Let's start by breaking down the surrounding components into items we understand. Have a look at the diagram below:
When you need cash for whatever reason, you go the ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) and you make a withdrawal request, receive the money and use it as you see fit. Now look at the next diagram:
The principle is identical. When you need information, you go to the API and make a data request, receive the data from Smartrak and then use it to create information.
Some ideas for using your data withdrawals are:
Let's take it a step further. Just as you can deposit money at the ATM, you can also submit data to an API and have that stored in Smartrak. Examples of this would be sending information to:
APIs can transfer data in both directions, depending on their purpose and how you want to use them to create automation in your own business.
Do you have rented or leased equipment from Smartrak? Are you contemplating a lease vs buy decision? Planned changes to the accounting rules for leases may affect your approach.
New Zealand is adopting the new International Financial Reporting Standard IFRS 16 for financial years starting after 1 January 2019.
Most organisations won't have to make changes to the accounting treatment for Smartrak leases as the individual value of hardware will be low enough to apply for an optional lessee exemption. However, there may be some benefits for your organisation to adopt the new standard.
What's changing?
Here is a summary of the accounting changes if you apply the standard and you are a lessee:
This can lead to some big changes to your accounting results that may influence your decisions:
Are these changes compulsory?
Not necessarily. If you are required to prepare financial statements that are IFRS-complaint, you need to adopt the standard. However, there are a few optional lessee exemptions within the standard that you can apply:
If you decide to utilise one of these exemptions, you can continue to account for leased assets the way you always have.
The use of satellites is growing more and more popular and diverse every day. If you kept your eye on the news this year you would have seen that New Zealand is now capable of launching satellites into the far beyond, as Rocket Lab made its first successful launch on Sunday 21 January from Māhia Peninsula.
It is good to know the most common uses for satellites and which of these are used by Smartrak to provide you with the Smartrak EyeQ system.
First, some of the most common uses:
Astronomy satellites study stellar phenomena like black holes, quasars and distant galaxies.
Weather satellite technology monitors the Earth's temperature and cloud formations that help us predict weather patterns and forecasts.
Navigation satellites give receivers on earth their coordinate positions. Most people refer to this as GPS (Global Navigation System) , but GPS is only one of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) orbiting our planet. GPS is an American Government owned network of 32 satellites run by the US Airforce. The table shows a selection of other GNSS networks and some information about them:
Communications satellites are used for communications by allowing radio, television and telephone transmissions to be sent live anywhere on Earth. Apart from broadcasting your Sky TV signal or enabling you to make a satellite phone call, this type of satellite also enables us to transmit and receive data, much as you do on the internet or your office network. The most common data communications satellite networks are:
The majority of Smartrak's asset and personal tracking units make use of the GPS and GLONASS global navigation satellite systems to determine their location. This information is transmitted via the cellular network to the Smartrak system or, where the AVL is accompanied by a satellite modem, the data can be transmitted through the Iridium communications satellite network to the system.
Certain personal tracking units are also satellite communication capability and use either of the Iridium and Globalstar satellite communications networks to transmit their location (and other information) back to the Smartrak for you to view/analyse when using either the Smartrak EyeQ Map or Reporting modules.
Australia and New Zealand are rated among the best places in the world to live. We have ample opportunities to work, a low unemployment rate and beautiful natural environments. But, we are not strangers to natural disasters.
The frequency and the severity of natural disasters have been on the rise across Australasia. In the coming years, it has been predicted that there will be volcanic eruptions, an increased number of cyclones, and more storms, floods, heat waves and bushfires than ever before.
When a disaster strikes, the first thing that comes to your mind is the health and safety of your loved ones. But, as a business owner, you also have a duty of care for your employees. Extreme weather events can cause havoc to your business; you don't have the luxury of just hoping it won't affect you or your staff.
It is not just the immediate damage from the impact of natural disasters, but also the flow-on impacts such as communication interruptions, power outages and transport, that can affect your business.
Preparing for disasters requires the combined efforts of internal and external stakeholders. You cannot stop natural disasters from occurring but you can take proactive, preventive measures to reduce their impact and to save lives and assets.
Employees are your most important and valuable asset; they need to be your priority. You should include employees from all levels in developing an emergency management plan. Planning for disasters is much more than backing up data and fire drills.
The employees should be made aware of some basic components of the emergency plan, including:
Employees need access to communication devices so they can coordinate tasks, keep one another informed of the situation and maintain safety across the organisation. Your employees need to be confident that they have communication methods they can rely on.
During an emergency, communication is vital to direct rescue teams to the right location if they are required, for lone employees in the field or office-based staff.
Following a disaster, emergency responders aim to prevent further loss of life and minimise the damage to property and infrastructure. It is essential that the rescue workers, utility providers, infrastructure services, local council and the general public can coordinate their efforts. You can reduce the burden on emergency services by proactively locating your employees through personal safety and tracking devices and checking their location and well-being.
Personal safety devices can be very effective in situations where a few minutes' delay could mean the difference between life and death for those in need of rescue.
You may already track your business vehicles to improve productivity and/or utilisation. In an emergency, real-time tracking can have the added benefit of effective staff co-ordination and dispatch, which will greatly assist any recovery or disaster management operation.
Telematics, GPS tracking and location technologies can play an essential role in safety and provide advanced assistance systems to support staff. In the digital age, there is no reason your remote employees should be left out of the loop when a disaster strikes.
No-one is immune to disasters, but your organisation can prepare for them and limit their impact. How quickly your company recovers after a disaster will depend on the emergency planning that you do today. Smartrak is a leading Australasian telematics organisation, offering a wide range of location-based, intelligent solutions covering vehicles, people and assets. If you have not already worked on your disaster recovery plans, then today is the day to start and Smartrak can help.
One of the most common questions we get is "How do I know what type of safety device we need for our staff?" followed by "Can you help us figure this out?".
We have come up with a list of questions organisations need to ask themselves when choosing personal safety devices for their workers.
The questions provide a simple, but effective, way for companies to figure out what their needs are and which devices are best for different types of workers.
This framework isn't specifically focused on Smartrak's solutions. It aims to help you understand the questions you need to ask your own team and field staff to identify your organisation's needs, risk profile and communication requirements in an emergency.
What to consider:
The most common requirements in lone worker devices are:
The most crucial step before implementing a new lone worker solution (and choosing the right devices) is to decide your minimum user requirements.
Often, not one device will solve all your problems. You may need a simple solution for some situations and more robust features for others.
To help understand your organisation's lone worker profile, and the minimum expected requirements for their protection, Smartrak has devised three questions that will provide you with context around what you require and who requires it.
What type of lone workers do you have?
This will allow you to take into consideration all the types of lone workers you have in your organisation, ensuring you're recognising all subsets that exist.
Satellite Vs Cellular Coverage
Once you know what type of lone workers you have, you then can decide on satellite or cellular coverage. This may be a simple question, but it is crucial, to make sure that your staff and the personal safety devices are able to communicate at all times.
Minimum Requirements
Define and explore your organisation's expectations for the protection, communication and alerts expected from a solution. This will help align features with requirements, eliminating those that don't meet the minimum brief.
These questions are explored in more detail in the following three steps.
The first step you need to take, before anything else, is to place all your staff into one of three categories.
Office Workers
This includes anyone who is in a fixed location for a period of time, where cellular coverage is typically available. Examples are frontline staff in high-risk environments, nurses, people walking to their car at night, lone retail staff, shift workers, caregivers and petrol station staff.
'Office workers' may not be lone workers but in a lot of circumstances, they are subject to risks and danger, and therefore may have the need to discreetly signal for help. A cell phone may potentially escalate a situation or not be on hand.
Urban Workers
They may be based in an office, but are often out in the field. They may be within cellular reception but may need to signal for help in an emergency or if they are in an area of potential risk.
Roles such as parking wardens, tow truck drivers, animal/pest control, tradesman, linemen, infrastructure, maintenance, telco-installers, carers and in-home nurses would all fit into this category.
Rural Workers
These people regularly work in remote locations outside cellular reception some or all of their working day. You may be considered urban worker 90% of your normal work week, but if 10% of your time, you are required to enter remote locations where cellular coverage is not guaranteed, you would classify as a Rural Worker.
Examples of rural workers may include linesmen, animal control, land surveyors, long-haul truckers and stock transport drivers.
By categorising all your staff, you can begin to map out their safety needs.
It is essential to cover your staff's minimum needs by matching the appropriate device to individual roles within the office, urban or rural categories. This will ensure you are not risking the well-being of your staff or leaving anyone open to preventable risk.
Office and urban workers
Users in these areas are never in locations remote enough to be outside of coverage. Therefore you can feel comfortable with them having a cellular-based device only.
From Smartrak's portfolio, this may include the Mini, Personal Locator, or the Protector Pro.
If one of these workers does from time to time (but not regularly) travel outside an area of coverage, then you may want to re-categorise them as Rural Workers. A shared satellite-based device may be required.
Rural workers
Anyone who regularly works in a remote location outside cellular coverage SOME or ALL of their day should use a satellite-based device.
Now you should easily be able to identify the number of staff requiring access to a cellular or satellite device. You may not need one device for every person, but you should have coverage for those staff potentially at risk.
Once you know, the type of workers you have and the what coverage you need. You then need to decide on each device's minimum feature requirements.
The bare minimum feature set includes a duress button to signal for help in an emergency along with the GPS location for the device. All Smartrak devices will offer these features.
If this is all you require, you can match the device against their location requirements (cellular or satellite), and you will have your pick of devices that will meet your needs.
However, you should also consider the following two questions:
QUESTION: How will an alert be triggered if our lone worker is unconscious?
Think of the risks your staff may face and how you want the emergency to be communicated. It can be as simple as pushing a button, but there may be times your staff cannot trigger an alert themselves, and you may want a device-initiated alert (man-down)to be triggered.
The three most common types of alerts are:
Inactivity - The staff member isn't conscious or is unable to reach the device within a set period. The inactivity feature is valuable for anyone at risk of being rendered unconscious or being unable to trigger an alert in the event of an emergency. In these cases, the device will automatically send an alarm if the wearer has not moved for a set period of time.
Tilt Detection - If the wearer falls and stays in a prone position, an alert will trigger. This feature is primarily used by linesmen or workers where there is a risk of shock or falling.
Check-In - a countdown timer is set that generates an alert when the time expires. The wearer needs to push a button to acknowledge they are safe and de-active the alert before this timer expires or an alert will be triggered. This is a handy feature for anyone in a high-risk location so they can actively and regularly acknowledge their safety. It is also useful where a worker is moving into an area without cellular reception, e.g. a basement, and needs to ensure that their supervisors will be alerted if they do not exit within a specified period of time.
QUESTION: How can I check in with my lone worker in the field?
One-Way Voice - In an emergency, it is possible for the first responder to dial into the device and listen to the surrounding activity, (please note, access can be limited to calls from specific/whitelisted numbers only if required)
Two-Way Voice - It is possible to dial into the device and have a two-way conversation if required. (Please note, calling cannot be initiated from the devices, only to the device)
Text-Based Messaging - Some devices can message back to the Smartrak map, or you can message from the Smartrak's system to the device.
This can be a useful tool to establish the status of any alert once triggered, or to check in with staff when they are on site.
Environment
The last thing you will need to establish is the environment your lone workers will be in. Do you require specific devices that are:
Different types of lone workers require different solutions. It is critical to know their minimum requirements.
If you ask the following three questions, you will be well on the way to knowing your requirements:
Using these questions to engage with your staff, you will be able to make a more informed decision around appropriate personal safety devices.
Once you have considered all these factors, contact Smartrak for advice on the options available for your requirements. Smartrak can work with you to establish a firm plan of action following a triggered alert. This will include who will be the first line of response and what the escalation plan is in the event of an emergency.
The Water Industry Operators Association is hosting their Water Industry Safety Event (WISE) on the 24th of October 2018 and Smartrak will be there. WISE will bring together industry professionals to share their experiences and provide a valuable network for the benefit of safety professionals, operational leaders, the operators and suppliers within the water industry.
Join Smartrak in attending the event. We will be showcasing our all-in-one integrated enterprise platform. Smartrak's platform serves a range of job functions including assisting with OH&S, lone worker safety, compliance, fleet management and fleet servicing.
More information on the Event can be found here:
http://wioaconferences.org.au/wise2018/
A GIS (geographic information system) layer shows a specific geographic feature in an area. It's like a legend item on a paper map. For example, roads, national parks, political boundaries and rivers might all be considered different layers.
How are GIS layers integrated with Smartrak?
GIS Layers can be loaded into Smartrak's mapping platform and can be turned on or off for viewing. The layers provide additional information that sits on top of the Smartrak base map.
What value can be derived from integrating GIS layers with Smartrak?
The ability to combine core visual (geospatial) information that is unique to your organisation with Smartrak allows immense benefits for workflow efficiency, better decision making, improved communication, and health and safety outcomes for staff.
Better decision making for job dispatch/allocation
When mobile assets are allocated to jobs in the field, visual displays of where mobile assets are in relation to fixed assets helps organisations make better decisions.
An example is Network Waitaki fixing a power transformer. The GIS layer displays the location of all power transformers on the network. A search in Smartrak easily locates the site of the faulty transformer and the operations manager or job dispatcher can identify the closest linesman and dispatch them to the job. Having field staff skills loaded into Smartrak and visible also helps dispatchers align skills to the particular requirements. This has obvious benefits for cost savings and work efficiency.
Loading asset data into a GIS layer limits the need for job dispatchers to have local knowledge of the area as they can rely on the GIS layer to identify where workers are and use onboard GPS to route them directly to the asset or resource.
Improved job management
Communication becomes faster and more effective when all elements are on a visual platform that multiple stakeholders can view. GIS layers provide an effective way to discuss and plan job allocation, view job progress and make decisions around the number of resources that are allocated to a particular job.
An effective health and safety tool
Enabling asset information to be readily at hand allows operations managers to quickly identify potential hazards and risks to health and safety. Hazardous areas can be zoned so they are easily identifiable. A visual representation of these hazards is an effective way to communicate them to field staff and foresee and mitigate potential accidents.
GIS layers integrated with geofences also allow the monitoring of mobile assets when they enter or exit hazardous areas, providing proactive alerts and notifications.
If you want to know more about how GIS integration can add value for your organisation, contact Smartrak today.
Smartrak has clients in dozens of different industries who use our application and hardware for a wide variety of uses. This article aims to help you and your organisation maximise the potential of your Smartrak investment and solve pain points in your organisation.
Theft of plant and equipment
Most organisations have plant and equipment that is portable and expensive - and therefore a target for theft. Smartrak has a number of devices that can help you track and potentially recover stolen plant and equipment.
Smartrak's Oyster and Remora devices are ideal for tracking non-powered assets as they have their own long-life, field-replaceable batteries and GPS. The Oysters and Remoras have been attached to small plate compactors, trailers, generators, lawn mowers, boats, beehives and even jet-powered kayaks.
Tracking short term-leased equipment
Many organisations lease plant and equipment for short periods but still want to utilise Smartrak's platform to monitor additional inputs. Smartrak provides a solution that allows quick and easy connection of a tracking unit that can also monitor additional input, such as a PTO. The unit can be removed before the leased plant is returned and then reused on other equipment. This solution has been used on leased plant and equipment such as diggers, cranes, loaders and rollers.
Using the pool booking system to book plant and equipment
Smartrak's pool booking system can also be used for booking of non-tracked plant and equipment including EV chargers, Garmin units, personal locators and more. The pool booking form gives users clear visibility of what equipment is available and approval checks can be implemented for further security and management. Integrating plant and equipment into the pool booking system allows organisations to rationalise and save on their plant/equipment as well as vehicles.
Managing servicing
Smartrak's Fleet Servicing module can be used for more than just vehicle service periods, WOF/COF, registration and RUC management. You can quickly and easily create new service types that are completely customisable. For example, you can create a fire extinguisher service type and assign it to all vehicles that need their fire extinguisher checked periodically. Other examples include first aid kit checks or even EWP (elevated work platforms) insulation compliance for lines companies.
Attributes
Clients use attributes to define a wide range of vehicle characteristics such as 4wd/2wd, tow bar, roof racks, driver contact details, driver skill sets and specifics about functions the vehicle can perform. Learn more about managing attributes HERE
You can add attributes via Smartrak's admin site and assign those attributes to resources/vehicles:
These attributes then appear on the maps site when viewing the resource.
Adding attributes helps provide more granular identification of a vehicle or assets features and capabilities, supporting the searching of particular equipment and assisting the management of them.
