Location: Fleet Management System

INTRODUCTION
In the current era of large scale production centers and rapidly increasing and evermore demanding clientele, it is the fleet management system that may prove to be the decisive factor in the expansion or demise of a business enterprise. In today’s world, where distances are rapidly narrowing, where economic environment is dominated by cut throat competition, where any delay in service delivery may result in one potential client lost, one business opportunity missed, the importance of a sound fleet management systems cannot be overemphasized.

For long, the managers / owners have been worrying about their fleets, be it ships - trucks or wagons – for taking an appropriate route in terms of parameters of their interest. This has a direct bearing on the profitability of their transport operations.

The benefits of having a state of the art Fleet Management System has been further affirmed by research conducted by RNCOS - Research & Consultancy Outsourcing Services. It’s report says that the use of a typical Fleet Management System helps reduce fuel consumption by 5-15%. This saving in oil consumption is of importance when it is seen in the perspective of global rise in price of oil which is in the range of 30% per annum. The same research also predicts that almost half of the heavy trucks sold in U.S. in 2009 will incorporate a fleet management solution.

The fleet management refers to managing a number of vehicles carrying goods or services in such a way as to enable them to reach their destination in shortest possible time and with minimum possible cost. It is used to encompass the management of any/all aspects relating to a company's vehicle fleet from the allocation of resources to fuel economies. Fleet Management System essentially involves the tracking of vehicles and relaying the information either in real time or storing the records for future needs. The whole system requires a technique for tracking vehicles, communication link and a system which could locate/track the movement of the fleet and logs generated for future report generation.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Looking from the historical perspective, FMS has always been there in one form or the other. The owners have always been trying to find out the behavior of their sailors or drivers when they set out carrying goods for trade. During initial period, fleet management was effected after the sailors or the drivers returned and provided to the owners, oral account of their journey. They were supposed to faithfully narrate the routes they had taken along with all other relevant details. This method had obvious shortcomings. The era of scientific FMS had its advent when small boxes containing storage devices were put in the vehicles and were programmed to record and measure acceleration, cruise speed, direction and idle time of the vehicles. The devices were called Tacographs. Tachograph was a device to put on paper, the data provided by tachometer. Tachometers were a combination of clock and speedometer. They were able to measure the speed of the vehicle and also the duration for which the vehicle was moving or stationary. For the tachometers to function, it had to be in contact with the engine of the vehicle. Once the vehicles came back to the headquarters, the tacographs were removed and all the data it contained were transferred to another device where it was possible to see and analyze them. The record it contained then became the basis of corrections in the future, if required.

This system had its usefulness. It could report to the managers the speed with which the vehicle was traveling and the time the vehicle had remained stationary. But the system had few drawbacks as well. Firstly, It did not give the direction in which the vehicle was moving. Therefore, it could not tell whether the efficient route was being followed. Secondly, the tachograph was prone to tampering. Though this drawback was later removed when the data was put on a smart card rather than a circular piece of paper. Thirdly, since tachometer required to be in contact with the engine shaft, it was considered a hazard for the vehicles and was even prohibited in some European countries.