Microlise and TNT Logistics deliver Pan-European Real-time GPS Satellite Tracking Solution

Microlise Limited and TNT Logistics UK Limited have successfully delivered a real-time GPS Satellite Tracking solution operating throughout Europe. The Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) implementation, an extension to a major award winning Supply Chain Management System developed for a major aerospace company, now allows vehicles to be tracked on their collection and delivery routes throughout Europe.

Countries where vehicles are being tracked on a regular basis include: France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden & Denmark.

From their UK traffic office, the operation now has the ability to monitor the progress & location of each vehicle and its adherence to its collection & delivery schedule. This is done using both European Mapping and Microlise’s Transport Management Centre product.

Currently, the UK arm of the operation is using the same system to manage the real-time transmission of electronic Proof Of Delivery and Collection data, as well as Automatic Vehicle Location. Since the introduction of the Supply Chain Management solution by Microlise and TNT to the customer, they have accrued significant operational benefits relating to Schedule Adherence, Collection / Delivery accuracy and Supplier conformance.
The current European AVL implementation uses GSM data as the communication back-bone for transmitting GPS Satellite tracking data back to the Traffic Office. Almost all European countries have at least one GSM network provider that supports data, (as opposed to SMS messaging).

However, Microlise and TNT Logistics UK Limited are currently working in partnership to extend their mobile logistics capability by using the lower cost and higher data rate capabilities of GPRS data communications in those European countries where this network infrastructure is available. Now midway through undertaking extensive European testing, it is Microlise’s intention to replace GSM data communications to and from their GPS Tracking Black box at the end of August 2003.

Microlise have already implemented a number of GPRS based Automatic Vehicle Location solutions. Matt Hague, In-Vehicle Product Manager at Microlise is clear as to the merits of GPRS data communications in Mobile Data and GPS Satellite Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) applications, “The benefit of GPRS as a dedicated data network is that large amounts of data can be transmitted over the network for a very low monthly cost. A recent cost comparison conducted by Microlise determined that, in a typical instance, 849 AVL tracking events could be communicated over SMS as opposed to up to a staggering 33,000 events using GPRS for the same equivalent monthly operating cost.”

“Consequently, this ‘always on’ type of mobile data service allows a very low level of tracking ‘granularity’ to be adopted – tracking at 1km frequency means very accurate tracking information can be captured.”

ENDS