Development of national telematics dictionary to help bus operators reduce their overheads
Transport Certification Australia (TCA) has developed a Telematics Data Dictionary to help bus operators manage school bus and other contracts.
The dictionary provides fleet managers with a way to ensure they are meeting their operational targets and seize opportunities to improve their operational efficiency.
Telematics provides real-time information on driver and vehicle performance via a black box system and GPS and satellite technology.
Transport Certification Australia (TCA) CEO Chris Koniditsiotis says as driver and vehicle monitoring technology advances, other useful type of data will start being tracked and will be included in the dictionary.
“We anticipate they will be driven by end-use demands, rather than changes to technology,” he says.
So bus operators and fleet managers will come up with new ideas on what information they want monitored depending on the nature and demands of their particular business.
The dictionary will serve as point of reference for those looking to track new types of data that other bus operators may have already come up with a way to track which should save Australian operators and their IT partner time and money.
Isuzu is currently utilising the technology for its truck fleet and the Tasmanian Department of State Growth (DSG) has implemented a certified telematics service to improve data collection for fare-paying school bus contracts throughout Tasmania.
Equipment is fitted to buses to monitor each school route from origin to destination.
A card reader is also installed for students to tap their bus cards to record where they boarded the bus.
This data is then monitored by DSG to make sure state school bus operators are complying with their contractual obligations.
In other scenarios, this data can also be analysed by bus operators themselves and used to implement service delivery or internal operational changes that will help them achieve optimal efficiency.