The monitoring of truck drivers is ever increasing, indeed, the drivers themselves should consider this to be a good thing. Although it is hard to accept, when one is reprimanded by the display to, e.g., use the kick-down more sensibly. Whereby, the announcement may not even come from the telematics, but from the truck itself. One has the feeling anyhow, that sometimes the vehicles have a life of their own.

At this point, we don't want to deal with electronics or software in general, but specifically with telematics. We will try to understand the relationship between the communications- or data-connection and the transport planning department. On the one hand, this system is extendable to other points in the company and also to the clients, on the other hand, it is also transferable to the truck itself.

The more trucks one has, which can be simultaneously linked, the more worthwhile the system is. If one puts aside the comparability of the various driving styles concerning consumption, time management and safety, of course, one first of all, recognizes the advantages of using the truck. The simple and banal question, of whether there is a return-freight or not and which detour must be taken into consideration, could be well worthwhile.

It's obvious that the option of checking the driver's performance can lead to cost-saving, almost like a fake radar-trap. Surprisingly, in the more complex systems, where the read-outs come from sensors which are placed deep down in the workings of the truck, higher savings can be achieved than by optimizing the tour-planning.

In the last mentioned subject, the ever increasing road tolls also play a role. This brings us to the subject of driving procedures, which could well benefit from an additional pair of eyes provided by the telematics. Bearing in mind that the authorites are pretty drastic when it comes to punishing drivers who've exceeded the permitted amount of driving hours. If the number of utility vehicles carries on increasing, perhaps one day the systems may be able to report on service areas which have free parking spaces available.

So, data-management is definitely a subject and, e.g., the manual data recording from the truck onto the contractors card also uses up expensive time, this can also be avoided by having this type of system. Basically, the haulage contractor knows exactly where the respective truck is, what cargo it's carrying and what it's momentary situation is, even if the data-connection is not permanently switched on. 03/13