Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | O | OEM Off-Highway

The information highway goes off-road.

Article Excerpt
The information highway goes off-road

by Michelle EauClaire

Telematics proves rugged enough to handle off-highway machines, too.

Initially, it seemed as though telematics systems were associated solely with on-highway truck fleets so fleet managers could keep track of the location and progress of their employees and shipments. While that may be where telematics started, the technology has come a long way and has adapted to off-highway equipment applications in industries like agriculture, construction, mining and military.

Beyond simply tracking a machines location, telematics technology is hooked into the machine's diagnostic systems. Now, a super-sized mining dump truck can avoid collisions due to blind spots, an agricultural sprayer can know exactly where it just sprayed pesticides so as not to over-saturate a crop, and a heavy-duty wheel loader can tell its operator what maintenance work it needs before it becomes a problem.

Jeff Warner, product manager for PreCise MRM (a collaboration between FORCE America and Preco Electronics, recently acquired by FORCE) agrees that "telematics solutions tend to bias toward on-road. First, the off-highway market is perceived to be smaller than on-road with the number of over-the-road trucks and local fleet vehicles comparatively much larger. Second, the off-highway market is more demanding on hardware as the environment is more severe and the requirements are more difficult to meet."

Regardless of the challenges, it seemed as though every month this year had an announcement of a new telematics system technology, company partnership or offering.

January 28, 2009, TruckWeight releases FleetLink

The beginning of the year opened with TruckWeight Inc., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!