The onboard computer

When choosing an onboard computer you should make sure that the actual computer can handle all the things that you need it to do in the truck. That is: collecting engine management information, recording driving style and abuses, fuel consumption, storing position information, storing event information, driver information, tachograph hour's regulations etc. Many of the systems on the market simply add up the driver's hour and report them, they don't actually calculate the driver's hours for tachograph infringements. This is daft, it's a computer after all, so make sure that if you are paying good money for an onboard computer, it should act like a computer, and it does your tachograph analysis work for you, in the truck. It should also be capable of seamlessly communicating with your transport management software back in the office. Make sure you ask for this to be demonstrated live, many telematics companies make the claim that their system integrates with your own back office computers but what they really mean is that they send a file back and its then up to you to integrate that file with your own transport systems. That is not seamless integration.

This brings us back to the second part of an onboard computer system, the communications with your office.

The communications

There are a number of different ways that your tucks computer can send and receive information. Lots of systems on the market use SMS messages for this function. SMS stands for Short Message Service. SMS messages are, as their name implies short, (160 characters) so this will severely restrict the amount of information that you can communicate to and from the truck. SMS messages are also very expensive (up to 10p each) and because they are just one way messages you will need to pay for two of them to get the location of your truck. One message to the truck to ask for its location and then one message back from the truck to actually get the location sent back to you. Also many SMS based systems on the market don't allow you to make voice calls to or from the truck. This means that you have to have two mobile phone SIM card contracts for each truck, one in the onboard computer for the SMS calls and one in the driver's mobile phone for his voice calls. This is daft because, at no extra cost, the normal SIM card in your current mobile phone can actually use three numbers or channels, voice, fax and data. If you put that SIM card in your trucks onboard computer you can keep the normal phone number for voice calls and use its standard data channel for communicating back to your office computer. One SIM card contract, two functions, that's much more sensible. What's more these standard data calls are very cheap and are not restricted to a number of characters in the way that SMS messages are. A typical call charge to your standard mobile phone SIM cards data number will cost as little as 2p per minute and be able to send and receive thousands of characters. And most contracts allow you to be billed by the second. Getting a truck position would typically take a data phone call of about 20 seconds so the total cost to you for contacting the truck will be about 1p. And that call is for two way data of thousands of characters unlike the much more expensive, 10p each way, SMS message.

The ongoing cost of communicating with your vehicles will, in the long run, end up being the most expensive part of your telematics system. You will be better off paying slightly more for your onboard computer hardware and not getting trapped into an expensive and restrictive communications contract. Some telematics companies are not really interested in the onboard computer at all, they are simply SMS message re-sellers and are making all of their profits from bulk buying SMS messages and selling you contracts for X number of messages per day per truck.

The upshot here is: Ensure the actual onboard computer can handle everything that you need including live tachograph analysis, insist on live demonstrations for any integration claims made by salesmen and don't get trapped into an expensive communications contract.