TRUCKS AND TRAINS

For many companies, ensuring that their train and truck fleets are efficient, productive, on-time and on-budget is a never ending struggle, particularly for companies with high distribution volumes. Successfully orchestrating the efforts and destinations of people, products, and vehicles has many challenges, including:

• Optimizing routes to minimize fuel and labor costs
• Rerouting trucks or trains while in transit to avoid areas where road/rail construction, accidents or inclement weather might cause delays
• Ensuring peak utilization of available transports by leveraging vehicles within specific distances of certain delivery areas
• Minimizing shipping delays that diminish customer service levels and threaten customer loyalty
• Maintaining required temperatures and delivery times for perishable products
• Safeguarding both truck and rail freight to minimize theft

Because of these challenges and ever-increasing competition, many companies are investing in location-enabled asset tracking solutions to leverage GPS and other location technologies to better manage their truck and rail logistics. Truck and rail tracking solutions provide complete visibility into the movement of vehicles in any transportation network. Location-enabled applications offer companies and government agencies a wide range of benefits in the management of transportation systems, including:

• Route optimization to maximize productivity and fuel economy
• Improving customer service levels through on-time deliveries
• Improving the “customer experience” by providing up-to-the minute visibility into the location of specific shipments
• Minimizing spoilage and ensuring product quality
• Minimizing theft through the ability to determine if a vehicle is stopped at a time when it is supposed to be moving
• Increasing the rate of recovery for any goods or vehicles that are taken.

Omnilink’s FocalPoint™ platform powers the location-enabled tracking platforms that allow companies and government agencies to use a range of location collection technologies to monitor their truck and rail networks. These advanced monitoring solutions provide continuous tracking and location data to help maximize productivity, while minimizing the cost inherent in these types of systems.

Through a simple, Web-based interface, individuals at all levels within an organization can access real-time and historical location data to track the progress of vehicles and the goods they carry. Detailed reports can be created to identify any “anomalies” in the transportation process or to improve the overall efficiency of the process.