Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 8 No. 3 - Technology
There's My Car
Global positioning, software, and the Internet allow you to keep track of your fleet

In the New Economy, savvy business techniques combined with the use of available technologies are needed to stay ahead of competition and to make business processes faster and more efficient. This is especially true for companies who rely on their fleet of vehicles to transport their goods and services all over the country. For these companies, time is of the essence.

Unfortunately, the only means for most companies to check on the location and progress of their vehicles on the road is through communication with their drivers via two-way radio or cellular phones, which, at times, prove unreliable.

Now you can tell if your container van is indeed caught up in this traffic

Sometimes, there are no clear communication lines between the driver and the fleet manager because of poor telecommunications signals. Or sometimes, the driver and the vehicle are in distress in some far-flung area. Or even more common is when the driver or employee uses the company vehicle for personal purposes. In all cases, business processes are put to a halt, services are delayed, customers get angry, money is wasted, and the end result is loss of profit.

So how can one implement efficient vehicle management practices and prevent all these from happening?

ANTS and the GPS
With the advent of modern technology, the answer to that lies in the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is a satellite-based radio navigation system that permits land, sea, and airborne users to determine their three-dimensional position, velocity, and time – 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world. The GPS concept of operation is based upon satellite ranging. Users figure their position on earth by measuring their distance from the group of satellites in space. The satellites then act as precise reference points.

And the good thing is, a local company – Asian Navigation and Tracking Systems, Inc. (ANTS) – has already been successfully developing and marketing the technology in the Philippines since 1995. In fact, several large companies have already adopted the technology and that includes Shell Petroleum Corporation, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, and Asian Terminals, Inc., among others.

As the first provider of vehicle tracking systems (VTS) in the country, ANTS General Manager Enrique Macapinlac has this observation on the local industry’s acceptance of the technology. “Whenever we approach our prospective clients, one question never fails to surface, ‘Is it really here?’ They thought that this kind of technology exists only in fully-developed countries. But we say that it is really here and that they can make good use of the technology now,” he says.

Naviant and Radiant
So how, exactly, does this operate?
Employing the precise positioning technology of the GPS, ANTS developed a fully-automated vehicle tracking equipment dubbed the Naviant. The device – which is composed of a mobile unit, a base unit, and an integrated computer software – is installed in the vehicles and allows the fleet operator to monitor vehicles through real-time access or post-travel access on their location.

Also in the Naviant are GPS receivers, processors, and antennas that allow land, sea, or airborne operators to receive GPS satellite broadcasts and compute their precise position, velocity, and time.

To enable their clients to view their vehicles in real-time over the Internet, ANTS also developed a vehicle management solutions service called the Radiant. With the Radiant, vehicle owners can view the location of the vehicles by simply logging on to the Radiant website – www.ants.ph. The Radiant service is integrated with the Naviant and a computer-based Central Mapping System complete with street signage and landmarks.

Through the Radiant, ANTS clients do not have to shell out money for acquiring a base station. For a minimal monthly fee, ANTS subscribers can avoid problems entailed with managing their vehicles. As Macapinlac says, “The most important thing is that vehicle owners are assured of the safety and security of their assets because vehicle location information can be readily available to them.”

To further provide safety and security for these assets, the Naviant is also equipped with panic button alarms that signal the Radiant Tracking Base Site if the vehicle – and especially the people and cargo inside it – is in trouble. The Radiant Communications Specialist then informs the vehicle owner the location and condition of the vehicle.

The Radiant Communications Specialist can also inform the client if the driver did not follow the designated route as the service also provides a historical route report to the owner. This feature is especially useful for companies that maintain a large fleet of vehicles.

Other companies, like BayanMap and Webcast Technologies’ FindMe, are also emerging to provide location-based services to companies.

With the technology, companies can soon say goodbye to the antiquated and unreliable methods of vehicle management. As Macapinlac puts it, “We are here to provide companies with revolutionary services that would save them money, make things a lot easier and less complicated, and increase their profit.”