The Journal – Andrew Mernin

VEHICLE tracking technology developed in the North East is to be used by one of Europe’s largest transport operators.

South Tyneside’s FleetM8 has landed a contract with the North East bus and train company Arriva, which operates across 12 European countries.

The Sunderland company will use FleetM8’s tracking technology on bus fleets north of the border, allowing the firm to immediately spot when the vehicles end up “crowding” by getting too close together.

FleetM8’s tracking system was created by North East inventor Dr Phillip Tann, alongside his business partner Neil Herron – a well-known regional campaigner for motorists hit by questionable parking and speeding fines.

The technology first gained recognition two years ago when Dr Tann received a speeding ticket from Northumbria Police which claimed he was doing 42mph in a 30mph zone.

However, Dr Tann’s vehicle was fitted with a prototype GPS tracking device, which not only recorded the vehicle’s position but also recorded a speed, to six decimal places, of 29.177196 mph.

The system has since proved popular in transport-reliant industries and is currently being used by London’s pub traders to track beer deliveries.

It has also been fitted on buses in India by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation in Mysore, and directors will this week fly back to India for talks with additional government authorities.

They will enter into discussions with bus companies in the neighbouring Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, which is keen to explore the potential of the technology.

Dr Tann said the tracking system could have huge global potential: “Because of the system’s accuracy and low cost we are able to offer benefits that have not previously been available using ordinary vehicle telemetry.

“Greater efficiency means fuel savings and reduction in CO2 emissions, and this is a major step towards companies being able to demonstrate that they are reducing their carbon footprint at the push of a button.

“With the global expansion of the mobile phone network and GPS technology, location-based systems are set to become the fifth utility service – we are on the cusp of a global revolution.”

The adoption of FleetM8’s tracking system by Arriva follows last week’s news that the bus operator plans to introduce a mobile phone ticketing system.

Arriva’s introduction of m-ticketing is believed to be the largest deployment of its kind in the world, covering approximately 1,000 routes served by Arriva’s regional fleet of 4,500 buses.

It will enable all passengers to use their mobile phones to purchase tickets and then display them to the driver.

Published Date:
08 January 2010

By Kevin Clark

You wait just minutes for a bus – then one turns up by itself.

That’s the dream of Wearside transport giant Arriva and Boldon based technology company FleetM8.

Arriva has teamed up with Fleetm8 to use the latest satellite technology to track its buses.

“The new contract has been tailored to monitor buses by the second, ensuring that they are staggered. All your buses coming at once will become a thing of the past,” said director Neil Herron.

Mr Herron, 46, and fellow director, Dr Phillip Tann, 47, founded Boldon-based Fleetm8 in autumn 2008.

Read More: http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Wearside-inventor39s-device-keeps-track.5968158.jp

FleetM8 has recently begun installing its solution on buses in Scotland.

The company had trialled several systems in the past with little success. The requirement was simple – the capability to monitor buses along a specific route in REAL TIME, in order that the depot could alert drivers to slow down if a bus was travelling too close to the service ahead. Spacing of buses on the route is highly desirable to maximise the profitability of  the service. Because FleetM8 is the only solution that offers “per second” updates of GPS data, it was deemed to be the only system that could solve the company’s problem. The first installation took place in October 2009 in Glasgow, Scotland and has proved to be a huge success.

Depot manager, William Dunsmore says, “We had been approached by several companies who claimed they could solve our problems. However, it was clear after several trials that none of these systems were suitable for our requirements. The FleetM8 solution allows us to view all vehicles travelling along each route LIVE! No other product comes close to this. Coupled with our in cab communication system, we are now able to inform drivers when they need to slow down to maintain consistency along the route! I am extremely happy with the FleetM8 solution and would gladly recommend it to others”

Established in 1957, the company has grown from strength to strength over the years and now employs in excess of 150 directly employed operatives and staff.

Burridges have used the FleetM8 vehicle monitoring solution for more than 12 months and have been closely involved in the development of the product.

Monitoring the movement of 150 members of staff was proving to be a headache for the company and it was important that emergency calls were allocated to the nearest operative. Office staff needs to know where various “trades” are at any given time. For example if an electrical call comes in an electrician needs to be allocated to the job. By colour coding individual trades, calls can be allocated quickly and emergency response times have been dramatically cut. Furthermore, suppliers premises have been plotted on the system and should an operative require supplies; the office is able to direct the driver to the nearest supplier

In addition, the company wanted to monitor its overall fuel spend. It was thought that personal miles were being heavily funded by the company and unnecessary journeys were being made at the company’s expense. Since the FleetM8 system has been introduced, personal mileage has been reduced by 35%. The company are now also able to monitor the driving behaviour of all its employees. Although poor driving has been proven not to be a problem with current employees, the company are pleased to have the facility for checking future members of staff.

Purchasing Manager, Adrian Christie, says “Our company has been using the FleetM8 system for some time now and we have been extremely impressed with the results. As a result of installing the system, we have noticed a reduction in fuel consumption and wear and tear on the vehicles. FleetM8 have worked very closely with us and we have been extremely impressed by their professionalism. I would happily recommend them to any other company”

Adrian Christie, Purchasing Manager PF Burridge Ltd

“We had been approached by several companies who claimed they could solve our problems. However, it was clear after several trials that none of these systems were suitable for our requirements. The FleetM8 solution allows us to view all vehicles travelling along each route LIVE! No other product comes close to this. Coupled with our in cab communication system, we are now able to inform drivers when they need to slow down to maintain consistency along the route! I am extremely happy with the FleetM8 solution and would gladly recommend it to others”

William Dunsmore, Arriva Buses

Late last year, North East inventor Dr Phillip Tann and Neil Herron – a well-known regional campaigner for motorists hit by parking and speeding fines – launched a business on the back of Dr Tann’s groundbreaking vehicle-tracking system.

The company announced in December that it had signed a deal with India’s SLN Technologies to market the product throughout India, and now the arrangement looks to be bearing fruit for the firm.

The device, developed by South Tyneside-based FleetM8, will be trialled by the State Government of Karnataka to track buses in the city of Mysore.

If the trial on 10 buses is successful, FleetM8 will see its device used on 250 buses in a deal worth around £17m to the company and its SLN partners.

The FleetM8 system can be used to track the location of any vehicle and also its historic location, which enables fleet operators to view performance and make decisions in real time.

As well as tracking location, the technology allows users to record speed, fuel efficiency and driver behaviour and is supported by a system which can send alerts to mobile phones and in the event of theft.

Its creators claim it can track vehicles to the nearest metre worldwide at a fraction of the cost of anything else available on the market.

Mr Herron said he expected the potential deal in India to act as a stepping stone to the global expansion of the new technology.

“This is the first real major step towards the globalisation of a South Tyneside business at a time when everyone else is shedding jobs we are looking to expand the company into worldwide markets.

He also said the company is planning to adapt the technology to a range of other uses.

It is currently working on a device which parents can use to track their children and is also considering developing a device to track animals for use in the agriculture sector and for race horse trainers.

Dr Tann’s invention first gained national recognition in 2007 when he used the device to avoid a speeding ticket.

Northumbria Police claimed he was doing 42mph in a 30mph zone, however, Dr Tann’s vehicle was fitted with a prototype GPS tracking device which proved otherwise.

The inventor believes the trial in India will help showcase the technology to other markets.

He said: “The tracking technology itself has a myriad of uses and we are working on the next phase of technical developments which will assist in the development of intelligent road networks and fleet management systems as well as benefits for individual motorists such as speed and breakdown alerts.”

SLN Technologies managing director M. Anil Kumar arrived in the North East this week to finalise the specifications for the Mysore bus project while Dr Tann and fellow director Byron Longstaff will head to Mysore next month to oversee the project.

This is the first real major step towards the globalisation of a South Tyneside business

North East inventor Dr Phillip Tann and Neil Herron – a well-known regional campaigner for motorists hit by questionable parking and speeding fines – launched a business on the back of Dr Tann’s groundbreaking vehicle-tracking system.

And yesterday the South Tyneside business, FleetM8, announced a deal with India’s SLN Technologies which will see the technology marketed throughout the Indian sub-continent.

SLN specialises in telemetric, tracking and communications technology and is involved in the Indian lunar satellite project Chandrayaan and worked on the control system for India’s moon mission.

Initially FleetM8 will market its products as vehicle tracking devices which can either be used via a mobile phone or attached to the vehicle to track speed and location.

However the company is currently working on a number of other applications for the technology including a child safety device and a mobile golf course-mapping device for golfers.

The technology first gained recognition last year when Dr Tann received a speeding ticket from Northumbria Police which claimed he was doing 42 mph in a 30 mph zone.

However, Dr Tann’s vehicle was fitted with a prototype GPS tracking device which not only recorded the vehicle’s position it also recorded a speed, to six decimal places, of 29.177196mph.

Today’s commercialisation of that device follows the sourcing of around £250,000 of investment by directors Dr Tann, campaigner Neil Herron and financial adviser Byron Longstaff.

In recent years Neil Herron has become a well known campaigner for the successful Metric Martyr’s fight – to be allowed to sell fruit and vegetables in imperial weights – and is also a champion for the motorist in parking and speeding disputes.

Last year he exposed errors in Sunderland’s legal regime which resulted in thousands of motorists being refunded for parking tickets.

As well as India, FleetM8’s technology has attracted interest from several other international markets.

Dr. Tann said: “Within a few years we anticipate that cars and other vehicles will once again take the lead with the integration of sophisticated technology transmitting data to a remote ‘black box’ at such low cost and volumes that will enable a multitude of applications to be utilised.

“Just imagine the road networks as a computer network with traffic lights as switches and roundabouts as hubs and we could end up with super-efficient highways and massively reduced congestion.”

The company is preparing to launch the technology in Australia as a mobile phone application through a partnership deal with Vodafone.

FleetM8 has also gained interest from the States and is in talks with a number of haulage firms who could harness the system to monitor long-distance trips. In South Africa, where vehicle theft and car-jacking is rife, interest has been shown in FleetM8 by businesses who would like to market it as a tracking device to assist in recovering stolen vehicles.

Similarly in Kenya, local authorities have expressed an interest in the technology to prevent the increasingly-frequent hijacking of its postal vans.

Dr Tann is also developing a child-tracking application through either a special clip or a mobile phone download for older children, which is expected to come to market in the new year.