Microlise has launched an enhancement to its Telematics solution to provide a higher level of detail to help understand driver actions in the event of a driving incident or accident.
It is an unfortunate fact that most transport operations will have drivers and vehicles involved in road traffic incidents at some point. Microlise customer's have fed back that many man hours can then be spent in determining liability and that it would be great if Microlise could capture really detailed information as to what the vehicle and, crucially, the driver had been doing in the moments leading up to an incident. Microlise have responded to this request by developing an application which runs on their existing telematics device, (the MTU3), which monitors on an ongoing basis the status of the vehicle 4 times a second.
In the event of an incident, the Microlise system records 60 seconds of data at a very detailed level, which then allows users to understand in great detail what the vehicle and driver were doing leading up to and after the incident. These logs are created by a number of triggers: Harsh Deceleration (no braking trigger), Harsh Braking and Forward Facing Camera trigger.
Log files are automatically transmitted over air to the Microlise Server. A 'safety' user can access these logs via a new web console Microlise have developed as part of the Incident Data Recorder solution. This allows the user to view the status of all monitored data in ¼ second time slices in a table, on a map and on a time line chart.
Microlise have used EU guidelines on Incident Data Recording as a basis for their approach. Accordingly, the data Microlise currently captures every ¼ of a second includes:
- Vehicle location, speed and direction
- Accelerator position
- Braking (Engine & Service)
- ABS status
- Clutch activation and gear selected
- Cruise control state
- Engine Torque and PTO State
Due to the Microlise range of Telematics devices having their own CANchip on board (something not many of Microlises' competitors offer), Microlise are able to access much more CANBus and OBDII data than is the norm. This means that the next generation of the safety release will support even more of the Veronica II guidelines – for example: Airbag, Seat belt, Indicators and so on.
Microlise's Product Strategy Director, Matt Hague, states: "Microlise are really excited about this latest innovation. Whilst it is part of a broader portfolio of safety enhancements, we feel this takes the value Microlises' Telematics solution delivers to customers to a whole new level and represents tremendous value as all of the new functionality is software based, meaning no additional hardware costs are incurred, consequently all of Microlises' existing and new customers can easily have access to this new solution".
DHL Supply Chain have implemented Microlise's Fleet Performance Telematics to over 2200 of their vehicles in the UK and have delivered significant fuel & emissions reduction over the last 2 years.
Simon Wilson, EMEA Transport Safety Director for DHL Supply Chain, speaking at Microlise's Transport Conference in May 2012, explained how safety was DHL's number one transport priority and that Microlise's range of safety module enhancements; including harsh cornering, contextual speeding, Forward Facing Camera integration and this latest Incident Data Recorder innovation had a central part to play in providing DHL Supply Chain with the information they needed to better manage and control transportation risks.
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