Location Based Systems

Germany-headquartered INIT has announced the signing of a contract with California’s Gold Coast Transit (GCT) to provide an advanced scheduling solution (Mobile-Plan) for its fixed-route fleet. The software solution is already in operation in numerous projects around the world and will assist GCT in realising a more efficient schedule planning and resources allocation.

The Ziegler Group has selected the Trimble CarCube fleet management system for its fleet of 2,000 heavy goods vehicles across Europe. The system is a comprehensive fleet management solution that offers a suite of features designed to improve efficiency and communication between fleet operators and their drivers. These include driver identification; navigation capabilities; task planning and status reporting; trailer identification and verification; journey time assistance to comply with European Union regul

Ctrack is launching a telematics solution for vehicle insurers in the UK to rate how, when, where and by whom a vehicle is driven. The company, a leading provider of vehicle tracking solutions in the UK, says that Ctrack Intelligent Insurance offers providers an alternative means of determining individual vehicle premiums, following a ruling by the European Court of Justice in March this year that prevents gender being taken into account as a risk factor.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have been expensive add-on technical features for luxury vehicles for over 10 years, but during 2011, or perhaps more accurately Model Year 2012, features such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and low-speed collision mitigation will finally become available on higher-volume models such as the Ford Focus and Mercedes Benz C-Class.

Trimble has been awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) by the US General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service for its fleet management solution. The BPA will be administered by GSA Fleet and gives fleet managers the option to implement Trimble's vehicle monitoring, maintenance, driver safety, and driver identification products and services.

Ford has demonstrated its latest advancements in vehicle-to-vehicle communications at the final CoCarX (Co-operative Cars Extended) research project presentation, further highlighting the viability of improving road safety and traffic management through the use of intelligent vehicles.

Switzerland-headquartered U-blox has announced the acquisition of UK-headquartered 4M Wireless, a company that designs and develops leading software and test solutions that are crucial for developing fourth generation (4G) mobile wireless devices based on the latest Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards. The acquisition will give U-blox ownership of advanced protocol stacks that are licensed to chipset vendors whose products enable 4G user equipment for applications with needs for high speed data connectivity

Switzerland-headquartered u-blox has announced the successful demonstration of an enhanced LEA-6H GPS module which also supports Glonass navigation. The Russian Glonass satellite system is an alternative as well as complementary system to the US-based GPS. It currently has 22 deployed satellites, with the complete constellation of 24 satellites needed for complete global coverage scheduled for the end of this year.

Executives from Veolia Transportation's On-Demand Division, whose SuperShuttle, Compass and Golden Touch franchised brands provide consumer and specialised transport services, and SmartDrive Systems, a leader in fleet safety and operational efficiency, have announced Veolia's purchase of SmartDrive safety and eco-driving technology for the division's 1,631 vans and buses throughout the US.

GreenRoad, the specialist in fleet driver performance and safety management, has added new functionality to GreenRoad 360 which includes posted speed performance, idling heat maps, and extended data integration with new APIs.