Travel Corp to rope in vehicle location technology

Transportation and logistics services provider Travel Corporation of India (TCI) is set to implement automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology in all of its vehicles by the end of the next calendar year to track and monitor the movements of its vehicles.

"The AVL technology is used for tracking vehicles, vessels and mobile assets such as trailers, containers and equipment. Each mobile unit has a global positioning system (GPS) receiver that reports its position to the base station over a communication network. This allows the base station to monitor and manage the entire movements. In India, TCI is the first and so far only organisation to offer a complete system with own servers and network," said Vineet Agarwal, executive director, TCI.

TCI has so far installed GPS in 250 of its 700 vehicles and plans to install GPS in all of its vehicle in next one year. The cost of installing GPS in each truck costs about Rs 20,000.

So far TCI has invested over Rs one crore in implementing GPS in its vehicles. It will be investing another Rs 2 crore in the next one year.

The GPS is a worldwide radio-navigation system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their ground stations. GPS uses these 'man-made stars' as reference points to calculate positions accurate to a matter of meters.

TCI's GPS receivers have been miniaturised to just a few integrated circuits enabling easy and almost covert installation.

GPS provides specially-coded satellite signals that can be processed in a GPS receiver, enabling the receiver to compute position, velocity and time.

"If transportation is the process of getting something from one location to another, then tracking is the process of monitoring it as it moves along. Commerce relies on fleets of vehicles to deliver goods and services either across a crowded city or through nationwide corridors. So effective fleet management has direct bottomline implications, such as telling a customer when a package will arrive, spacing buses for the best-scheduled service, directing the nearest ambulance to an accident, or helping tankers avoid hazards or tracking sensitive and high value cargo. GPS used in conjunction with communication links and computers can provide the backbone for systems to provide automatic vehicle location. At TCI we believe that technology is meant to make life simpler and better, not to complicate it," said Agarwal.

The TCI system consists of the system architecture which include, mobile GPS units with antenna, communication network, GSM network radio frequency media, satellites, base stations, vector maps, and fleet management software. The GPS unit is directly connected to a GSM modem.

The data between the dispatch center and the GPS unit is send by short message service (SMS).

TCI has reported a turnover of Rs 750 crore in the last financial year and eyes a turnover of Rs 900 crore by the end of the current financial year, while the corporation has already exceeded a turnover of Rs 400 crore by the half-year ended on September 30.