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The Baltimore Salvation Army Improves Pickups and Fleet Efficiency with the ISR FleetTrack AVL System The Salvation Army of Baltimore, Maryland, is one of 14,000 centers worldwide that offers free community services such as social, educational and medical rehabilitation programs. The Baltimore chapter supports its programs by accepting donations of clothing, furniture and other items that it picks up and sells in its seven Salvation Army Thrift Stores. Needing to more closely track its vehicles and improve communications between dispatchers and trucks on the road, the Baltimore center recently equipped its 26 trucks with the ISR FleetTrack Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system from Integrated Systems Research (ISR) of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and offices in Baltimore, MD. "We selected the ISR FleetTrack system because it gives us the best coverage," said Captain Don Smith, the Baltimore Salvation Army's director of special operations who supervises the center and its programs. "We were particularly encouraged by ISR FleetTrack's ability to track vehicles and issue daily reports," he said. "We needed a system that could track the location of our trucks and let us help our drivers when they get lost," said Greg Harris, the Baltimore center's transportation supervisor and head dispatcher. "ISR FleetTrack does both and much more." ISR FleetTrack uses GPS (Global Positioning System), a satellite-based location system that provides three-dimensional positioning information, velocity readings and time information to show the location of a fleet of vehicles and their movements. The system also consists of a silent position monitor that enables communication between truck and dispatcher through a CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) wireless network. ISR FleetTrack continuously records data of a truck's operation, including its speed and location and enables dispatchers to be in constant communication with vehicles. It also notifies dispatchers when a truck deviates from a planned route, leaves a specified zone or is standing still for more than five minutes (or any predetermined time period). The data can be played back at any time. "ISR FleetTrack allows fleet managers to communicate with a specific vehicle simply by clicking on its unique icon," said Yukie Novick, president of ISR. "An entire fleet can be tracked simultaneously. And to protect drivers during emergencies, ISR FleetTrack enables the use of remote panic buttons. The system also facilitates report generation because of its compatibility with such popular database applications as FoxPro and Microsoft Access." "The system has given us all we have asked for," said Harris. "We have made extensive use of the system's automatic vehicle location feature. Knowing the real-time location of a vehicle lets us easily help a driver who is lost or having trouble finding a certain address. It doesn't matter if they are around the corner from their destination or two miles away. "The tracking feature is also used to make sure our drivers do not deviate from their assigned route," said Harris. "At the same time, an alarm will sound if a driver exceeds vehicle speed limits or if a truck has been standing still for too long. It helps make our drivers more accountable," he said. ISR FleetTrack has also helped the Baltimore Salvation Army pick up donations more efficiently, said Chip Suter, sales manager for Comm-Tronics, Inc., Glen Burnie, Md., the company that made the sale. "Rather than sending trucks all over the place," Suter said, "the organization is able to save time and money by using ISR FleetTrack to better plan daily pick up routes." The center has also come to rely on ISR FleetTrack's reporting feature that enables data to be played back at a later time. "We use the report function to find out where a driver was or to determine the reason for an accident. It's very helpful," Harris said. In the future the center hopes to add electronic messaging. "This would let a driver communicate with the dispatcher even when his Nextel wireless radio unit is tied up," Harris said. Also on the center's list of priorities is the integration of the system with a Dynamic Routing program. The program would determine the most efficient route for a driver after ticket pickup information is fed into the system. "This would be very valuable," said Captain Smith. "It would allow the center to better manage its pickup and store delivery operations." |