“Risk with a Capital R” is a two-part webinar from the Truckload Carriers Association and Fleet Owner which delves into the timely topic of distracted driving. The series takes a comprehensive look at the issue by providing you with informative research, real-life experiences and practical suggestions.
In the first segment you’ll learn the about the current and pending regulations on distracted driving as well as the physiological reasons why driving while distracted is so dangerous. The second part of the webinar examines real-life fleet examples and gives suggestions on how to effectively develop and enforce policies and monitor driver behaviour with the help of in-vehicle communication systems.
Here is an interesting article in support of agencies opening their transit data. It discusses how transit agencies in big urban cities, like New York, San Francisco and Boston, are making their raw data available to the public, ushering in an era of what the geek community is calling transit-data democracy. Now, information ranging from which subway stops have working elevators to service alerts about construction and delays are available to the public, developers and entrepreneurs.
The article draws parallels to George Orwell’s book, “1984,” concerning the broader implication opening transit data might have on society. However, it is argued that unlike “1984”, technological advances have effectively provided a greater democratization and decentralization for individuals.
When transit agencies are reluctant to release their transit data they frequently allude to concerns about the accuracy of data and how it will be used. But riders are often already getting inaccurate data, so by making transit data public, developers and entrepreneurs can use this information for good, giving people the ability to plan and navigate their trips easily and simply.
To read the entire article, click here. To learn more about the open transit data debate, go here to download a free white paper.
Many people believe that environmentally-friendly fleet upgrades are cost prohibitive. In fact, the opposite is true: proper mobile fleet management technology not only lessens a fleet’s impact on the environment, its improvements to an operation’s overall efficiency saves money in the long run. This white paper outlines several historical approaches to a greener fleet and why they fail. It discusses how new fleet management technologies can improve a company’s bottom line, and lists several policies that managers can implement immediately to save money and the environment, all at no cost.
If you haven’t heard by now, Federal Transit Authority (FTA) Administrator Peter M. Rogoff recently announced a $775 million competitive grant program for its Bus and Bus Facilities “State of Good Repair” initiative. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has also recently released several “Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA),” outlining new grant opportunities for transit systems. To read more about these funding opportunities, go here.
If applying for grant funding is unchartered territory for you, or if you would like to gain more clarity around the process, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at DOT is presenting a seminar, “How to Compete for a DOT Discretionary Grant” on May 18 in Washington, DC. For more information, click here. The DOT website will also make a webcast available at http://www.dot.gov/
If you manage a fleet of vehicles, you’re going to spend a significant amount of money on gasoline. In fact, it might be one of your highest [figures]. When your vehicles pull up to the pump, chances are good your drivers will see something like this:
But what do the numbers mean? They’re what’s called the Research Octane Number (RON) or the Anti-Knock Index (AKI). They refer to the ratio of iso-octane versus heptane in the gasoline. For example, gasoline with an octane rating of 90 means the gas is 90% iso-octane and 10% heptane. That’s all well and good, but how does it affect your fleet?
There are two ways for gasoline to ignite. The first is with a flame or spark, which is what a spark plug does. But if you compress gasoline enough it will ignite spontaneously, without the need for a spark or flame. When you compress gasoline along with air, you get a much larger ignition than if you just compressed gasoline by itself. Adding air to your gasoline is the job of a vehicle’s carburetor or fuel injectors. Compressing the gasoline along with air is the job of a vehicle’s pistons.
When the piston in an engine compresses gasoline before a spark plug fires, there’s always the possibility that the gasoline will ignite prematurely. If this happens before an engine is ready, the exploding gasoline will drive the pistons backwards. It’s like trying to walk through a revolving door while every few seconds some jerk pushes the glass in the wrong direction. When this happens in an engine, you get a knocking sound as the engine fights against itself. Not only is this bad for fuel efficiency, this can cause serious damage.
Gasoline with a higher octane number require more compression before it explodes, meaning that it’s less likely to explode in a piston before the spark plug sets it off. Because the gasoline has a high octane rating, gas companies charge more money for it.
What most people don’t know is that modern vehicle engines include a knock sensor which detects knocking and compensates by adjusting the amount of air included with the gasoline to prevent it from igniting prematurely.
There are two types of vehicles which can benefit from high octane gasoline. The first is the forty year old clunker, which has no knock sensor. The second is the ultra high-end fantasy car – we’re talking Lamborghini here – which has an engine designed to withstand gasoline compressed to extremes and convert the larger ignition into faster speeds.
So what’s the point of spending more money on premium gasoline for your fleet?
There isn’t any. Unless your fleet has record players for stereos or can hit 250 miles per hour on the highway, there’s no reason to buy premium gas.
Managing a fleet of any size requires timely information exchange between drivers and dispatch. Inefficient radio communication can slow customer service and turn dispatch offices and buses into stressful, noisy work environments.
Watch this short demo and learn how a Transit ITS solution makes driver/dispatcher communication a breeze with two-way text messaging, Automatic Vehicle Location, and safe cell phone capabilities. Click here to watch the demo.
A blog for those of us who live and work in fleet management. Topics include engine diagnostics, driver safety, mobile workforce management, CAD/AVL, vehicle maintenance, truck distribution, global computing, work order management, and field services.
Free White Paper: Decreasing Driver Distraction
With driver distraction being a leading cause of vehicle accidents, selecting an in-vehicle computer for your fleet that lets you control when drivers/device interaction is crucial to your fleet’s safety, as well as your bottom line.
