Calgary AB, January 28, 2013

Mentor Engineering Inc. is pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to be acquired by Trapeze Group (Trapeze), a subsidiary of Constellation Software’s (TSX:CSU) Volaris Group with the expectation of the acquisition to close on January 31, 2013.

Mentor’s fixed route, paratransit & taxi solutions are a strong complement to Trapeze’s public transit solution set. While already currently working together in over 70 transit properties across North America, this acquisition can help further strengthen the integrated product offering to the public transit market.

Trapeze Group’s sister company AssetWorks, a leading provider of fleet management software, automated fuel management systems and motor pool and car sharing management systems, provides a strong complement to Mentor’s fleet management business which is focused on the oil/gas field service, construction, trucking & waste management industries.

“We are excited at the opportunities that arise from joining forces with Trapeze and its sister company AssetWorks. The synergies among the companies are excellent and can provide avenues for expanded offerings and growth in our core markets,” said Gord Howell, President of Mentor Engineering. “We look forward to continuing to have close customer relationships and delivering quality products in our new home.”

About Trapeze Group

Trapeze delivers solutions that consider the full 360 degrees of passenger transport. Whether addressing the needs of a single department, an entire organization, or the community, Trapeze provides some of the most advanced software, intelligent transportation systems and mobile technologies in the industry. Hundreds of government and commercial organizations across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific have turned to Trapeze to realize efficiencies, enhance the quality and scope of their services, and safely transport more people with less cost. Please visit www.trapezegroup.com or call 905.629.5297.

About Assetworks

AssetWorks is a leading supplier of fleet enterprise asset management software and implementation services and automated fuel management systems provider in North America, with more than 500 software customers and more than 85 Automated Fuel System Customers. AssetWorks solutions enable fleet organizations to improve maintenance practices, streamline operations, and improve accountability for mission-critical transportation assets. For more information, please visit www.assetworks.com.

CALGARY, AB — January 8, 2013

Mentor Engineering is pleased to announce that Mentor IntelliFleet’s IntelliWeb module now integrates with a mobile taxi app by Fleetbit to deliver a mobile and Internet trip booking option for taxi riders. Now riders can book a trip instantly using their iPhone, Android, Blackberry or via SMS text messaging. They can also track their taxi’s location and estimated arrival time on their mobile device.

“Giving riders this mobile app option is important for taxi agencies who want to stay competitive in this industry because it’s something riders are starting to demand,” says Mentor’s Taxi Manager, Ron Boulton.

Amid current concerns that mobile taxi apps are reaping the benefits of established taxi brand names and reputations, while bypassing the company call centers, the Fleetbit app is an option that lets the taxi company stay in control because it integrates with existing in-office automated taxi dispatching software.

As Ron explains: “Mobile booking is opening up a new world in the taxi industry with so many riders asking for this service, but maintaining control in order to uphold industry regulations and ensure the safety of both drivers and passengers is important. What’s great about Mentor’s mobile app option is that all mobile activities are tracked and regulated by the taxi agency. It’s simply another way that riders can hail a taxi and it helps agencies win more customers and keep the ones they’ve got.”

The popularity of Fleetbit’s mobile booking app is well established, with over 90% of passengers coming back after using the app once. When a taxi company chooses the mobile booking and website option, their online site is individually designed to match their company’s established look so that brand image is maintained.

IntelliWeb can be added to any existing IntelliFleet system, making this mobile app option easily available to both existing and new taxi clients.

Learn more about mobile booking with IntelliWeb.

Mentor IntelliFleet®

Mentor IntelliFleet is an automated dispatch system designed specifically to deal with the day-to-day operational realities of taxi organizations. This all-in-one software suite provides call takers, dispatchers, and managers with a comprehensive set of tools to help them perform their jobs more efficiently and accurately.

CALGARY, AB — December 13, 2012

Mentor Engineering today announced that it has been selected to provide several agencies with comprehensive Intelligent Transportation Systems to help them better manage operations and enhance customer service. Mentor is pleased to welcome the following transit organizations:

Capital Area Rural Transportation (CARTS) in Austin, TX, has been a long-time Mentor paratransit client. Now, CARTS will be implementing Mentor’s fixed route solution, which includes the Mentor MyRide® passenger information system. With MyRide, passengers are able to get real-time schedule and bus information anywhere, at any time. Mentor’s solution will also be integrated with the RideCARTS card, a pre-paid electronic fare card.

Pueblo Transit in Pueblo, CO, is installing Mentor’s fixed route solution which features Mentor Streets® software at head office. Mentor Streets lets office staff track buses on AVL maps, manage events, create reports and monitor routes. Pueblo Transit will also be providing automated stop updates to onboard LED signs with Mentor’s T-Box® annunciator.

Transit Authority of River City (TARC) in Louisville, KY, has a 90-vehicle fleet that is being upgraded with Mentor Ranger 4.0 to better serve its five-county transit area. Mentor Ranger, a rugged mobile computer, will help TARC deliver on-time service by enabling on-demand trips, real-time communication between drivers and dispatchers, and automating data collection.

Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE), operated by Veolia Transportation in Garden City, NY, is replacing their older Mobile Data Computers (MDTs) with Mentor Ranger 4.0 in their 100 paratransit buses, and deploying Mentor Fleet® in the office. Mentor Fleet equips managers with vehicle tracking, driver monitoring to manage behaviors such as speeding, idling or dangerous driving, and powerful reporting tools.

“We are very pleased to partner with these agencies to help them maximize efficiencies and give their riders the best service possible. We look forward to growing with them in the future,” says Brent Freer, Director of Sales at Mentor Engineering.

Learn more about Mentor’s fixed route solution Learn more about Mentor’s paratransit solution

Note: The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners

CALGARY, AB — November 30, 2012

Mike Koebel, Mentor Engineering’s VP of Sales and Business Development, recently sat down with Gas, Oil and Mining Contractor Magazine to talk about how Mobile Workforce Management solutions can benefit oil and gas companies. He touches on vehicle and asset tracking, solutions to adhere to Hours of Service legislation, and ways to keep employees safer with tools like an Intrinsically-safe Work-alone pendant.

Read the full article here

CALGARY, AB — November 23, 2012

Mentor Engineering joins the Viewpoint Development Partner Program to deliver easier fleet tracking, work order management, driver monitoring and maintenance solutions to construction organizations. The partnership will offer Viewpoint customers more transparency with their fleet activities, allowing them to make more informed decisions to increase efficiencies and optimize equipment usage.

Take a look at the full press release

CALGARY, AB — October 18, 2012

Serving communities in Butte County, California, the Butte County Association of Governments (BCAG), provides urban and rural fixed route and paratransit service through the B-Line (Butte Regional Transit). Looking to improve efficiency and customer experience in their large service area, the B-Line chose to implement a technology system from Mentor Engineering to help them achieve their goals.

For the paratransit operation, Mentor Ranger® in-vehicle computers are installed on the buses. Electronic manifests have allowed the B-Line to significantly reduce the amount of paper they use and, with accurate status and location information now available, on-time performance is easier to track and analyze.

Mentor Streets®, an all-in-one transit technology solution, runs the fixed route side of the B-Line. Streets provides Computer Aided-Dispatch (CAD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), scheduling, and reporting software in the office. On the bus, Rangers keep drivers on-time and collect bus location information. Mentor’s T-Box® annunciator provides automated stop announcements and controls on-board signs to make the B-Line user friendly for both hearing and visually impaired passengers.

Streets comes equipped with powerful analytics and reporting tools to help transit agencies improve operations. One of these, the Schedule Adherence report, has been instrumental in helping the B-Line meet their efficiency goals. According to Robin Van Valkenburgh, Transit Manager at the B-Line, “Being able to drill down into the performance of the routes by driver or by run allows us to gauge the efficacy of the run time by stops, the performance of the driver, and the entire route timing. It’s invaluable in terms of providing direct information to how the route is running and if it’s set up correctly.”

The B-Line has been able to achieve better on-time performance with this technology and, as a result, have experienced unprecedented ridership growth. Van Valkenburgh explains, “This past year, which is the first full year of service with the changes we made based on Streets-provided data, we saw an 11% increase in ridership. We also had our highest ever ridership rate.”

Going forward, the B-Line is planning to use the real-time data generated by Streets to provide their ridership with up-to-the minute ETAs via wayside signs at transfer centers, and ultimately make trip and travel planning with accurate data available to passengers.

Learn more about Butte Regional Transit's experience

CALGARY, AB — October 02, 2012

The City of Fayetteville has implemented a technology solution from Mentor Engineering to address the diverse needs of their transit, police and fire fleets.

The City of Fayetteville chose to work with Mentor Engineering because of their wide range of product offerings. Melissa Coleman, IT Project Manager for the City of Fayetteville explains, “Mentor could provide a scalable enterprise solution, not just a transit system, and they could do it all. It was also important that the solution be able to expand to other vehicles and departments in the future.”

Mentor Streets® Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) software suite was chosen for the fixed route transit operation.

For the Paratransit Fleet, Mentor Engineering provided a custom integration between the rugged Mentor Ranger® computers in the vehicles and Trapeze Novus software in the office.

Coleman reports, “The system lets the transit dispatchers know where everything is, so if a paratransit client calls wondering where their ride is, the dispatchers can easily look and tell the customer exactly how far away the bus is.”

The public safety fleet, which includes 125 police vehicles and 60 fire trucks, was outfitted with Mentor BBX vehicle tracking devices which provide real-time location information to Mentor Streets and OSSI Public Safety Software in the dispatch office.

Using the vehicle tracking functionality, “we are able to send the closest unit available to save on routing and cut down on response time minutes,” says Coleman.

With Streets, Fayetteville staff can see the locations of all the city vehicles —transit, fire and police—on one map.

“The system has made the biggest difference in reducing overtime and increasing employee efficiency”, explains Coleman, “And for the emergency responders, it’s all about cutting down on arrival times.”

Learn more about The City of Fayetteville's experience

CALGARY, AB — September 25, 2012

Mentor Engineering is pleased to announce the release of XMobile Manager 3.5 (XMM), the latest version of Mentor’s secure and easy-to-use software for Mobile Device Management (MDM). XMM eliminates the costs and time associated with manually updating mobile devices installed in fleet vehicles. XMM 3.5 features new functionality designed to facilitate optimal fleet management processes and allow users to be instantly notified of any issues that may occur in the fleet.

A powerful fleet dashboard provides users with widgets that show fleet-wide issues and statistics. Widgets are customizable and users can drill down to granular levels of information, as well as create multiple dashboards to better group related information.

When critical events occur, a notification system emails support staff and a redesigned log viewer displays the event timeline and allows users to jump to the exact location of a critical event in the log to provide fast troubleshooting.

XMM tracks all software installed on mobile devices so fleet managers always know that only approved software is running. If an incompatible update is incorrectly attempted, XMM will notice the error and prevent the update, ensuring device security. XMM also facilitates the verification of all software updates on a small group of devices before fleet-wide distribution begins. This confirms that software updates are working as expected before they are applied to the entire fleet.

A study conducted by VDC Research Group indicates that implementing an MDM solution can save an organization over $230 per mobile device per year in support costs. Extending this figure to an organization with 1,000 units translates into a savings of over $1.1 million over a five year span.1

Learn more about XMobile Manager

CALGARY, AB — September 18, 2012

Mentor Engineering announces the release of Mentor Reports, a comprehensive business analytics tool. Integrated with Mentor Fleet®, a comprehensive fleet management solution, and Mentor Streets® transit software, Reports provides fleet-based and transit companies valuable insight into their operations with simple drag-and-drop reporting functionality.

With its easy-to-use interface, Reports allows users to run template reports, adjust template reports to better suit their needs, or create custom reports from scratch. Because Reports uses data and terminology common to the user’s business, there is no need for any previous report-building or database experience.

With Mentor Reports, reports can be generated and distributed to recipients within or outside the organization. Distribution can be scheduled (e.g., once a week) or can be automatically triggered when data within a specific report changes. Reports can be distributed in a wide variety of formats, including PDF and Excel.

Additionally, the reports generated by Mentor Reports are dynamic, allowing the data to be easily summed, averaged, sorted, and much more. Drill-down and drill-through capability make detailed views readily accessible. For example, users can simply click drill-down on the year in a report to see a break-down by month, and then continue down to week, day, and hour.

“We are excited to offer Mentor Reports as a new way to help clients dive deeper into business analytics and reporting. With the ability to easily customize reports and to build new reports from scratch, customers have the ability to view the exact information that is relevant to them, whenever they want to see it,” says Chris Pettigrew, Product Manager at Mentor.

Mentor Fleet:
Mentor Fleet is a mobile workforce management solution that puts fleet management and driver monitoring at your fingertips. Tailored to each client’s unique business environment, the solution delivers Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL/GPS), work order management, driver behavior and lone worker monitoring, reporting, maintenance, and hours of service capabilities.

Mentor Streets:
Mentor Streets® is a fully integratedCAD/AVL software suite and passenger information system that was developed for agencies to make their entire organization more efficient, keep their buses on schedule and their passengers on time. In addition to streamlining their operations, agencies that use Streets transportation technology gain in other areas, such as real-time route/schedule adherence, automated reporting, easy scheduling and integrated passenger information options.

CALGARY, AB — June 18, 2012

Mentor Engineering is pleased to announce the release of Mentor Ranger 4.0, the newest version of Mentor’s flagship rugged in-vehicle computer. A powerful component of Mentor’s mobile workforce and fleet management solutions, Ranger facilitates the real-time electronic dispatching of work orders and job time tracking. In-vehicle navigation, vehicle tracking, and instant communication help fleets reach peak efficiency. Ranger also works as an electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) to easily manage Hours of Service (HOS) requirements and provides lone worker safety functionality.

Ranger 4.0 monitors speeding and features an integrated G-force sensor for tracking unsafe driver behaviors such as hard braking, acceleration and swerving. New internal antennas are tamper-proof, take up less space in the vehicle and lead to simpler, more cost-effective installation. Ranger 4.0 is Bluetooth and Wifi enabled and integrated Can-Bus connectivity provides engine data collection and reporting. Ethernet and extra ports provide clients with the flexibility they need for system integration and the ability to operate in extreme temperatures ensures Ranger can be deployed from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between. Built rugged to last in the harsh vehicle environment, Ranger 4.0 is rated MIL STD 810F for shock and vibration.

"With the release of Ranger 4.0, Mentor will deliver the rugged mobile computing power our clients rely on, with the addition of even greater flexibility to manage all their needs with one device, saving space, time and money," says Mike Koebel, VP Sales/Business Development at Mentor Engineering. “Ranger’s ability to track and monitor unsafe driving behaviors will provide fleet-based businesses with concrete information to address these critical issues.”