City hoping to track vehicles electronically
High-tech system would monitor fleet’s position, speed and activity
A fire engine speeds down Saskatchewan Drive, sirens blaring. As it rushes toward an intersection, the traffic lights turn green. Another intersection, green lights again. One after another, green lights all the way to the fire.
That could be Regina in a few years, thanks to the magic of telematics. City administration wants to invest $700,000 in technology to monitor the position, speed and activities of most of its fleet of vehicles.
The system isn’t just for emergencies. Chris Fisher, director of Information Technology Services, said it will help city staff map out their garbage trucks, snow plows and street sweepers, and plot the best route for each one to take.
“It keeps track, in real time, of where they are going,” Fisher said.
“Let’s say one of our trucks breaks down, then other trucks can be rerouted to take on that route.”
That could even happen automatically, depending on which model the city chooses.
Administration hopes the system will save money in the long run, improve customer service and even avoid legal action. They’re looking for equipment that can detect speeding, seatbelt usage and braking habits, promoting what they call “better driver behaviour.”
“We can save money through less wear and tear on the vehicle and less fuel usage,” Fisher said. “This will then help us with that. We will be able to say ‘Why was this grader, or whatever, idling for 40 minutes? What was going on there?’ ”
On-board video will let staff verify resident complaints, he predicts. That could help clear drivers against false allegations — or the reverse.
“If someone says, ‘I saw this city truck race through a red light,’ we can then check the video and determine, well no, that truck wasn’t even in that area,” Fisher said.
A few city departments already use telematics. But technology differs between them. Council’s finance and administration committee now supports a rollout across most of the city fleet.
Committee members recently voted to recommend capital funding for the project, as part of a list of items that require early approval before next year’s budget.
A one-system-fits-all approach will help departments co-ordinate, the thinking goes, with all the needed information right there on a single screen.
“Ultimately, we could access it all at one time in order to integrate things,” said project manager Larry Eirich.
“A good example would be when we do get fire-truck-traffic-signal pre-emption. It’s the traffic department and fire department working together to make sure that works.”
He said the fire department is “anxious” to get the technology but isn’t at the top of the priority list. It’s likely to get bumped by solid waste removal. Eirich said it could be three to five years before the whole system is up and running.
“We want to walk before we can run,” he said.
It should take about two years for the city to make up its investment, Eirich estimates. After that, the savings will carry forward for years.
ROBOT SURVEYORS
Telematics is only one of the high-tech purchases the finance and administration committee voted for last week. It also recommended a $110,000 outlay for technology that lets one surveyor do the work of two.
The money will pay to replace aging survey equipment with robotic geodimeters, which automatically scan work sites and piece together a 3-D image.
The city’s geospatial solutions branch manager, Juliana Wafula, said the new units will help the city keep up with a busy construction season in 2018.
“We have a lot more work that we’re going to be doing this year,” she said. “So being able to have this technology, we can do more with the same amount of staff.”
Her branch bought its first robotic geodimeter this summer. She said it’s so popular among city crews that supervisors have to rotate it around, so everyone gets a chance.
The units can survey a structure without anyone ever stepping foot on it, saving workers the need to venture into dangerous areas.
“It’s safe and faster,” Wafula said. “it’s able to process a lot of data very efficiently.”
The committee’s recommendations are only a first step, and both proposals will still have to go before a full city council meeting.
We will be able to say ‘Why was this grader, or whatever, idling for 40 minutes? What was going on there?’