Fleet Squirrel Case Study

Custom GPS Tracking Software

Future Quest Wireless Inc., an exclusive Canada-wide distributor of the iTRAK product suite — provides the mobile workforce with cutting edge wireless technology for monitoring their fleets in real time. iTRAK is a web-based GPS vehicle tracking and fleet management suite that offers fleet owners improved service to customers, lower fuel consumption, and substantially reduced costs from billing errors, driver overtime, and driver-management communication.

In 2007, Future Quest appointed Deversus to help design, architect, and build a desktop-based data archiving tool for the iTRAK product suite. Because on its web-based nature, the iTRAK product is only capable of storing 60 days of position data. This limits fleet owners from performing reports on state-mileage, vehicle maintenance, and driver history that often require looking more than 60 days in the past. Based on client requests, Future Quest aimed to build a desktop-based version of the iTRAK product that would retrieve data from the iTRAK servers, archive it in a local database stored on the client's computer, and allow fleet owners to perform reports on said local data, regardless of its age.

After just four months in development, Future Quest and Deversus had the first working version of Fleet Squirrel - the desktop-based supplement to the web-based iTRAK product suite. Fleet Squirrel enabled fleet owners to archive data from the iTRAK servers at any desired frequency - whether realtime, hourly, daily, or weekly. The locally stored data could then be visualized in the form of vehicle positions drawn on a map, or in comprehensive fleet/vehicle reports. The unparalleled efficiency of Fleet Squirrel enabled fleet owners to generate reports in a fraction of the time required to generate the same reports using the web-based version of the product. Better still, there were no longer any constraints on the age of the data being reported.

As a result of the added benefits in the efficiency, capacity, and flexibility of the desktop-based version of iTRAK, Future Quest began to see demand for a more enhanced version of Fleet Squirrel. Phase two of the product was born - adding more enhanced reports such as vehicle input/output monitoring, driver/vehicle assignment, realtime vehicle status, landmark entry/exit, as well as multiple client support (client-server connectivity), and support for direct communication with GPS tracking hardware. Fleet Squirrel has since evolved into a powerful product that may be used in tandem with the web-based product suite, or as a standalone fleet management application. Deversus and Future Quest continue to collaborate with the development of Fleet Squirrel, with intent of further enhancing the application and integrating with other products.

Technologies Used:

.NET 2.0 (C#)
.NET Remoting
SQL Server 2005
HTTP
TCP/IP
XML

Project Screenshots

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Real-time Vehicle Location Icons

The location of each driver/vehicle is shown on the map in real-time. Fleet managers may choose to display real-time positions by fleet or vehicle type.

Vehicle Position History

Dynamically drawn breadcrumbs indicate show any vehicle's position at any point in time. Flexible reporting options allow fleet managers to show vehicle positions on the map by driver, vehicle type, or vehicle number.

Extensive Configuration Capabilities

iFE contains extensive configuration capabilties that allow fleet managers to store important information for each fleet, vehicle, tracking device, driver, and assignment.

Assignment Configuration

iFE's easy-to-use driver-vehicle assignment feature enables fleet managers to schedule tracking devices to drivers, drivers to vehicles, and vehicles to fleets.

Powerful Stop Reports

iFE's powerful Stop Reports provide fleet managers with accurate indicators of driver productivity, fuel efficiency, and vehicle whereabouts. iFE's powerful reporting engine is able to efficiently calculate, reverse geocode and report each given stop from an extremely large data set in a very short period of time.

Overspeed Reports

iFE's Overspeed Reports allow fleet managers to track when, where, and the speed at which drivers were speeding. Overspeed settings may be configured for each individual vehicle, so fleet managers can report accordingly. The Overspeed Reports allow fleet managers to ensure driver and public safety, as well as fuel efficiency.

Detailed Reporting

iFE's Detailed Reporting feature gives fleet managers the ability to exactly where drivers were, how fast they were going, and what triggered the report for any point in time.

Activity/Mileage Reports

iFE's Activity Report summarizes a massive amount of data into one extremely useful report. The Activity Report allows fleet managers to see exactly when a driver or vehicle started working for the day, how long they worked, how much time was spent driving, how much time was spent stopped, and how many times they sped.

Play-by-Play Driver Simulation

iFE's Play-by-Play Driver Simulation replays each data point for the specified time period, allowing fleet owners to quickly visualize exactly which routes drivers take, how fast they drove, and how many times they stopped.