13 School Children Killed in Kushinagar School Bus -Train Collision; Toll May Rise

One of the most disheartening and unfortunate morning NEWS that hit the headlines today is “Death of 13 school students while their school bus collided with a train at an unmanned crossing in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar” It has been learnt that the driver could not hear the sound of the passenger train as he had ear phones plugged in while driving the vehicle, according to media reports.

This incident could have been avoided. The biggest question is whose mistake it was?

• The school administration who let the school bus drivers do such reckless driving and do not monitor their driving behavior?
• The traffic police who is not there at duty on such early hours’ time to take strict actions on irresponsible driving to avoid such incidences?
• Railways who runs unmanned rail crossing on path of school?
• Parents who let their kids board the school buses even if they are overloaded and let the irresponsible behavior of drivers like using earphones while driving unnoticed?

Probably everyone played a role here. But the plight and pain of parents who lost their kids in this incident is inexplicable. What about the fear of those parents who send their kids to school considering they are safe. Answers to such questions related to safety of school kids while traveling with school cabs should not be looked upon after such mishaps occur but there must be some strict norms to be followed at all levels to ensure the safety of India’s bright future:-

1. What Schools Needs to Ensure: It’s the tech era. The schools should adopt technology to ensure kids safety while commuting in school buses. There are fleet management devices to track driver behavior, monitoring bus movement, which can SMS alert after pick-up/ dropping-off the students in schools/ bus-stops and with many more such features. Getting driver verification done is not the only parameter for safety of school kids commuting through school buses. Strict actions should be taken by school administration on reckoning any slip-up by drivers.

2. Traffic Police Responsibility: Traffic police should be present on all such unmanned crossings to strictly regulate the traffic norms.

3. Railways Approach: India is moving towards Bullet Trains and there are still unmanned crossings. Railways should upgrade themselves especially when such crossings are near schools where small kids cross them every day.

4. Parents Alertness Required: Parents should complain to school authorities on noticing any wrong driving behavior or lack of discipline in driver and should not send their kids on vehicle where kids are put like luggage overloaded with maximum capacity. If during any pick-up of kids any of the parent would have objected the driver on using ear-phones while driving or would have spoken to school authority to take action on such indiscipline this could have been avoided.

The loss is irreparable and our deep condolences are with parents who lost their kids in this unfortunate accident. Hope, strict actions will be taken by taking lessons from this incident and we will not hear any such mishaps in future.

Written  By:
Swapnil Saxena

The Compulsive Need for Comprehensive Fleet Management Data

Fleet Management is an intricate process and many a times fleet managers misinterpret their fleet efficiency, which draws them to take decisions on the basis of apparent costs involved instead of wide-ranging fleet management data. While the fleet managers feel that they are more or less in control of the costs, yet the chances are that they may have been ignorant about certain aspects of fleet data without which the real cost of the fleet management cannot be calculated! So the question, which arises here is- how can fleet data be obtained that will enable the fleet manager to put to the best use to maximize fleet efficiency?

Many fleet managers overlook vital fleet data like idle time for a particular vehicle or a set of vehicles. It is this data that can spin around fortunes in favor of the organization. But the naivety and ignorance about the fleet management data fails many in taking effective decisions.

 

Thus, it is imperative to have data for the smooth functioning and management of the overall fleet and take critical business decisions. Let us delve into the reasons that explain the importance of fleet management data. Here we go:

1. Weak Reporting

If you are facing challenges in completing a report in detail and are unable to squeeze vital inputs like service history data, future purchases, and asset retirement, you know you have a weak report that misses out this vital data. No doubts guessing that without comprehensive data it is absolutely difficult to prepare such reports. Had you mapped the total miles driven for the pre-defined time or the rules broken by drivers through the journey, you would have been in a position to answer the same. Every detail is important in lieu of collating data across the fleet. Concise fleet data is a must to guarantee compliance. This can be achieved with the use of various tools like MS Excel and other high end software readily available in the market and helps in preparing business reports for planning, reviewing and budgeting. However, the mandatory requirement is that the Fleet Management software should provide the facility to track these vital data for you, from which you could extract the requisite data and conduct the analysis in MS Excel. There are many companies which provide Fleet Management Software which can help in achieving this.

2. Repair Decisions

It's so simple to answer questions about a vehicle that needs to be fixed or repaired. However, how about dealing with bosses who shower a volley of unexpected questions like:

1.    What's the impact of the repair of this particular vehicle on the profits?

2.    What's the degree of repair requirement - minimum or maximum?

3.    Is repairing the vehicle better than a replacement?

4.    Describe the cycle of failure between the next repair window?

5.    How much time is wasted while the vehicle remains at the repairing center and is fit to assume charge?

Such questions are thrown back at the data analysts by the fleet managers and the process takes a while, hence, a lot of time is wasted. However, if only the data is streamlined and process automated, it will help in easy maintenance and extraction thereby saving a lot of time.

3. Incorrect Fuel Information

One of the toughest challenges faced by the fleet managers is the correct record of fuel expenses, which come handy during budgeting, planning and mitigation. The volatility of fuel prices makes it all the more difficult to keep a track record manually, which in turn is a requisite for cost-management strategy. Real time fuel updates include total consumption, excess and under mileage calculations. This is yet another hassle for the management. Thus, the compulsive need for comprehensive data arises as it forms an important part of cost-reduction solutions. However, a modern fleet management solution takes care of all the dynamic cost analysis and helps sort your business needs.

4. Optimum Use of the Vehicles

As and when the fleet grows, it is important for an organization to track the usability of its vehicles and to ensure that the vehicles of the fleet are used optimally such that the case of one vehicle is not being used at all while the other vehicle being preferred for all the duties, resulting into extensive use. This need should be managed by your Fleet Management Software.  So long as the comprehensive data is missing, fleet managers will have a tough time in checking, which vehicles are lying idle in the parking space and which ones are used extensively. Hence the need for a viable fleet management solution is a must to keep a tab on all the vehicles and ensure that every vehicle is used to the best of its capability.

Air pollution from traffic congestion is shortening our lives!

What are we doing to fight with it?

India is a multi-cultural, religious and lingual society where various communities thrive in harmony with each other. No matter how different the habits of all the people living in this country are from one another, there is a common sentiment that echoes amid them. This is about the concern for everlasting air pollution in the country! Irrespective of regions people are staying all are becoming progressively fretful about the environment they are living in and the consistent burden added to it by the gases emitted from increasing number of vehicles on roads, industries and other sources. Air pollution needs to be dealt with iron fist & robust wit! Are you worried?

All are worried about the fast paced growth of pollution but the question here is what can be the best alternative solution that can best fit their lifestyles and also balance eco-system for us and for our coming generation. After all isn't Gen Y entitled to clean air?

Various cities across India are coming up with innovative ideas for reducing the level of pollution in the environment and make the daily life of citizen’s pollution and traffic free. These innovators are not just coming up with brilliant ideas and services to offer, they are also educating, informing and motivating people for using better alternative to avoid the hazards of pollution, which certainly is wreaking havoc beyond explanation on the overall health and wealth of our surroundings and its people.

Delhi, the national capital, for example, experimented with the odd even formula on private vehicles. This odd-even drive rule, whose pilot phase was implemented for 15 days as a New Year resolution from January 1 to January 15, 2016 witnessed a mix bag of responses. Although it's impact on curbing pollution was marginal but it was a huge success in cutting road traffic. Delhi people welcomed it with open heart with a staunch fervor. Based on its success, the 'odd-even' policy will be back in force from April 15 to 30. This time the government is more prepared to deal with the overwhelming demand. The idea has infused a new ray of hope among Delhi people.

Likewise, the neighboring city Gurgaon, the tech hub of North, conceived the idea of declaring Tuesdays as car-free days in the city. This surely has promoted the idea of carpooling and sharing bus rides on the said days. This has instilled not only a sense of responsibility in the common citizens about their environment but has also encouraged them for sharing and caring for the society in a span.

Equally, various car aggregators like Ola and Uber have come up with car share concepts that allow corporate to hitch-hike their ride to workplace.

Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India has seen an influx of people from all over the world thronging its premises for greener pastures. The cosmopolitan city has, over the few years, lost its charm as the green and peaceful city of India. Traffic congestion has become a norm and regular deforestation to accommodate various infrastructure projects has made way for felling of trees adding to the soaring temperatures and pollution.

However, of late the battle between various car aggregators has turned even hotter with the launch of JustRide that is offering the sweet deal of hiring a car for INR 4,000 a week. This move is to promote the concept of carpooling amongst corporates and dissuade individuals to buy a new car. Their aim is to ensure lesser cars on the roads, lesser pollution and clean air on the city roads.

All these novel ideas make sense in the present scenario and by engaging and encouraging people to share a ride and help contribute to the cleaner environment in their own small way!

Written  By:

Sakshi A Mattoo

Content Specialist

Fleet Robo

Waterproof GPS Tracker

Technology is blissful. One such tech wonder that is indeed a gift to mankind is GPS Tracker. While most of us know about the commonly used GPS Tracker Devices in everyday life, many are unaware about the amazing Waterproof GPS Tracker Devices pumping a million hopes in lives and businesses! Whether you know it or not, the cardinal truth is that these devices are widely accepted and used across industry lines and business domains. These devices penetrate spheres where human intervention is hard all thanks to their resilient nature. Most of these rugged, tough, powerful and easy-to-handle GPS devices use customized hardware structures, components and microchips.

..... Read More About Waterproof GPS Tracker

Telematics Shaping the Future of Automotive Technology

Telematics has brought a new angle to the way we think and perceive transportation. Today automotive technology works in unison with telecommunications, computer science, electronics and informatics to deliver optimum user experience in terms of performance, safety and connectivity. But experts from the field state that a lot of developments are about to take place in the next five years that will surpass the progress being made in the last 50 years. The main areas of automotive technology where telematics will be implemented for the betterment include smart phone connectivity, driver-assistance, autonomous driving mode, navigation, infotainment, V2I (vehicle-to-internet), V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) and M2M (machine-to-machine) communications.

Future of Automotive Technology with Telematics

The vast magnitude of change that the automobile sector is about to experience in the near future can be summarized in following points:

• Autonomous Driving Mode: The real-life Batmobile that drives and parks without human involvements has been in the pipeline of big business like Google and Volvo for quite a while now. Top-notch automobile organizations are now seriously considering launching the first road-ready autonomous/ driverless car once they are able to finalize such a car model for the local masses, keeping their technological grasp in mind.
• Internet of Cars: Bluetooth, GPS and FM connectivity is already available in most of the cars nowadays. The next step is providing Internet connection such that one can also use the car as high-speed router that lets you tweet, chat, view and listen all the audios and videos that you would with your regular smartphone or dongle internet connection. It will also provide better safety and connectivity since all the cars in a specific network (of Internet of Cars) will be able to sense the presence of another vehicle on their route and hence will be able to avoid collisions and fatal accidents.
• In-Car Infotainment: Not that the current multi-touch features with surround sound, navigation and rich -multimedia is not impressive enough but the arrival of smartphones have brought a new twist to this aspect too with Apple, Google and Microsoft signing multi-million deals with car manufacturers and offering their exclusive IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) systems in the form of CarPlay, Android Auto and Metro respectively that integrates the smartphone with the vehicle and extent the IVI capabilities beyond expectations.
• Advance Sensor Activity: Humans are prone to err but behind the wheels it may prove to be fatal for them as well as for others who are travelling with them. In order to prevent such mishaps, researchers are focusing on developing such sensors that can track the heart rate, brain activity, eye movement and alcohol level in the blood stream of the driver such that it can notify the driver to rectify it if it is higher or lower than the required level and the driver lies at the risk of falling asleep or unconscious (in case of too much alcohol consumption). These advanced sensor can also alarm the concerned nearby authorities in case the driver is not responding to the constant alerts.
• Remote Car Diagnosis and Repair: The next generation of automobiles will come with integrated smart-system that will be able to predict and schedule regular car repairs, while keeping you in loop with scheduled car servicing that it will be able to make via its advanced technology. This will save both time and money for you without any out of the blue car damage that end up with you stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Telematics is aimed at exploring the unforeseen potential of automobile industry and bringing forward more user - friendly, safer and advanced way for people to travel and almost eliminate the element of error that results in damages to the driver, car and the surroundings by automatizing every possible aspect of the driving experience and integrating it with the reliable network of internet of cars to avoid both major and minor troubles.

How can Cab service providers improve women safety?

Relevant Govt. agencies has ordered for installing GPS Tracking Devices yet the organization flout the legal guidelines which raise security concerns. The Tracking device can help in avoiding the crime against women thus save the organization from unnecessary hassle and shame of poor standards. Here are few advantages you get with GPS Tracking devices:

1. Real Time Vehicle Tracking

2. SOS Panic Button for Women and Children at Rear Seat

3. Way-Point Setting

4. Geo Fencing

.....Read More How can Cab service providers improve women safety?

The Next Big Thing in Vehicle Telematics – Connected Cars

The world saw the advent Smart Phones, Smart Devices & Smart Electronics, and now we are entering in an epoch of Smart Automotive. Vehicle Telematics (the usage of ICT and telecommunication) has proliferated opportunities for automation in Transportation and Logistics Industry. The burgeoning advancement in telematics is soon expected to create an ecosystem of Smart Automobiles.

.....Read More Here The Next Big Thing in Vehicle Telematics – Connected Cars