VR-Rata Orders PivoTrack to Track and Follow the Effective Working Time of its Track-Maintenance Machines
08 July 2004 10:17
The track maintenance and building division of the finnish national railways, VR-Rata Oy, has ordered its first units of PivoTrack not only to follow the exact positions of their track maintenance machines, but also to follow the status of the machines.
In this way, VR-Rata is able to follow the progress of the work underway automatically from the office, no longer repeated telephone calls from the office to the machine only to ask where it is.
Also with the help of PivoTrack, the status of the machine can be followed. The exact effective working time and for example machine transfer time is sent by PivoTrack to the office, where detailed reports can be printed out or transferred to the company’s IT-system. This information is highly valuable for invoicing purposes, as the effective working time of the machines costs several thousands euro per hour
General Description of the System
PivoTrack offers railway companies a complete solution for tracking all of they assets and even personnel, if needed. The system is able to track objects wherever there is GSM coverage. With improved asset management, train operating companies will be able to reduce capital tied up in rolling stock and improve their profitability.
At the heart of the system is the location server, Nexus, and its database, which are normally situated in the railway company’s office premises. This location server is directly linked to a mobile phone operator’s text-message (SMS) centre. When one of the users of the tracking system makes a position request, a text message is sent from the location server to the mobile phone operator’s text-message centre and from there via a GSM network to the wagon. The GSM-GPS unit in the wagon (called Tamtron TB, TrackBox) receives the position request and answers with a short text message detailing the unit’s position, speed and direction. The precise position, up to approximately 10 metres, is retrieved by the unit from GPS satellites. The user sees the position of the unit on a detailed map on his/her computer screen .
There can be hundreds of users of the tracking system, each connected via the Internet, Intranet or Extranet to the location server. There is no limit to the number of objects being tracked, but to simplify the tracking, the objects (wagons) can be classified into groups.
Position and Mileage History for Improved Maintenance
The heart of the system, the location database, contains position and mileage history for each individual wagon. This information is very useful for determining the correct maintenance period for each wagon.
Alarms Provided by the System – TRAIN TRANSPORT MADE SAFER
The user of the system is able to define a geographical area in advance, and each time a wagon crosses the borders of this area, the user receives an alert on his computer screen.
If the wagon is equipped with sensors (shock, temperature, pressure etc.) connected to the Trackbox, the operator will receive an alert on his computer screen each time a wagon suffers from a serious shock, perhaps resulting in damage to the transported goods inside the wagon.
Likewise, the system can be used to raise an alarm each time the wagon door is opened, which is a very useful feature against theft.
Follow-up of Shipments by the Customers – Better Service to the Customers
Each customer is able to follow the progress of their shipment(s). This is made possible by providing an access code and a password to each customer, enabling them to track their shipments via the Internet. Customers can see the real-time location of their shipments on their computer screen.
For more information on this company:
Tamtron Systems - Weighing and Control Systems for the Railway Industry
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