RIO’s services are now available without RIO-specific hardware to customers with a mixed fleet of trucks. Carriers can feed data from other telematics applications into the RIO system using the product Mixed Fleet Bridge. Once the Mixed Fleet Bridge has been configured, the industrial standard rFMS (remote Fleet Management System) communicates vehicle and driver information to the RIO fleet monitor. The Fleet Management Services of TRATON’s affiliated brand Scania and Dynafleet from Volvo are amongst the telematics providers that are supported by the Mixed Fleet Bridge.
A wide range of telematics systems are available on the market. Truck manufacturers also offer their own solutions. This presents companies that operate mixed fleets consisting of different brands of truck with a significant challenge as the vehicles could be depicted on different systems. The Mixed Fleet Bridge transmits the data from the other telematics systems to the RIO platform in a straightforward manner and without the need for a hardware upgrade. This is made possible by the rFMS standard, which some truck manufacturers have already introduced.
“The Mixed Fleet Bridge enables us to pull a wide range of different truck brands together into one system in a straightforward and non-proprietary manner. With the RIO platform, we are bridging the gap between the telematics system and carriers, as well as forwarders and goods recipients – and we can do that without retrofitting the RIO Box,” says Jan Kaumanns, CEO of RIO. “This gets us a significant step closer to our goal of connecting all parties involved in the supply chain and allows us to demonstrate our multi-brand capability. In light of the extensive disruption that the coronavirus is currently causing in the goods transport sector, the efficient flow of data has become even more important.”
No truck downtime during configuration process
Given the fact that the Mixed Fleet Bridge configuration process is an IT task, truck downtime is avoided. Vehicles no longer have to be taken to an authorised workshop to have hardware installed. This also means that unnecessary contact between technicians and drivers can be prevented, something that is very important in the midst of this coronavirus crisis. “The Mixed Fleet Bridge saves our customers hard cash: The costs for the hardware and for the process of installing the hardware at the workshop are eliminated,” says Martin Holzapfel, Product Owner at RIO. “With access to real-time data concerning the truck location, mileage, fuel level and the driver’s name, carriers are better able to manage their shipments and impress their clients with transparency along the supply chain.” Customers who would like to make use of additional RIO functions are still able to have their RIO Box retrofitted at any MAN workshop.
Open to all
“We are delighted that we have been able to support the telematics providers Scania Fleet Management Services and Dynafleet with the Mixed Fleet Bridge since last year. Thanks to the harmonisation of the industry standard rFMS this year, we are now in a position where we can make life a lot easier for mixed fleet operators. RIO is gradually becoming more and more hardware-independent. However, I still recommend that you have the RIO Box retrofitted in trucks that are not equipped with it as standard, as MAN trucks are. In that way, your entire fleet will be able to take full advantage of the RIO services,”
says RIO CEO Jan Kaumanns.
