New fleet management system launched to track vehicles

The Planning Section in Dubai Municipality has launched a new fleet management system called Al Rasid to track the official vehicles in service in the field.

In the first phase, the system will be implemented in the official vehicles of the department, and in the next phases it will be introduced by other departments of the municipality and later on a commercial basis between other government departments and establishments and private sector companies.

The system is being introduced with the support of Dubai Technologies. Ahmed Rafeea, director of Dubai Technologies gave a presentation on the new system at the City Hall of Dubai Municipality yesterday.

The new online system can track the movement of the vehicles through an electronic map of the different areas of the city.

The vehicles would be equipped with a mobile communication terminal manufactured in Dubai by a national company, Xcom Electronics Industries.

The equipment, operated through the GSM network (Global System for Mobile Communications) on the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) system, not only provide the location of the vehicle but also can be used to send and receive messages to and from the drivers.

"This is basically for managing the vehicles used for inspections and other official purposes," said Rafeea.

Yousuf Al Marzouqi, head of Mapping and Control Unit in the Survey Section, said that the mapping for this system was started in 2000 aimed at enhancing the productivity level of the employees working in the field and for maximum utilisation of their time.

"The system shows us the location of our vehicles. We can also send messages sitting in the office telling them to cover other areas which are near to them," said Al Marzouqi.

"This helps reduce duplication of work and also save fuel. It also helps in tracking the assignment given to a particular employee. You can check whether he has finished his duties," Al Marzouqi added.

Monitoring official vehicle movement
* The location, speed, and situation of the vehicles can be tracked. It can be tracked by the name of drivers, number of the vehicle and by locality.

* The number of vehicles in one locality can be found by entering the name of the area.

* Using a facility called fencing, one particular area can be marked and the entry of an official vehicle can be found out immediately.

* The archives system helps you to take the report of a particular vehicle on a particular day. It gives you the starting time, the route covered, and the ending time. The equipment can also be used to send and receive messages to and from the drivers.