How Concepts-Online works
A device, called a Vehicle Location Unit (VLU), is fitted discreetly to a vehicle. The box is powered from the electrical circuitry of the vehicle and has an antenna system attached to it.
The box uses two systems in order to function correctly. The first is the GPS navigation service that is provided by a series of satellites in orbit around the Earth. The box is "listening" to these satellites and constantly calculating its position. The second system is the GPRS facility provided by the mobile phone networks, we currently use Vodafone. This is used to "transmit" information about the vehicle.
We have a number of different antenna solutions to enable us to fit any vehicle. Generally these are fitted internally out of sight, however on certain vehicles, mostly large commercial trucks, it is necessary to fit these to the outside of the vehicle.
The box is programmed to monitor the ignition circuit of the vehicle and to send back information every 2 minutes. It does this all the time that the vehicle has its ignition on. When the ignition is turned off the box goes to sleep until ignition is restored.
The information is sent to the Concepts-Online server, this information consists of the vehicle identity, location (in terms of a grid reference), speed and direction of travel. The server collects and collates this information and from appopriate software on your pc you is able to view information on the server via the Internet. The viewer can "see" all vehicles all the time when logged on, look at all the vehicles on different maps in REAL TIME. You can create historic replays of journeys also on a map. Being a real time system we are able to "Alert" the user of arrival/departure or vehicle condition (door openings, PTO operation or other telematic inputs) as they happen.
An inclusive function of the system is the report manager, where the user is able to create, read and store written reports of vehicle movements for later analysis. This can be done at anytime or "scheduled" to be emailed directly from the server.
The system is generally provided on a fixed term contract with fixed costs. The agreement includes all hardware, installation, system set up and training and all running costs associated with the system.
