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Not all the European OEMs are ready to pounce on our buoyant local Fleet Management market with brand-specific Telematics systems. According to Volvo, Southern Africa's marketing director, Graham Thompson: "The Volvo system called Dynafleet has been designed for use primarily in European markets and is focused on providing live Fleet Management information for vehicles. It is not ideal for use in South Africa as it does not take into account the local circumstances of high security risks for hi-jacking and theft."

Local suppliers of tracking and management systems are able to keep apace with the changing and challenging circumstances of vehicle monitoring in the local market, he says, and can offer management systems that take into account both economic and security issues.

"Volvo did look at the possibility of teaming up with a local service provider to combine the Dynafleet system with local security tracking systems but this was not considered to be a viable option for a number of reasons," he adds.

With this vote of confidence in local FM/Tracking system suppliers, Thomson says that Volvo can provide a basic version of the Dynafleet software, which is accessed via cable and computer. "It is not live but can provide vehicle information such as fuel consumption, idling times, trip times etc. on a retrospective basis," he explains.

With CANbus-fitted Volvo trucks, external transport information systems are able to interface using the FMS Gateway (using the FMS 'open' protocol), "which allows you to use the same transport information system for all vehicles in your fleet, even if the vehicles come from different manufacturers. The purpose of FMS Gateway is to act as an interface that receive signals from the vehicle network, translates them to the FMS standard and then forwards them to an external FMS unit. 

"Typical information that can be now be received include:- Vehicle speed, clutch status, brake status, cruise control status, PTO status, Accelerator position, fuel consumption, fuel level, engine r/min, vehicle weight, engine hours, vehicle identification, question help, diagnostic help, software version help, total driven distance, service information, tachograph information and engine temperature," concludes Thompson.