March/April 2003

Tight integration between customer, carrier and delivery vehicles is promised by a new suite of solutions from Mandata, the transport planning systems specialist. The company has linked its Manpack3 transport management system with a new vehicle tracking and mobile data service using GPRS. It is calling the combined system Advanced Services.

The company has also integrated Sage's Line 100 accounts software system with Manpack3, allowing users to pass data directly between Manpack and the Sage system.

The latest ManPack3 system uses the Web to transfer job bookings automatically between customers and carriers, and can also deliver information such as delivery manifests directly to a PDA in the driver's cab.

The mobile data and vehicle tracking system is a product in its own right. It features GPS-based vehicle tracking and location and office-based software to track and analyse vehicle movements. Features include the ability to create "snail trails" of historical vehicle movements and to set up "geofenced" areas (the software is alerted automatically when vehicles cross predetermined boundaries).

Mandata is using an on-board computer an communications system from telematics specialist Cybit, but has done all the programming in-house, and emphasises that it is very much a Mandata product. Costs have been kept down by the use of Microsoft's new online MapPoint.Net mapping software, which features NavTech digital mapping; and by building the system round the same SQL Server database used by the underlying system. The complete package has a competitive fixed charge of £45 per month.