Trip Recorders that Keep Pace with Progress

If you were trucking when disc jockeys actually spun vinyl, you’re old enough to remember the tachograph, a mechanical device that proved just how valuable even the most basic operating information could be. The classic tachograph resembled a slow-moving record turntable, but instead of a stylus it held a pencil-like writing point. Instead of a record, it took a round piece of paper. And rather than turn 33-1/3 times a minute, it made a complete revolution, say, every 24 hours, creating a virtual map of each day’s operation for a single truck.

Although the earliest models indicated only if a truck was moving or the engine was running, even those bits of information provided the edge some carriers needed. Big carriers set up entire departments to pour over the previous day’s tachograph disks, comparing stop and start times with those provided by drivers on their manifests.

If that small amount of information was so useful 30 and 40 years ago, there’s almost no limit to what can be done with today’s onboard computers. With a relatively simple connection to the electronic control unit (ECU) on most contemporary diesel engines, computers can record and report in far more detail and from many more points of view than early tachographs-and without an entire department.

It’s this demand for information that drives improvements to trip recorders. The first modern-day trip recorder- the Tripmaster from Rockwell International -constantly recorded speed, rpm, engine idle, and stops. Information was downloaded via a cable with a 10-pin connector, usually mounted at the fuel island. Later models included devices for driver identification and input. Demands for more data drove constant development and brought in new competitors, such as Cadec Systems and Xata Corp.

Today, the basic electronic trip recorder is usually a rugged, solid-state device that tracks truck and driver performance for days or for weeks.

Even the simplest electronic trip recorder can gather and format vast amounts of data. And more often, they’re packaged as part of a fleet management “system” that includes a way to extract data and download to a PC, where it can be analyzed and manipulated.

For example, the VDO FM100 Fleet Management System from Winchester, Va.-based VDO Fleet Systems stores vehicle data for up to 650 trips, including driver registration, trip start date and time, trip end date and time, miles per trip, maximum speed each trip, maximum engine speed each trip, idle time, and parking time. The information can be downloaded to a PC via a keyport installed in the vehicle’s cab. Fleet managers can also set limit-values for the performance of each vehicle, such as top engine RPM, maximum speed, harsh or hard braking, upper and/or lower green RPM range, and duration of idle times; an alarm lets drivers know when they’ve deviated from these limits. The FM100’s software is compatible with Microsoft Windows-based platforms and includes a robust set of data-management tools to help you make use of the numbers. As we went to press, VDO was about to introduce an upgraded computer/software package, the FM200.

PC CONNECTION

Typically, trip recorder data is downloaded by way of a plug at the terminal or perhaps with a removable electronic memory device like a PCMCIA card. Data can also be transferred with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Transponders can automatically collect the day’s data as a unit passes the gate, for example. Many suppliers offer RFID options within refueling systems so trip information is downloaded at the fuel island.

If your monitoring needs are modest-if you operate just a few trucks, for example-a trip recorder may be all you need to monitor your trucks and drivers. There’s no shortage of vendors, among them Londonderry, N.H.-based Cadec Systems Inc., the former onboard computing division of Cummins Engine Co., and Stone Bennett Corp.’s Carrollton, Tex.-based Auto Coach Division. The venerable Tripmaster is now offered by Meritor Automotive of Troy, Mich., Rockwell’s former vehicle systems business.

UP IN THE SKY

The traditional onboard computer data path has been one-way, from the sensors within essential truck systems to the onboard computer and then to dispatch in the form of downloaded data or formatted reports. Now there’s a new twist. In its latest electronic incarnation, the once-silent trip recorder can now talk back and even allow physical adjustments to truck systems from a remote site-company headquarters, for example. San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. offers JTRACS, a trip recorder with interactive capability. JTRACS gathers the same critical vehicle data as a traditional trip recorder. Like more advanced systems, the onboard computer relays that information to dispatch over a wireless link-in this case Qualcomm’s OmniTRACS satellite communication system.

But JTRACS allows two-way communication with engine ECU settings so dispatch can adjust the monitored systems remotely. That means a maintenance manager can change, say, the idle setting in an engine thousands of miles away. JTRACS maintains a high level of vehicle monitoring at the lowest possible cost by alerting management on an exception basis. In other words, the computer follows critical vehicle parameters constantly. But only when it finds an exception to preset limits does it send information via satellite. That saves on satellite transmission costs but alerts driver supervisors to developing problems of a mechanical, electronic, or sometimes even human nature.

According to Qualcomm, future JTRACS versions will allow similar interactivity with onboard systems beyond the powertrain and brakes-refrigeration units or security equipment, for example.

But if you’d still rather have the round paper disc from a reliable old tachograph, electronic tachographs and recording disks are still available, but with a difference: you can also buy an electronic device to analyze disks and create reports that were once products of that separate department.