Fleet management automation using the global positioning system

Fleet management is an important topic in research and development nowadays. Companies, security and emergency forces need to keep track of their trucks and cars and know where a vehicle is at a moment in time, and when, where and for how long a vehicle stopped. In this paper, a system for automating fleet management systems is described. The hardware of our system is a microprocessor-based embedded system. The software consists of firmware embedded in the hardware in addition to remote high-level software that keeps track of the position of the units and prepares reports to be sent to the customers. The system is currently operational in a couple of Arab countries. More than 2000 units are currently operational in a variety of modes that are described in the paper. The paper also contains suggestions for future research based on the accomplishments reported here.