December 2007

Common Technology Combinations

Maintenance and Repair

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) or Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) can be used in conjunction with Maintenance Management Systems to pinpoint vehicles that are in need of repair or are underperforming. Such preventative maintenance allows systems to run more smoothly. To enable transfering of the maintenance data, the transit agency will need to integrate the MMS on each vehicle with a radio data connection for real-time information diagnostic transmittals or a link to a garage central computer to download the diagnostic information during vehicle servicing.

Systems and Service Planning

MMS can be used to collect data about vehicle components such as brakes, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and to report and store all information centrally to a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) for further use and analysis.

Real-Time Operations

If an operational transit vehicle relays via the radio or other communication system that it has received an out-of-tolerance warning, then the central control may decide to continue the route using the current vehicle, replace the vehicle in the field, or reroute the vehicle along a more "tolerant" path (e.g., a flatter route for braking issues, along a shadier or less hot route for HVAC problems). The dispatch center can determine these routing or replacement options by utilizing their CAD and AVL systems and transmitting the decision on the vehicle and route to the operator via a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT).