TCA says trucking operators have submitted telematics systems of "questionable" quality for assessment
By Steve Skinner | July 15, 2013
Transport Certification Australia is warning trucking operators that not all telematics units are the same.
TCA General Manager for Strategic Development Gavin Hill says there is great variability in the standards of both hardware and back-up service.
He says systems of “questionable” quality have become evident in the entry options scheme for the Intelligent Access Program (IAP), where operators can ask the TCA to assess their existing telematics hardware free of charge.
“There are some devices that you probably wouldn’t want to use for your own business purposes let alone try and satisfy the needs of government,” Hill says.
“It’s critical that these things aren’t only accurate but that they’re durable and robust as well.”
TCA was set up by government to regulate the telematics technology and related services. Telematics is the capture, transmission and remote storage of truck and trailer data.
To give consumers some guidance on what to look for in the telematics systems they buy, Hill says that by the end of the year the TCA will have come up with a complete range of minimum standards for in-vehicle units.
Separate to this have been guidelines for how to measure speed accurately through GPS-based systems (intelligent speed management or ISM), and more recently ticks of approval or otherwise for on-board mass units.
The TCA recently announced a group of industry representatives would be established to help with all the benchmarking by advising its technical experts.
For more on technology, see the next issue of ATN and Owner//Driver
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