Location management helps you manage your fleet by storing locations such as company depots, clients and delivery points, truck stops, etc. in the R:COM fleet management system. By entering relevant identification information you can instantly recognise movements into or out of these locations. Users spend less time interpreting and searching the information and have more time to make critical decisions.

Location management functionality plays an important part within the R:COM fleet management system since it can be used when:

• displaying the current vehicle position
• detecting of operational areas (such as deployment area)
• detecting of POD (proof of delivery)
• defining event notifications

The R:COM system incorporates all the necessary administration tools for effective location management. The Location Editor allows you to draw a boundary around a specific location on the system map. The available Map view in MS Virtual Earth namely Road, Aerial and Birds Eyes map views can be used to enable you to resize the boundary to match the exact perimeter of a desired location. Locations can be arranged in groups, each group having its sub locations and areas assigned. Locations can also be imported automatically using the location format that Blue Tree provides for easy, error-free integration of pre-existing location data with the system. In this way, no additional work is required recreating locations within R:COM and there are no limitations on editing/adding new locations.

Locations can be added from all available map displays: from current location maps view to vehicle trip analysis (start/end trip positions), simply click on the displayed address or right click on the map and enter the location of interest.

The location can also be setup as a 'watchbox'. When a vehicle enters the watchbox (or gets within a pre-defined distance), a message event is triggered. The system can be programmed to send the alert message via email or text message to the mobile phone numbers of any interested parties, such as employees or customers.

Your customer, for example, could receive a message saying: “Your delivery is 10 minutes away” or your fleet manager could be informed that: “FG08 5GH is 1 mile away from the depot”. Messages can also be sent to confirm when a vehicle has arrived or left the allotted area. In fact, this feature can be used for a variety of purposes, including highlighting drivers entering barred locations. The movement of a vehicle outside of normal working hours can be highlighted using the watchbox; this can prove invaluable for security of mobile assets, sending an SMS alert to a mobile phone instantly.