The Hindu Business Line : Ashok Leyland to launch telematics fleet of CVs

New Delhi, Nov. 22 Ashok Leyland would soon be equipping its trucks with telematics that would be GPS and GSM enabled, so that customers can facilitate coordination of their fleet.

On a test basis, Ashok Leyland is currently making available its equipment known as ‘Alert’, to customers.

“We are providing the service of telematics fleet to some of our customers. However, we are yet to commercially launch these services,” Dr Arvind Bharadwaj, Executive Director, Advanced Engineering, Ashok Leyland told Business Line.

Dr Bharadwaj said that the nationwide launch could coincide with the Auto Expo 2008 in January.

The company, which recently entered into a joint venture with the German conglomerate Siemens VDO, was already working on the project with the latter even before the companies decided on a formal partnership.

Explaining the features, Mr Harry Krickl, Head of Product Management and Head of Telematics Systems, Siemens VDO said, “Currently, the telematics fleet that is on a user acceptance test has a GPS receiver and GSM module for communication and voice. This would allow the fleet owners to not only track the truck, but also allow them to communicate with the drivers.”

JV company

On the new JV with Siemens, Dr Bharadwaj said, “The JV company — Automotive Infotronics — has been registered and is likely to be operational by January.”

He, however, declined to give further details on the number of employees that the new entity would house to carry out research and development.

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