Magellan Return to RouteTM

Keeping Your Fleet Locked on Route in Volatile Weather

Keeping Your Winter Fleet Locked on Route in Volatile Weather

Carriers who deliver mail for the United States Postal Service have an unofficial

motto that “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But for drivers clearing snow-covered streets, picking up school children or removing dangerous debris, the stakes are much higher. They can’t afford to miss a stop.

Enter Winter

Even under the best driving conditions, a route can be disrupted. Route disruptions are greatly magnified during extreme winter weather. Unplowed roads can lead to disgruntled citizens, force businesses to close, cause major accidents and create delays in emergency services.

When a powerful snow storm hits, municipal fleet managers face three big challenges. First, they must ensure streets are safe for their drivers as well as for residents; second, they must keep operating costs low; and third, they must deliver dependable service under adverse conditions.

Yet it happens all the time. So, how can fleet administrators ensure their drivers stay on their assigned routes and not miss any of their stops?

Challenges

Safety challenges – Unplowed snowy, icy and slushy pavement can become a major safety issue to the general public. In a study conducted by the Federal Highway Administration, these types of road conditions cause over 1,300 fatalities and 116,000 injuries annually, nationwide1. Cost challenges – A lack of trained drivers is an ongoing problem for the snow and ice industry. In fact, according to Lawn & Landscape’s 2015 State of the Industry Report, 61% of contractors consider it one of their top challenges2. Plus, overtime costs can require employers to pay twice a driver’s regular day rate when the driver operates four hours or more of overtime. Another cost factor is salt shortages, which may cause price increases of up to 30%3. And unstable fuel prices make fuel efficiency a growing concern for fleets; a team of 100 vehicles, for instance, can consume $348,678 in fuel for a season4. Service challenges – When streets are missed, residents and businesses complain. More frustrated customers equal more complaints, which requires more resources and labor to monitor and remedy. Fleet administrators also face a real-time communication gap. It’s difficult update road status when drivers are using a mix of dated communication tools, from radios to walkie-talkies to printed maps. Given this triad of challenges, what happens when a snow storm hits the most populous city in America?

1 “Snow and Ice.” Snow & Ice - FHWA Road Weather Management, U.S. Department of Transportation- Federal Highway Administration 2 Snow Magazine Staff. “Green and White.” Snow Magazine, Accredited Snow Contractors Association, 23 Oct. 2015

3 Plumer, Brad. “How America Got Addicted to Road Salt - and Why It’s Become a Problem.” Vox, Vox, 13 Jan. 2015

4 “Harding, Ryan. “Plows Are Primed, Drivers Are Trained and ADOT Is Ready for Snow.” ADOT Blog, ADOT, 15 Nov. 2016. Note: Calculations based on fuel price, gallons per vehicle, number of trucks, and more

Citizens

Snow Routes

Miles of Streets

Salt Spreaders

Employees Trained

DSNY QUICK FACTSNew York City Sanitation Department (DSNY) The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is the world’s largest sanitation department, serving approximately 8.5 million residents. DSNY collects more than 10,500 tons of residential and institutional garbage and 1,760 tons of the recyclables – each day.

When severe weather is forecast, DSNY makes a decisive operational shift to emergency response. During winter storms, the city’s Sanitation Workers become the first of the first responders and must clear snow over 1,500 routes covering more than 6,000 miles of streets.

Toward that end, the DSNY municipal fleet includes 700 large and small salt spreaders. Each salt spreader can hold up to 16 tons of salt. Salt spreaders are also equipped to dispense calcium chloride, which helps melt the snow and ice during colder weather.

In January of 2016, New York City received a record 27.5 inches of snow, the city’s worst snowstorm in history. Record-breaking or not, that was a lot of snow to remove and it stress-tested the DSNY fleet of salt-spreading vehicles. After that particular storm, known as the blizzard of 2016, city officials began looking for a solution that would better serve them the next time Gotham was covered in snow. DSNY also wanted to modernize their fleet and integrate technology solutions, especially those that aligned with departmental goals of increased safety and efficiency.

How Return to Route Works

Return to Route delivers a smart technology approach to designated route management, ensuring experienced, new and temporary drivers complete their stops in the correct order, without missing a stop. All routes can be updated dynamically and over the air from the back-office Web portal or directly from the device itself – making it easy for administrators to pre-schedule and adjust, as needed.

The solution leverages powerful GPS technology to intuitively navigate drivers along their pre-defined stop sequence, efficiently returning them to any deviated points to ensure that every stop is completed. Should drivers require a route change, all routes are loaded on the device.

This routing management tool is optimizedfor designated route planning in complexurban canyon environments. When tested, vehicles equipped with Return to Routesaw an astounding 91% in overall routingaccuracy, as compared to 50% accuracywith regular GPS receivers without softwareoptimization.

Return to Route includes features more advanced than any other route management tool: Locked on RouteTM; Deviated Point NavigationTM; Event-Driven Re-Routing; High Accuracy GPS; Real-Time Route Completion Monitoring; and Real-time Route Management.

DSNY Selects Return to Route

DSNY selected Return to Route by Magellan as its fleet solution for snow removal. Specifically designed for municipal and short-haul fleets, Return to Route is a route management, planning and execution tool that ensures exact route execution and real-time reporting.

The solution ensures that a driver will always complete a designated route in the right order, never missing a stop. If a driver misses a stop, however, Return to Route immediately navigates the driver back to the deviated point for completion.

DSNY began rolling out the Magellan navigators in the cabs of its large and small salt spreaders in December of 2017, giving drivers turn-by-turn directions to assist themin quickly getting roads salted and plowedefficiently and safely.

“Our drivers are on the front lines of fightingwinter storms, often working in white-outconditions,” said Chief Shari Pardini, NewYork City Department of Sanitation. “This is about the safety of our drivers and the safety of New Yorkers. We chose Magellan’s solution because it’s the only software in the market that could meet our needs.”

Routing Accuracy Routing Accuracy

Magellan GPS

Other GPS Providers

vs.

High Accuracy GPS. With GPS, a minimum of three satellites are required in order to triangulate a location. When a driver enters an urban canyon environment, the driver’s GPS unit may drop the connection to under three satellites. Magellan’s high accuracy GPS, combined with Glonass satellites, ensures a driver’s GPS never drops to fewer than six satellites. This means that even in the densest cities, drivers never lose their connection, enabling faster and more accurate navigation data.

Locked On Route. Drivers are locked on a specific route and are not allowed to deviate from the defined order. Should drivers require a route change, all routes are loaded on the device via device connectivity, Wi-Fi, or microSD.

Deviated Point Navigation. Deviated point navigation ensures a driver never misses a stop. With Magellan’s Return to Route, drivers are instantly re-routed back to the point of deviation, ensuring completed routes every time. This unique feature assists all drivers, whether new, seasonal or experienced, to utilize salt and fuel more efficiently while minimizing the impact of snowy, icy and slushy pavement.

Event-Driven Re-Routing. When drivers encounter an obstacle, such as an abandoned vehicle, they are able to mark it on their screen with an obstacle icon. This information is automatically pushed to the backend web portal where it can be pushed out to other drivers. Drivers are re-routed around the obstacles, while another driver can complete the missed streets.

Real-Time Route Completion Monitoring. The Route Manager backend web portal gives fleet administrators and managers a comprehensive dashboard to monitor their fleet, manage routes, update vehicle assignments and assign tasks.

Real-time Route Management. Route administrators can push updates over the air (OTA), including messages, new routes, vehicle assignments, and more.

Increase Safety, Reduce Costs, Improve Service

Magellan’s Return to Route is designed to increase safety while reducing operational costs and improving service. The solution delivers the following benefits to both fleet administrators and drivers.

Benefits

Safety benefits – Instant two-way reporting during extreme weather conditions. Even new and temporary drivers remain focused on the road, instead of following paper maps or trying to figure out their way around an obstacle. The result is fewer streets left unplowed and a safer commute for drivers. Cost benefits – Less training is required, because when drivers deviate from the route, they are automatically directed back to their point of deviation. Overtime costs are reduced, with drivers locked on to their routes. Fuel costs are also lower, because drivers are kept to their predefined routes. Fewer deviations from routes mean more efficient salt usage, saving resources and money.

Service benefits – More streets get plowed on-time, with a corresponding decrease in the number of missed streets. Because drivers remain on track, you receive fewer customer complaints. Fleet managers enjoy better real-time field communications, through a central web portal. In short, no surprises.

Keep Drivers Locked on Route

A fleet route can be disrupted by street obstructions, such as double-parked or abandoned vehicles. There might be roadwork, a crime scene ahead or even a special event blocking off street access. Every day municipal drivers must expect the unexpected—and react to it.

Drivers must also traverse urban canyon environments, streets between towering buildings where GPS connectivity may be limited. Without reliable GPS access, a driver’s route can easily disappear or get disrupted, while administrators must remain in control of their fleet at all times.

Return to Route by Magellan is the only industry fleet solution that not only offers audible turn-by-turn navigation, but also delivers an enhanced suite of features that ensures each route is completed accurately and in sequential order. Some of the robust features housed within Return to Route include Locked on Route and Deviated Point Navigation, as well as obstacle reporting and sharing. The solution’s management tools are engineered to save time and effort while increasing performance.

See for yourself!

To schedule a free product demo or to learn more about how Return to Route can help keep your drivers on schedule, regardless of road or weather conditions, visit www.magellangps.com.

Magellan, GPS Pioneer and Industry Leader

Located in San Dimas, CA, Magellan (www.magellangps.com), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MiTac Digital Technology Corporation. A pioneer company in consumer electronics and portable GPS navigation for over 30 years, Magellan was the first manufacturer of handheld consumer GPS devices. Today, in addition to Return to Route, its fleet solutions include Fleet Navigation with truck protocols, Hours of Service eLog devices (ELDs), and ruggedized devices and mounts. The company lists as fleet industry clients such businesses or organizations as CalAmp, GPS insight, Hertz, Samsung and the above-mentioned New York City Department of Sanitation.