SALT LAKE CITY — inthinc Technology Solutions Inc., a global telematics company centered on fleet management and driver safety solutions, released a new version of smartZones—an enhanced GPS-based technology that allows fleet managers to draw boundaries around customized regions for easier fleet administration and safety monitoring.

An integrated feature of the inthinc solution, inthinc smartZones enables fleet managers to assign specific attributes within a created zone that map to their companies’ safety policies— including speed limits, seat belt use and aggressive driving to name a few.

For example, if a fleet manager has vehicles operating in a region with no defined speed limits (such as a mining site or an oil and gas yard), smartZones technology allows the fleet manager to create speed limits for various parts of the area. If drivers exceed the assigned speed limit, they will receive an in-cab verbal notification asking them to slow down. Drivers may also receive verbal alerts for excessive idling, or upon entering or exiting a caution zone or hazardous area, leading to safer employees and decreased risk. The smartZones also provide automated text or email alerts to fleet managers if an accident or other dangerous activity occurs within the defined area.

“Accidents occur when there is a lack of safety controls,” said Corey Catten, CTO, inthinc Technology Solutions. “Our smartZones technology empowers fleet managers with the tools they need to protect their drivers in all environments and situations.”

smartZones, a standard feature of the inthinc waySmart and inthinc tiwiPro solutions, allows managers to customize a variety of safety attributes:

• Speeding Alerts: Assign speed limits to any street segment or region within a zone—and verbally alert drivers if the speed limit is exceeded.

• Seatbelt Use: Alert drivers when their seatbelt is not fastened.

• Caution Area Alert: Alert drivers when they are approaching a hazardous area.

• Zone Arrival/Departure Alerts: Be notified when drivers enter or exit a defined zone.

• Driver Behavior Alerts: Receive safety alerts for hard turns, hard braking or hard dips within a zone.

• Free-form zone creation: Create smartZone boundaries using a free-form drawing tool without being constrained by having to work with only circles or square shapes.

• Multiple zones: Create any number of smartZones to monitor.

Click here to download an overview of inthinc smartZones technology.

inthinc provides the industry’s leading and most comprehensive fleet management and driver safety solution. In addition to smartZones, the inthinc solution provides fleet managers with regional or individual driver scorecards, in-cab verbal coaching, GPS and trips reporting, electronic hours-of-service logs and more, all managed from the web-based inthinc.com management portal. 

inthinc customers typically reduce fleet-wide speeding by over 80 percent within the first month of using the system. Combine that efficiency with the additional fuel consumption savings gained via fuel and MPG tracking and idle time mentoring and inthinc customers typically pay for the system within a few months after implementation not to mention the marked decrease in carbon emissions.