Richland County has been leveraging automated vehicle location technologies to help manage its fleet of approximately 200 non-emergency vehicles since 2003 with the implementation of a home-grown VHF radio network and GPS tracking technologies. Since then, AVL solutions have matured significantly, allowing for consumer-centric cloud hosted software as a service (SAAS) platforms to become the norm.
Richland County is in the process of transitioning its AVL system to a new cellular based SAAS solution which utilizes inexpensive standard ODBII hardware. This will continue to provide management with the ability to monitor county assets and view historical data. Additional functionality includes both real-time vehicle activity alerts and application access from any web-accessible device.
It is hoped that this transition will begin in the coming months and come to completion in the Fall of 2015.