From NBC4 Television News in Columbus Ohio, comes this report on the city’s implementation of WebTech Wireless’ InterFleet solution for snow plows and salt spreaders. The online article from reporter Tom Brockman can be read here.

*Please give the video a few moments to load.
 

Another very wintry city has joined the ranks of municipalities implementing WebTech Wireless’ InterFleet™ remote fleet management solution to help reduce road salt use – lowering winter mainteneace costs and at the same time reducing the environmental impact that excessive salt use can have on local water systems. The following News Release is re-posted here from the City of Ottawa’s website.

City implements GPS to reduce road salt use and environmental impact while saving $1M per year (City of Ottawa Newsroom post here)
November 24, 2009

Ottawa – The City of Ottawa has added a Global Positioning System (GPS) and material monitoring technology on each of its salt spreader vehicles, helping to save taxpayers $1 million per year while reducing road salt use by as much as 13,300 tonnes.

Starting this winter, City staff will gather real-time data from each salt truck and be able to make adjustments to their operations based on the information collected as well as road and weather conditions. Ottawa is the first City to install GPS in its entire fleet of salt spreaders.

“Installing GPS technology in our salt spreader vehicles is a great way to help us reduce the amount of road salt we use and reduce costs at the same time,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien. “By installing these systems, we will both prolong the life of City infrastructure and keep more money in the pockets of Ottawa taxpayers.”

The amount of salt applied to roads can be harmful with prolonged use because it contains a large quantity of chlorine. Annual runoff and aerial dispersion widens the effects of the chlorine. It can seep into groundwater, affecting water quality in drinking wells and in natural waterways and can also harm sensitive vegetation and aquatic life.

“Salting is our first defence against winter storms,” said Councillor Maria McRae, Chair of the Transportation Committee. “With this technology, we can better manage what we spread while maintaining safe roadways for motorists.”

The City is implementing an automated vehicle location and material monitoring system (AVLMMS) designed by Grey Island Systems. While GPS technology has existed for fleet management for some time, this new system was designed to work with the various vendors of salt control systems to collect data specific to salt use.

“We are the first City to use fleet-wide GPS technology to monitor salt operations in real time,” said John Manconi, General Manager of Public Works. “The real-time data we receive from each vehicle will allow staff to make operational adjustments ensuring that we spread the right amount at the right time and allow us to streamline our service delivery.”

For more information on the City’s winter operations, please visit ottawa.ca/residents/onthemove/driving/road_sidewalk/plowing_salting/index_en.html or call 3-1-1.

WebTech’s recent acquisition of Grey Island, and its InterFleet suite of solutions for government, enhance our offering to cities like Ottawa that require innovative technology to manage and improve government services such as winter road maintenance. To find out more, please visit our webpage or contact us directly.

With winter weather and snow storms soon upon us in most of Canada and the northern US, I thought it would be interesting to show some of our (lucky) warmer weather readers what dealing with snow on city streets really means –  and what is involved from a vehicle fleet management perspective.

Here is a YouTube find that visually tells the story of some of what happens on city streets ‘after the storm’… often a round-the-clock operation that tests the efficiency and coordination of vehicles and city personnel.

WebTech Wireless’ InterFleet Solution was recently purchased by the Ville du Quèbec (City of Quebec) – one of Canada’s snowiest major cities. With a mean annual snowfall of 317 cm (125 inches) that means it spends a considerable proportion of its street maintenance budget during the winter months.

Sometimes Only the Horses Move in Quebec City

At these levels of snowfall, cities such as Quebec and Montreal have to do more that snow ‘clearing’, which simply means displacing the snow off to the side of streets and sidewalks. Because of the volume, snow ‘removal’ is necessary and this involves the coordination of many different types of equipment (plows, graders, blowers, dump-trucks, etc.) in sequence to take the snow away to special dumping sites outside of the city. Here, huge snow mountains are created that can last into the summer before completely melting away.

InterFleet helps cities like Quebec City manage their fleets to handle these complex winter snow removal operations, and you can read more about it here.