Consider Purchase of AVL System for PW Fleet

At the May 15 PW Committee meeting staff gave a brief overview of AVL systems and how they could be used in our municipal fleet. Information gathered would primarily used in our plowing operation but could expand into other areas.  An AVL system would track basic functions such as vehicle location, material use, vehicle speed, time spent on a particular route etc.... When talking to other users, total material used seems to be their biggest need.  Boundaries called "Geo Fences" can be drawn around plow routes and data can be gathered on how much material was used on the road surface.  With this information, managers can better control and fine tune material applications saving money and lessen environmental concerns. Mapping data can be supplied to the public, but not directly as staff was first informed.  If you gave the general public access to the server it would quickly crash as people checked to see where the plow trucks were.  One way around this would be to have the staff pull up the plow map, take a screen shot and then upload that image to the city web page, Facebook etc... Data gathering is performed basically the same in all 3 systems quoted.  The tracking device is always gathering information, plow up plow down, sander on, vehicle speed, location and so on.  Data retrieval intervals are entirely up to staff and effect operational costs of the system.  In operations such as sweeping, roadside mowing, sewer cleaning, you may only need information at the end of the shift.  In severe weather or plowing operations you may want information to be more immediate.  Anoka County Highway uses the Precise MRM system on their plow fleet.  They use the once a day data retrieval approach for the most part and average about $11.00/month per vehicle.

RFP's were gathered from the 3 vendors on the State Bid list. Those vendors are Precise MRM, Location Technologies, and Ameri Trak. Precise MRM has the biggest foot print in Minnesota with 31 municipal customers and 1100 devices in service including Anoka County and the City of Duluth.  Precise is owned by Force America a local company out of Burnsville, Mn.  Force America builds the spreader controls used in our plow trucks so integration would be seamless.

General fund cost center 0311-6580

Staff would recommend  the Precise MRM system. The other municipalities I have spoke with have given high marks for the product itself, service, and tech support after the sale. They are using the AVL system for storm water reporting, accident investigation, sanitary sewer cleaning and vehicle maintenance reporting.   As mentioned earlier the company is local and is the vendor for our ground speed sander controls.  The use of the Precise system would make integration a plug and play set up.  Staff will have the full financial breakdown available at the meeting as well as some different options to cut costs.

Motion to include the purchase of AVL system from Precise MRM in the 2013 Budget
                                                           or
Motion to include the purchase of AVL system from Location Technologies in the 2013 Budget
                                                           or
Motion to deffer purchase of AVL system to a future budget year