Openmatics, ZF’s telematics system for truck operators

Openmatics presented its attractive service portfolio for forwarding agents and truck fleet owners at the “transport logistic” held in Munich recently. The telematics system from ZF has plenty to offer for the truck market. The app-based and therefore highly flexible system can optimize many workflows in everyday logistics, thanks to its software that was especially developed for mixed vehicle fleets. The choice for trucks in particular is continuously increasing since independent experts also offer their telematics software on the Openmatics platform.

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The manufacturer-independent Openmatics system, however, shows off its strengths especially in mixed truck fleets: one on-board unit in every vehicle is sufficient to observe the complete fleet on a web portal based on common criteria and to evaluate the driving information. As at end of 2013, Openmatics will use the new and more efficient “Bach” on-board unit (OBU) hardware which was presented at “transport logistic” for the first time. The considerably reduced OBU ensures smooth data transfer between the truck and the data server.

“Bach” has three independent processors and achieves even lower energy consumption despite enhanced performance. An “always on” mode ensures ongoing monitoring of important vehicle functions such as the fuel level via sensors even when the engine is switched off.
Fleet operators and forwarding agents already find many functions in the Openmatics app shop by means of which they can optimize their everyday logistics services. With the “DigiTacho-Download” and “DigiTacho D8 Info” apps, for instance, the statutory archiving of steering, working and rest periods can be solved completely automatically. The currently required tour around the vehicles and manual download via an interface of the digital tachograph in the vehicle are no longer required; missing the statutory read out cycles can be excluded in the future.

Openmatics also improved the web portal: The maps of Google Maps are additionally integrated in the 2.0 version for the first time. The Openmatics Webservice Interface (OWI) makes it even easier to exchange data with other systems and to connect them to Openmatics. Thanks to the new portal release and the so-called hyper dataset, Openmatics was able to significantly reduce the data volume which is exchanged between the web portal and the vehicle, thus leading to cost savings.

In order to make the development and programming of apps by third parties easy, Openmatics also presents a new, improved version of the Software Development Kit (SDK).

By means of numerous cooperations, Openmatics has further extended its functional scope and flexibility. These partners already encompass eurotelematik and Cluetec as well as specialized providers like myWerk, msg, and ALK Technologies Inc. The cargo support company is a new member of the Openmatics network and will provide its forwarding software of the same name for the Openmatics platform as well.
For details, visit: www.zf.com