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Vehicle
& Equipment Maintenance Software for Government Fleets
SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED CITy, COUNTy, UTILITy, Law Enforcement, and TRANSIT Fleet
Software NEW AREA CODE! NOW 575 434-2323 not 505
See brief
streaming video demonstrations!
Microsoft
Explorer browser with
Media Player 7.0 required for viewing:
FastHist Demonstration - short 3 minute
Report Maker Demonstration - longer 7 minute
Capital Budget Replacement Report - 10 minute
NEW BAR CODE OPTION for PARTS INVENTORY
PRINT LABEL PUT LABELS ON INVENTORY
REMOVE LABEL WHEN PLACE LABEL ON SCAN
USING PART
REPAIR ORDER
See Bar Coding write up below in RECENT SERIES OF ENHANCEMENTS 2007
Video
Demonstration CD available at no cost to government
fleets.
This
is a state of the art, in-depth, CD that can be played on any modern
computer with a
40x or faster CD drive and
sound. It jump
starts your use
of Fleet
Controller! Just
click on the CD picture on the left
to go to the contact
information.
*
(see
ADDITIONAL DETAIL below)
An easy, understandable Windows
interface
Mature software with over 20
years
of continuous development
Specialized exactly to your
vehicle
& equipment types
All help examples are directly
about your type of equipment and needs
We are vehicle and equipment maintenance software
specialists for
government fleets.
ADDITIONAL
DETAIL:
SINGLE USER
VERSION –
Our single
user version is designed to run on
Microsoft Vista, XP, or Windows 2000
(standard or professional)
LOW COST
MULTI-USER-
We are very
pleased to offer low cost
multi-user options for 2 or 3 user systems. We have had a large
number of
requests from our smaller customers for a lower cost multi-user
solution and we
now have excellent options. Our 2 or 3 user options will work on larger
dedicated networks such as Novell, Linux and NT/Windows 2000/.NET, but
they
will also work on the built-in peer-to-peer networking capabilities of
Vista,
Windows XP and 2000 Professional. The use of the Windows peer-to-peer
networking makes for a very affordable total multi-user solution.
You will
need to already have your Windows
peer-to-peer network already running, but you will be surprised at how
inexpensive it
is for both your technician's involvement and the hardware expense.
Of course,
our proven 5 user multi-user is
still available for use on Novell, Linux and NT/Windows 2000
Server/.NET
networks for larger fleets.
100%
MICROSOFT SOLUTION-
*(Fleet
Controller™
is based upon the Microsoft Access database format. We use the JET
database
engine in the Microsoft Visual Basic programming language to make and
manipulate the database in Fleet Controller™
. Microsoft Access is not required to operate Fleet Controller™
and is not supplied with it.)
RECENT SERIES OF ENHANCEMENTS:
2007 -
The big news this year is
the new Bar Coding Option for Parts Controller™ and the additional option for
detailed
fill-up by fill-up transaction tracking with our Fuel System Interface
Option.
The Bar-Coding Option for Parts
Controller™ has
been engineered to be simple, inexpensive, and easy to use. It is designed around the
most widely used
label maker printer on the market, the Dymo LabelWriter. With this approach we have
eliminated the
expense and hassle of acquiring dedicated bar-code printers.
To keep things simple our
system it designed to be an assistance
not a burden. You
do not have to
bar-code your entire inventory to start benefiting with Parts Controller™
Bar-Coding….in fact you may never bar code everything. Incremental benefits from
bar coding just
some specific areas of your inventory may be all you need. You will be surprised at
the creative
opportunities available to you.
While
we have known that good bar
coding can be a real time saver, we have delayed introducing our system
until
the right gear was available.
With
our system you print bar code
labels with the Dymo LabelWriter, put them on your parts, and then,
since they
are removable labels, you simply stick them onto your repair order when
you use
the part. You then
scan the part
numbers on repair order entry. With
this simple system, mechanic training is a cinch.
In
follow up to last year’s emphasis
on Preventative Maintenance we have added a new feature that allows you
to put
a note on the next PM Service List that you create for a vehicle. The most obvious use of
this capability is
to note that a part has been ordered for the vehicle, but was not yet
available
at the last PM Service. Of
course users
will find many other uses for this handy feature.
The
rest of the emphasis of this
release is in the fuel tracking area.
First, we have added a new separate Product Code for Off
Road
Diesel. This allows
for tracking it separately
from On Road Diesel for tax purposes. Second, we have added a new
report for
our Fuel System Option (the Fuel System Option allows the importation
of data
from fuel systems such as Gasboy or PetroVend).
This is a new utility report that shows your fuel card
numbers
and the vehicles to which they are assigned.
The report can be in either Card Number or Vehicle Number
order. Third, we
have offered an expanded capability
to our normal Fuel System Option called Fuel System Plus. The Plus
Option adds data capturing
and report capability that provides for the tracking of each individual
fuel
transaction. This
is in addition to the
monthly accumulator fuel tracking already provided.
This extra auditing and tracking capability can be
especially
valuable with the ever-increasing impact of high fuel prices on your
budget.
2006
-
The focus of the 2006 upgrade was on Preventative
Maintenance….and
indirectly its impact on fuel cost.
The single most important
use of a computer in fleet
management is to insure the timely and accurate performance of the
Preventive
Maintenance of the fleet. Good
PM means
a safe and cost efficient fleet. This
is why we emphasized Preventive Maintenance in the 2006 Upgrade.
We did an overall review of Fleet
Controller’s PM
functioning. This
resulted in minor
tweaking here and there and some specific improvements.
1) We added new safeguards to insure that no
new Vehicle Type Grouping can inadvertently be set up without setting
up a PM
schedule. 2) Since
many fleets use the
PM Preview Report for their primary PM scheduling, we have added memory
retention of the preview values that the fleets use.
With the PM Preview Report you can look forward by miles,
hours,
or months….such as 200 miles or 50 hours or 1
month….to see when PM’s will be
due.
And finally, we improved our PM
Time Standard Report. With
the use of this report a fleet sets up
hourly PM Time Standards for the performance of each PM level for each
Vehicle
Type Grouping. When
the report is run a
time frame is selected…such as the last 12 months. The report then shows, by
mechanic, 1) the actual labor hours for
PM’s, 2) the fleet's chosen hourly Time Standards for the
PM’s, and 3) the
percentage between these. From
user
input, we have found that just looking at the percentage for each PM
completed
can be misleading to overall mechanic performance.
So we added a weighted average in the final
total’s line for each
mechanic. This
presents a fairer and
more accurate picture of each mechanic’s overall productivity
in the
performance of PM’s.
2005
– The focus of this upgrade was to increase the on-going
value our
of Fleet Controller™ vehicle fleet software.
This was accomplished by adding our state-of-the-art Video
on Demand
Help, adding a new set of database maintenance utilities, and further
enhancing
data portability to Excel spreadsheets.
With
Video on Demand Help there are video buttons
on the starting screen of most functions.
Just click on the button and you will launch a Help video
on that
function. These videos are played in a versatile media player that lets
you
freeze, resume, fast forward, and fast backward.
This powerful new training capability works in tandem with
Fleet
Controller’s always there, context sensitive help. Add in our comprehensive
manual and you have what we believe is
the most complete training system available for vehicle maintenance
software.
The
new maintenance utilities provide two
types of functions. First,
on a
periodic basis, you can tune-up your database files for better
performance with
re-calculation and compaction utilities. Second, in the rare instances
where
file corruption might have damaged your data files, there are utilities
to help
you in restoring or possibly repairing your data files.
Last
year we introduced the ability to move
the data in selected Fleet Controller™ reports to an Excel spreadsheet.
This was
done with the use of our new specially tuned export file option..PRINT
TO TEXT
FILE. This data
portability has now
been enhanced in two ways. First,
some
selected Parts Controller reports have now also been equipped with the
transfer
text file capability. And
second, a new
Help/Training video has been added to guide you through the steps in
the
transfer process.
This
upgrade reflects how important it is to
us to protect the long-term interests of our users.
2004 – Video
training CD’s were the focus of this
update. The content
of these CD’s
represent over 2 decades worth of reference experience.
Our special video process provided for over
3 hours of video segments on the Fleet Controller™ CD.
The video’s menu is organized into overview
segments and then
into easy-to-get-to brief video segments on nearly every menu and
sub-menu item
on Fleet Controller’s Main Menu.
We
believe we have advanced the art with this new
powerful review and on-going training tool.
The FastHist Vehicle Control Panel in our vehicle
maintenance software was
enhanced, first, by adding the ability to print a Preventive
Maintenance
Service List directly from it if a PM (a specific level of Preventive
Maintenance) is due. Second, to make Seasonal Preventive Maintenance
Scheduling
Exclusion (such as
riding lawn mowers
in the winter time) more obvious, a SEASONAL display was added in the
Preventive Maintenance due box. Finally, more detail about a PM due was
added
in the Preventive Maintenance due box (since the FastHist Vehicle
Control Panel
is designed to be the central viewing screen for individual vehicle
maintenance
control, the PM’s due are shown here in addition to the
normal PM due reports).
Report file exports to Excel spreadsheets for key
inventory, cost, and
detailed history reports have been made easier with a new specially
tuned text
file format that we have created.
The
full data filtering and sorting power of the Report Maker is available
in the
creation of these output files.
2003
- We added a
revolutionary new fleet budgeting tool in this release of our vehicle
and
equipment maintenance software. Our existing replacement analysis
reports
offered a variety of powerful options, but our new report takes a
different
direction. At budgeting time most of our customers face two separate
budgets,
the Operating Budget and the Capital Budget. Our new report does a
powerful
analysis on all of the vehicles chosen in a fleet. For a given amount
of
Capital budget it selects the optimum group of vehicles to replace.
Replacing
these vehicles save the most projected
amount of the maintenance
expense in the Operating budget for the upcoming year. Good category
coding is
required to accomplish this, but the results are very worthwhile. See
it for
yourself in the Capital Budget Replacement video at the top of this
page!
In support of this new budgeting technique we
enhanced the warranty
tracking capability in Fleet Controller™. With this release you are able
to
setup warranty tracking for both the basic vehicle and for any of the
vehicle
maintenance categories (such as Automatic Transmission or
Body&SheetMetal).
These warranties will then be flagged whenever you use the FastHist Vehicle
Control Panel screen. If the vehicle is within the basic
warranty it is
always flagged. If you choose a specific vehicle history category and
you are
in a valid warranty period in that category, then it will also be
flagged.
2002 - Our Spring release features
the new 32Bit Version of Fleet
Controller™
and Parts Controller™ and
has some important enhancements to the
Repair Order area.
The conversion from the existing 16Bit version of
Fleet Controller™ and
Parts Controller™ was seamless to our customers and did not cost them
anything
beyond their normal service agreement. It provides a clear path into
the future
with Microsoft's newer 32Bit operating systems such as Windows 2000 Pro
and XP.
The ability to generate sequentially numbered paper
Repair Order input
forms is offered. Also, a new PRINT option in the FastHist Vehicle
Control
Panel is available that will print out a completed repair
order (including
parts from Parts Controller). It mimics the format of the Repair Order
input
form and has the expected cost totals for parts and labor at the bottom.
Repair Order correction in Fleet Controller™ is
greatly simplified. A new
FixRO option is available in the FastHist Vehicle Control
Panel to link
you directly to the correction screen where you can immediately make a
correction.
2001 - The 2001 Upgrade featured
our new report maker. This
represented a major step forward in both ease of use and utility
provided.
Every report is now in a fully scrollable window and can be run with a
simple
hit RUN and GO process. We believe it re-defined the art in Fleet
Management
report makers.
Customers with fuel system interfaces can now preview
a fuel system file before
it is read into Fleet Controller™....a very useful
enhancement to ensure
that you are in fact dealing with the correct
file.
Customers with Parts Controller™
have always had the ability to pass thru a
part...if a part is very
unusual and you may only use it once, you may not want to set it up in
inventory, but instead just pass it thru. These
parts expenses have
always been tracked in Fleet Controller™, but now they have been added
to the
Parts Controller 's history records so that a complete parts usage
history can
be seen even if parts have been passed thru instead
of being setup.
2000 - The 2000 Upgrade featured
upgrades to Fleet Controller's Fasthist Vehicle
Control Panel. We
related to the fact that FastHist is very similar in concept to
Microsoft's
Digital Dashboard approach...but Fleet Controller's dates back to the
early
1980's. (FastHist
is
a specially designed screen format that is meant to be the central
place for
vehicle control. It combines selectable setup detail in the top 1/3 of
the
screen with selectable repair history in the bottom 2/3 of the screen.
It
becomes essential for mechanics to view when doing repairs and
essential for
managers to use to quickly review vehicle details. Once you have used
it you do
not know how you could have lived without it. It is unique to Fleet
Controller.)
In this update we improved the scrolling capabilities
in the detailed
history, added a Repair Order look up option, and added a new pop-up
window for
Parts Controller™
customers.
This new pop-up window allows Parts Controller™ users to see all of the
parts
used for the vehicle or just those used for a particular Repair Order.
1999 - The 1999 Upgrade was very
important.....it is when we moved
to the Microsoft Access database format for the data storage files for
both
Fleet Controller™
and Parts
Controller™
. This moved us to a
100% Microsoft solution...which meant an unprecedented level of
stability,
portability, and security in the Windows World for our
customers.
(The
ability to
seamlessly migrate our customer base to the new Access database follows
a
pattern that Fleet Computing has followed for a long time. We have
Fleet
Controller customers that started using Fleet Controller in the early
1980's
with 8Bit software in the DOS environment. They were seamlessly
migrated to
Windows and 16Bit software, Year 2000 compatibility, and now to the
Access
database...all without ever losing any data! We have
followed this same
ideology with our user interface...we never shock our users with wild
new
interfaces in the new releases. In contrast to Microsoft, we purposely
move at
an evolutionary pace that minimizes the new training impact of each
upgrade.)
In this update we also improved our Evaluation
Reports. There is now a
separate Evaluation section in our portfolio of reports in Fleet
Controller™.
The focus is on making them easier than
ever to use. A beginning user can now run sophisticated Evaluation
Reports to
see which of their vehicles have High Fuel Use or High Cost per Mile by
simply
hitting the RUN button. No decisions have to be made. (Of course, if
more
refined conditions are desired, they are readily available.)
The Evaluations section also includes replacement
analysis based upon the
powerful purchase cost to repair cost ratios, mileage projections, and
cost per
mile analysis.
Fleet
Computing International, Inc.
PO Box 1600 Alamogordo,
NM 88311 575
434-2323 Fax
575 434-9632
e-mail
fci@fleetcomputing.com
Copyright © 2000
- 2007
Fleet Computing International, Inc.