Edinburgh Council looking for 'vehicle telematics management system'

Council will be able to track bin lift counts for refuse collection vehicles and spreader movements for winter gritting with new system

The City of Edinburgh Council is looking for a supplier to provide it with a vehicle telematics management system, which would enable it to track various metrics on a range of vehicles.

The council said in a tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, that it wanted a system "with single route vehicle optimisation from companies with a proven track record in the supply, installation, commissioning, testing and management of such systems".

It said that training provision would be for up to 400 staff including drivers and supervisors.

Initially, the council wants the service for its building, waste, road and taskforce services, and it has identified 400 vehicles that it wants to use as part of the project.

The council said that the system would be required for winter gritting to track spreader movements and actions, and that it should be able to provide more detailed management information for varying types of vehicles. It gives examples such as bin lift counts for refuse collection vehicles, operating times for PTO equipment, and the amount of fuel used by each vehicle. The notice states that the system has to be capable of data interchange with the council's Confirm asset management system.

"The system is to be hosted externally by the service provider and its primary user interface is to be web based, not requiring a thick client. The telematics systems web-based interfaces must be compatible with all major browsers (including specifically IE9) and deploy true response web design for seamless rendering across multiple form factors and can integrate out-of-the-box with the council's Active Directory to ensure only authorised user access," the tender notice reads.

The system has to be interoperable with Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Services to v1.3.0 and must have the appropriate ISO certifications.

In addition the notice states that the vehicle management system must "provide secure access for any authorised user to the tracking data and reports for 99 per cent of the time and must be capable of 24 hour, seven day web-based access via a secure network which shall give the council access to real-time continuous monitoring of vehicles".

The council does not require voice communication as part of the system.

The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement and is worth about £450,000 excluding VAT. The contract is for five years with up to two further 12-month extensions.