Ground Support Worldwide - 35

Photo courtesy of The Ortus Group

GROUND SERVICE
PROVIDERS

paper processes to eliminate human error
are major benefits telematics provide in
this area. The traditional calendar-based
approach works. But if a piece of equipment
isn't used the full amount of time expected
in that period or goes over the number of
hours planned, he explains only a telematics
solution can provide the contextual information for a much clearer picture leading
to additional cost savings.
"We put data to it, and data wins debates,"
he says.

REDUCE EXCESS IDLE TIME

many accidents will occur."
Loftus agrees. He says Ortus' Driver
ID can identify who is driving, but if an
infraction or accident does occur, telematics
allows a recap to be conducted.
"The entire journey can be replayed to
see exactly what actions the driver took, for
example, when the brake pedal was pushed,
whether the indicators, lights, wipers (etc.)
were active, how harshly the vehicle was
being driven, steering wheel angle, etc.," he
notes.
While telematics systems are not a total
solution to avoiding accidents, many in the
industry concur that the technology helps
deter dangerous activities on the airfield.
"If somebody is driving unsafe around
the airport or using a high value asset in an
unauthorized area or purpose, you're going
to know who that is and can take action,"
says Brown.

OPTIMIZE FLEET USAGE
When Delta Air Lines acquired Northwest
Airlines, Brown says their fleet size doubled.
"How do you deal with that?" he asks
before explaining that telematics have been
instrumental in helping ground support
providers accurately track fleet usage.
"Once you can get your arms around how
much of that equipment you actually need,
you can impact capital budgets by 10 percent
right off the top, conservatively speaking,"
Brown adds. "Now you have the ability to
know where every single one of those assets
are, when and where they are being used
and when to deploy them to dramatically

enhance efficiency."
In a five-year contract with Gatwick
Airport, Ortus' telematics system, Airsight,
will help the airport monitor the safety and
efficiency of its fleet, but also analyze the
activities, safety and compliance of more
than 2,000 airside vehicles.
Implementing telematics has already
helped Gatwick gain some "quick wins"
in identifying bottlenecks, which are
impacting efficiency. Loftus says the data
is presented in a variety of formats, but
the heatmap clearly shows the density of
certain activities and vehicle movements of
the airport.
"Gatwick then uses this information to
plan how to reduce or eliminate the bottlenecks," he says.

MAINTENANCE
Ben Dhia explains that telematics can track
maintenance needs for ground support
equipment. The data on how many hours a
piece has been in service since its last maintenance check is automatically recorded via
the software, versus a staff person walking
to each unit and tracking hour meters.
It also provides a much faster response
for maintenance needs, as an alarm on the
vehicle alerts staff to low fluid levels, air
pressure on tires and more.
"General maintenance becomes more
efficient and the reaction time is better,"
Ben Dhia adds. "Once you start telematics,
you can plan your maintenance."
Brown says that relying on data for
preventative maintenance and digitizing

Brown notes that excess idle time is a
"plague" in the GSE field and that many
financial pros are constantly looking for
ways to cut fuel costs. The airplanes are
not necessarily the biggest wasters, either,
he adds.
"We have seen instances where equipment sits idle overnight because people are
irresponsible, parking at the gate because
they didn't want to have to walk back," he
states.
In a current study for one airline, a small
sample of just 27 of the 72 assets logged
398 hours of excess idle time in 14 days.
This translated into about $260,000 in fuel
wasted annually. Now, imagine that across
an entire fleet; the savings could be in the
10's of millions.
"It's scary," Brown says. "Once the
telematics system is installed, you can start
to see very easily how to pay yourself back
and have that system paying you by just getting some of this fuel usage under control."

SECURITY AND ACCESS
CONTROL
According to Ben Dhia, in Europe 99 percent of installations include the access control portion, where the United States has
not adopted that practice yet. The need is
there, however, as most of the equipment on
a tarmac is free for anyone to use, trained
or untrained, he says. Ben Dhia says Belgian ground support provider Aviapartner
pulled Adveez into the telematics' business
when the company was looking for a fast
installation product that can offer data and
access control.
The access control portion helps manage
who drives equipment based on their train-

AUGUST 2019

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Ground Support Worldwide

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