Garmin enhances FMI functionality

15 Oct 2008

Garmin's Fleet Management Interface (FMI) system has been improved to include features such as canned responses and messages, driver ID and driver status protocol. Integrated with mobile resource management companies, Garmin's FMI service enables fleet tracking, messaging, dispatch and navigation directly on its PNDs.

According to Garmin's director of mobile & OEM marketing, Charles Morse, the company will be able to replace existing mobile data terminals with Garmin navigation devices that will pinpoint the location of every asset and help ensure that vehicles are deployed and operated efficiently.

Fleet dispatchers can send multiple destinations and other instructions through Garmin's FMI directly to their drivers, who can then access detailed turn-by-turn, text-to-speech, voice prompted directions to their destinations.

The recently updated FMI specifications, v2, features the ability to send up to 120 canned messages and 200 canned response, up to fifty of which may be selected by the fleet manager as allowed responses for any given message. This capability eliminates the need to re-type regularly recurring messages from the driver's GPS display.

The added driver ID and driver status protocols enable drivers to use the GPS device to log the vehicle they are using before starting their day, as well as communicate when a shift or break starts and stops. These enhancements give fleet managers the ability to customize the GPS device's POI database, which is ideal for specialized tasks like cataloguing company-approved vendor locations or information about specific locations.