Surveying Electronic Systems in the Marketplace

– What is the marketplace?

– Characteristics of current systems.

– How do we audit these systems?

– How do we work with electronic data?

What is the Marketplace?

• Highly competitive industry very sensitive to costs for labor, equipment, fuel, and insurance.

• Intensely regulated by many levels of government. Its not just us!

• Literally the engine of the economy.

What is the Marketplace?

• To remain competitive the benefits of electronic systems must be leveraged.

– Greater control over expensive assets– Greater utilization of time– Enhanced customer service– Greater control over fuel purchases– Greater efficiency in business processes– Accurate records equals less audit exposure

What is the Marketplace?

Regulation!

• CSA: Compliance, Safety, Accountability – A system that measures the BASICS

– Safety may be enhanced by electronic Hours of Service logs and by electronically monitoring driver performance and acting accordingly.

• Compliance with IFTA and IRP reporting requirements?

What is the Marketplace?

Current/Future Regulation

• 395.15 Automatic onboard recording devices

•395.16 Electronic onboard recording devices

•395 Appendix A– A flat file format that would contain almost everything a jurisdiction needs to verify distance.

Some service providers in the Marketplace

Comdata First Advantage FleetLegal HCH

ITS JJ Keller

NECS North Star

OTS PCMiler

ProMiles Peoplenet

Qualcomm Telogis

T-check Vusion

Wright Express Jurisdictions

What do the service providers in the marketplace do?

•Hardware systems

•Software systems

•Distance and Fuel systems

•Mixture of all or any of the three

Characteristics of Distance Systems

• Hardware to determine location

• Hardware to record or transmit “pings” data

• Software to interpret location information

• Software to calculate continual distance

• Software to interface location with mapping programs

Hardware common to most systems

• Driver interface• An onboard computer

• A data bus interfaces with the ECM

• An antenna or dish is present

• A device to transmit and receive data

Examples of Hardware Systems

•Peoplenet – System

•Qualcomm – MCP110

•Xata – Turnpike Overview

Software common to most systems

• Multipurpose software for:– Asset management – Communications– Electronic logs– Back office functions– Daily vehicle inspection records– Location data and/or fuel data.

Distance Data

Examples of ping data receive

Lat Long example

Distance and Fuel systems

• Incorporating data from distance and fuel systems

– When data for distance and fuel comes together the accuracy of distance and fuel reporting is improved

Summary Reports

Vusion Report Example

Action point for EVERYONE

• Catalogue as many systems as possible

• Create library of reports that can be generated from catalogued systems

• Ultimately create a standard protocol for the format of data retained and for its exchange for audit.

Expert Advice

Experts are never wrong

Expert Advice

Take a break!

How do we audit these systems?

• Difficulties encountered:

– Many of these systems utilize no paper.– There are numerous kinds of systems using different file structures.– Electronic data can result in massive file sizes.– The exchange of the data can be difficult.

How do we audit these systems?

• Difficulties encountered:

– How do we verify distance?– How do we verify fuel?– What are the weaknesses in these systems?– What are the problems when dealing with GPS?

• Lets just “No Change” it and get the heck out of here!!!!

Electronic system audits can be more efficient than audits of manual systems.

• Learn the system from the Carrier, the hardware supplier, and the reporting service if applicable.

• Realize that in many cases Carriers do not know what their system is capable of doing.

• It is likely they have the system for asset management and Hours of Service and not IFTA and IRP.

• Document the source data that is available.

• Document the reports available.

• Identify all of the units that exist during the audit period.

Begin the audit by documenting the system and testing the internal controls.

• Follow a unit’s activity through the system.

• Request an exception report.

• Based on your tests and the exception report select a sample size and individual sample units for an appropriate test period.

• To this point you have used manual reporting audit steps!

Validate your sample

• Validate that the sample that you have selected is representative of your Carrier’s operations. Sample example

Be aware of some common errors.

•Examples of a common errors found:

– Infrequent ping rate resulting in missed distance– Units that disappear– Units the are not reported for long periods after being purchased.

Be aware of some common errors.

•Examples of a common errors found:

– Latitude and Longitude readings are misinterpreted– Mileage program parameters are not set properly– MPG’s that are not reasonable either low or high.

Open Discussion of Auditing Electronic Systems