York County, South Carolina

Valued for its high quality of life and rich cultural heritage, York County is one of the fastest growing counties in South Carolina. It is home to 217,000 people and encompasses nine municipalities. York County's GIS department provides a variety of applications for citizens and its 1000 employees and is the recipient of multiple awards, including a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) award from ESRI in 2005. Their mission is to promote informed decision-making and improve county efficiency through the use of technology.

In order to achieve their web GIS-related goals, York County deploys several products including ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE, ArcIMS, Geocortex Essentials, and Geocortex Optimizer. In 2008, the county recognized the need for an application that could track and help departments more effectively manage mobile assets, including vehicles and work crews. In 2007, an 800 MHz Motorola Astro 25 radio system was implemented and integrated with desktop computers, handheld units, and mobile data terminals (mostly laptops) mounted in vehicles. However, problems arose when employees were in need of help but couldn't report their location due to lack of radio coverage. This was one of the issues that helped spark York County's interest in Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) technology for ArcGIS Server.

When an organization deploys tracking technology of this nature, it is important to communicate the value proposition to employees. "When staff first hear of this technology, they initially may find it intrusive to learn their supervisors are able to monitor their location," notes Bryan Townsend, GIS Administrator for York County. "We are able to move beyond that concern by pointing out to them that their safety is enhanced and that taxpayer resources, such as vehicle wear, fuel, and staff time are more wisely used."

York County deployed a beta version of their custom AVL solution in September 2008 and are preparing for the final implementation due this summer. Their solution was designed to poll their Motorola radio system, which enables them to capture location and attribute data sent from vehicles and store it in a database through ArcSDE. This AVL system lets staff observe the last known location of any vehicle; it can also alert supervisors when vehicle usage or location parameters are triggered. Examples include vehicle idle time, whether the engine is on or off, and whether a vehicle returns to the office at the end of the day (via geofencing).

York County's early implementation of fleet tracking was built with Web ADF and incorporated into Geocortex Essentials with a custom map refresh tool and ArcIMS-generation AVL components developed by Latitude Geographics. While the data they can query and report on is somewhat limited, it includes speed, date/time, vehicle ID, driver, and vehicle type.

"We are eagerly awaiting the upcoming Fleet Tracker for Geocortex Essentials product using ESRI's Silverlight API," notes Townsend. "Despite the early success we've achieved with our custom solution, we're standing by to implement Latitude's productized solution that will provide a full-featured system streamlined around vehicle tracking and reporting."

One benefit of York County's early deployment of ArcGIS Server-based fleet tracking is that it has allowed them to start a valuable conversation with end users. Staff are already thinking about various workflows that can benefit from this technology, including the coordination and management of multiple work crews. There is also value in knowing how much time is spent repairing a particular road segment, how often it's been repaired, and how much time different types of crews need on average to complete their work. The collected data could be used for a variety of purposes, from reducing downtime between jobs to justifying the spending of capital improvement funds.

"We are looking forward to the future because the technology is already showing tremendous value," observes Townsend. "Overall, customer service is improved and taxpayers' dollars go further when we are able to better manage our resources—it's a win-win situation for everyone."

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