More news...
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Orbital Sciences Corporation
Orbital Selected for $10 Million Transportation Management
Systems Contract
Delaware Transit Authorities Select Company's Satellite-Based Vehicle Location System to Manage Public
Transportation Fleet
DULLES, Va., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB - news) today announced that its Transportation
Management Systems (TMS) Division has been selected by the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC) and the Delaware Department of
Transportation for a $10 million contract to supply its state-of-the-art SmartTrack satellite-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) system. The
DTC will use Orbital's system to track, monitor and manage its 355-vehicle fleet, consisting of 176 fixed-route, 134 paratransit and 45
supervisor/support vehicles. Orbital's SmartTrack system provides up-to-date vehicle positioning information that will allow the DTC to
improve the efficiency of its fleet operations and service to its customers.
The SmartTrack system provides real-time vehicle location information delivered through the U.S. Government's Global Positioning System
(GPS) satellites. It consists of data processors and fleet management software, and interfaces with existing DTC in-vehicle passenger amenities
such as digital read-outs and voice annunciation of the next stop on predetermined routes. The system's terrestrial-based communications
component will use Motorola's newest-generation mobile radios for voice communications and a data communications infrastructure from
Transcrypt E. F. Johnson Company.
Mr. Raymond C. Miller, the Director of the DTC, said, ``The Delaware Transit Corporation is an innovative organization that embraces
intelligent transportation system technologies. As a new member of the Delaware Transit family, I am proud to be on the leading edge of
implementing a fleet management system that will provide the citizens of Delaware with improved public transportation service into the next
century.'
Orbital's TMS business has experienced rapid growth over the past several years as a result of new contract wins and the 1998 acquisition of
Raytheon Company's transportation management business. Orbital TMS is now the country's leading supplier of satellite-based AVL systems,
generating annual revenues of about $50 million and employing over 200 people at facilities in Germantown and Linthicum, Maryland and State
College, Pennsylvania.
IMO, the Delaware use will become standard. I expect that all transportation systems will want to keep track of inventory. I wonder whether it has application for airplanes, or will it not receive altitude data? But the technology is getting so common that I just had a golf cart with a screen that gave distances to the green front, middle, and back. Too bad I can't hit straight.
I'm standing pat.
fred |
