Nowadays, fleet management is an ordinary solution used to enhance efficiency and productivity in agricultural tasks. This application may contribute to vehicle maintenance, overseeing fuel consumption and fuel costs, driver management, asset utilization, pass-to-pass planning and the implementation of any program that increases the company’s productivity and reduce costs.
Fleet Management solutions can be used by individual farmers, owning tractors/harvesters, who are interested in benefitting from the new technologies, farms with large fleets or cooperatives whose technicians manage data for their members.
Trimble, an international company founded in 1978 with a presence in more than 180 countries, offers solutions based on GNSS technology for different fields of application such as construction, transport or agriculture. In particular, Trimble has a fleet management tool named FarmStream Fleet (included within the Farmer Core software) which is a complementary solution for Trimble precision agricultural solutions such as auto-guidance or ISO controller systems.
EGNOS can be an enabler for the users of FarmStream Fleet tool, contributing to monitoring the location, status and movement of the tractors in the field. These data can be synchronised with cloud information to support real-time management decisions.
In particular, FarmStream Fleet has a significant penetration in Italy. Fabio Tucci, from Trimble, explains that “today EGNOS is the most popular service for entry level customers in our GFX-350 screen with the NAV-500 receiver. The way to activate it is easy and friendly with an accuracy provided sufficient for many users”. Fabio also clarifies that “the use of EGNOS is being positive for users, especially in isolated areas with no internet connection”.
The testimony of Giulia, a farmer from Piacenza, confirms the positive impact of EGNOS in fleet management. She cultivates wheat, corn, sunflower, sorghum and beans, among others. As she said: “FarmStream fleet together with EGNOS offers me the possibility of knowing the location of all my vehicles directly from my office in a fast, simple and precise way. This allows me to have control of my entire fleet of vehicles at a click".