Geospatial dataset specialist Critchlow, is investigating ways for its rich NZ-based transport data to be better utilised by our transport industry.
“The company specialises in supplying spatial data and analysis for customers to make informed decisions around everything from site location, through to routing point to point,” says chief executive Jos Kunnen.
“We do a lot of work with government – in the transport sector we provided spatial analysis of crash statistics for the NZTA.”
“A lot of our work is for those wanting to do advanced planning and head office-type strategy, but our new deal with Nokia Location & Commerce is opening up a number of opportunities for fleet operators in the sector.”
“The Nokia deal means we have access to a number of other datasets we haven’t had access to before. One of these is traffic patterns and we have 10 years of traffic flow data for all of the major roads in new zealand. We see that as an exciting opportunity for transport operators to start to get a more effective modelling for their logistics,” says Kunnen.
“We don’t come from a trucking background as such, but we have some exciting projects that are starting to form and look like they are going to have significant benefit for transport customers.”
“One area we work in is smart routing, which is a mixture of route management and fleet right sizing. If you have a large fleet and large amount of pick up points and customers to service, what is the right number of vehicles and the right schedule order to service those customers?”
“Our data has around 120 layers of content. One layer might be points of interest such as service stations, schools, hospitals. Another thing we are working on is plotting different access points for businesses. For trucking operators the street address is not the drop off address, they need to know where the loading bay is, or where the office entrance is,” says Kunnen.
“Some early work we’ve done shows some significant gains that can be obtained, through the optimisation tools we’ve developed, and increasing consultancy experience in the area and the data sets we now have in this area.”
“Nokia brings some very advanced technology that they’ve deployed globally and basically do another level of validation on top of our data. An example is taking all the intersection junctions units, and in GPS unit you can get a 3D picture of the junction. Or you can use the data to work out whether an oversize vehicle can fit on a one-way bridge or tunnel.”
Kunnen says that looking into the future, they see a number of spin-offs, such as getting richer info so they can start to identify road hazards or congestion areas.
“Technology is advancing quickly and soon hazards will be identified in real time, warning if a sharp bend is coming up, perhaps sounding an alarm if the GPS unit thinks you are going too fast for the bend.”
“Navteq is looking at predictive driving, so our role there will be to continue to gain the best info we can about the NZ network and give to them.”
“For the transport industry we are talking to people about what is an easier product for fleet operators to be able to access for this information.”
“We do some work with the insurance sector in terms of risk analysis. From an accident perspective we work more with the NZTA, but insurance companies are looking at information to do with the risk associated with assets they are insuring.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t disclose any details of the pilot programs we are looking at for the transport industry,” says Kunnen, “but details around these should be emerging in the next few months. I can say that these will have a triple layer of benefits for drivers, the environment, and business profits.”
Critchlow chief executive Jos Kunnen joined the company four years ago, and has a background in the IT industry. He says the explosion of GPS and navigation systems was exciting, and that he saw there were opportunities to leverage in the business sector.
“I had my own enlightening experience during a cycling holiday in Europe. Let’s just say a particular electronic device saved me a lot of time.”
The company was founded by Steve Critchlow 21 years ago, who was one of the early players to adopt computer based spatial systems. He saw that with the rise of PCs, there were some excellent analysis tools of data, but effectively no visual maps. Critchlow and his team started to develop a map of New Zealand that could be displayed on a computer, which came to be know as ‘national map.’
