Enhance Fleet Performance with Intelligent Safety Solutions

forklift warehouse

Glacier Computer has partnered with Powerfleet, a global leader in Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for industrial, logistics, and transportation sectors, to provide equipment and software solutions to improve fleet management and driver safety. By leveraging cutting-edge hardware solution with technologies like AI, real-time telematics, and data analytics, Glacier and Powerfleet’s safety solutions offer proactive risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency.

Powerfleet’s cutting-edge offerings and Glacier Computers’ comprehensive data collection solutions empower productivity and operations while maximizing safety and compliance.

  1. Driver behavior monitoring

At the core of Powerfleet’s vehicle safety framework is driver behavior monitoring, a system designed to detect and correct unsafe driving patterns. Through onboard diagnostics and advanced sensors, the platform monitors parameters such as speed, harsh braking, rapid acceleration, sharp cornering, and seat belt usage. This data is analyzed to generate driver safety scores and actionable insights that fleet managers can use to coach drivers and enforce safe driving standards. Over time, this feedback loop fosters a safety-first culture throughout fleet operations.

forklift and factory

  1. Video telematics

Another cornerstone of the framework is video telematics, which combines AI-powered dashcams with real-time analysis to detect distracted driving, fatigue, and violations such as cellphone use or failure to stop. These dashcams record road-facing and driver-facing footage, offering critical visibility into incidents. In the event of a collision or risky behavior, alerts are generated instantly, allowing for immediate intervention. This protects drivers, reduces liability, and facilitates training and incident reconstruction.

  1. Real-time alerts and predictive analytics

Another critical layer of Powerfleet’s safety approach is real-time alerts and predictive analytics. Powerfleet’s system can anticipate mechanical failures and identify high-risk routes by analyzing trends and aggregating data across vehicles and routes. These predictive capabilities enable maintenance teams to address potential issues before they become safety hazards. Additionally, route-specific safety recommendations assist drivers in avoiding accident-prone areas or adjusting their driving behavior based on road conditions.

powerfleet features clip

  1. Regulatory compliance

Powerfleet also ensures regulatory compliance with transportation safety laws, including hours-of-service (HOS) and electronic logging device (ELD) mandates. Their solutions automate the logging of driving hours and vehicle inspections, helping organizations avoid penalties and maintain fleet certifications. Integrating with federal safety standards ensures fleets operate within legal frameworks while reducing the administrative burden.

  1. Data and Reporting

An often-overlooked aspect of Powerfleet’s framework is its data-driven fleet coaching and customized reporting tools. By translating vast amounts of data into intuitive dashboards and tailored reports, fleet managers gain a holistic view of safety performance. These tools facilitate benchmarking safety metrics, goal-setting, and timely tracking of improvements. Whether addressing individual driver behavior or company-wide trends, the insights support continuous safety enhancements.

Conclusion

Glacier Computer is founded on one goal: What technology can we introduce that solves problems in your business, industry, or environment? From small businesses to international players, we deliver the solutions and support you need to do the job, from rugged tablets and handhelds to fixed-mount systems, laptops, mobile printers, and scanners. Partnering with Powerfleet’s vehicle safety framework adds a multi-layered, technology-driven solution that empowers our customers to build safer, smarter, and more efficient fleets.

Together, we offer the industry’s best rugged computing products and accessories, coupled with time-tested integrated software, safety, and compliance solutions delivered by an experienced technical counselor.

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Four Ways Zebra ET4X Rugged Tablets Outperform Consumer Devices

For the past decade or more, the need to keep workers connected has been the driving force for businesses to adopt creative mobility solutions. From warehouse workers and delivery drivers to retail sales associates and healthcare staff, just about everyone is using mobile devices to access data, monitor workflows, and collaborate with others.

The proliferation of mobile devices doesn’t come cheap, however, especially when you’re outfitting a large share of your workforce. The cost equation has some decision-makers wondering if they can get by with consumer devices, which usually have a lower up-front cost, rather than enterprise-grade devices.

We are strong supporters of enterprise-grade devices for workplace applications simply because we’ve seen over and over how the total cost of ownership (TCO) is significantly lower over the long term. From durability to security to easier device management, the extra up-front investment pays off over time.  While there is a higher up-front cost, savings are experienced over the life of the products due to less breakage, less user downtime and minimal IT personnel involvement.

This is especially true when you consider Zebra’s lineup of ET4X Series, Android rugged tablets, which deliver enterprise-grade benefits at a value price point that makes it feasible to deploy them across a wide segment of workforce uses. Whether your applications call for the Wi-Fi only ET40 or the Wi-Fi/cellular ET45, you’ll have a choice of 8-inch or 10-inch screen sizes in a right-priced enterprise tablet that’s built for business.

Here are just four of the things that make Zebra’s ET4X lineup a better investment for business use than any consumer device:

Durability

Zebra’s ET4X tablets are rugged right out of the box, requiring no additional protection to withstand the handling that you must account for in workforce applications. They feature IP65 sealing for protection against dust and moisture, and they’re rated for 4-foot drops to concrete. To get anything approaching that level of drop protection in a consumer device, you’ll need to add a rugged boot at an additional cost.

Integrated Barcode Scanning

From retail to healthcare, many business workflows are streamlined with barcoding technology, but those benefits are hard to capture if your workers’ mobile devices offer only faulty camera-based scanning. Zebra’s ET4X tablets offer three integrated 2D scanner options—engineered by the experts in barcode technology—for optimal scanning performance with no added investment in bulky third-party scanning sleds or additional software licenses.

Longer Hardware Lifecycle

With consumer-level mobile devices, obsolescence is inevitable, with upgrades coming as frequently as every nine months. That spells disaster for workforce deployment: within just a few years, you’ll have several different models in use, creating major device management headaches. Zebra’s rugged enterprise tablets are engineered for a lifecycle that stretches at least 6 years, with complete support and security upgrades throughout, making them far easier for your IT staff to support and giving your workers a consistent experience from shift to shift.

Power Management and Battery Performance

The battery is one area where enterprise-grade devices usually separate themselves from consumer devices, and Zebra’s ET4X rugged tablets are no exception. In the standard configuration, both the ET40 and ET45 deliver full-shift battery performance, and an optional hot-swappable battery is available for even more power management flexibility. And note that Zebra’s devices feature user-replaceable batteries, so you won’t be stuck with the declining battery performance that’s common with aging consumer devices.

For more than 20 years, the Glacier team has offered the very best rugged computing solutions for the data collection marketplace. Zebra is a premier Glacier partner with solutions for every challenging application.  Please contact your Glacier sales rep for more information at https://glaciercomputer.com or call 866-724-6257.

10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Forklift Computer

forklift - Mounting the right computer on a forklift doesn’t need to be a daunting task.

Yes, there are myriad options from rugged all-in-one vehicle-mount units to a wide array of industrial tablet computers.

Yes, making the right selection for your environment and application will play a significant role in user-acceptance, deployment success, and ultimately the ROI management expects from a capital purchase of this size.

And while there is no one-size-fits-all “remedy” you can find the best solution for your operation if you know what questions to ask.

Glacier has deployed more than 30,000 rugged computers over the past 17 years in every sort of operating environment and we’ve compiled a list of the most common questions to ask before you invest in devices for your fleet of fork trucks, carts, or hostlers.

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