ALK, a Trimble Company, has rolled out Weather Alerts - the latest module for its ALK Maps and PC*MILER web-services platforms. According to the company, fleet managers can use the new module to “quickly and easily identify weather-alert information overlaid on the existing ALK Maps route-visualization platform to assess the impact on route planning. This can improve driver safety and operational productivity by more efficiently planning routes around inclement weather.”
ALK Maps’ Weather Alerts pulls in severe weather-alert information directly from the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The company noted that there are over 120 different alert types that will “enable fleets to plan for and avoid inclement weather of all types.” The alerts include winter storm warnings, wind advisories, hurricanes and flood alerts and they are categorized based on severity, urgency and certainty.
The Weather Alerts are directly displayed on the ALK Maps platform and color-coded using recognizable NWS color schemes. Per the company, “users can easily see if their assets are currently within or routed through alert zones. Organizations can use web-services access to perform route intersections against specific events and analyze assets within the inclement alert zones. Drivers can then be notified of potential danger or routed safely around alert zones.”
“In addition to providing real-time weather information for planning routes to improve driver safety, this service can also boost productivity and efficiency for fleet managers and dispatchers,” said Rishi Mehra, ALK’s senior product manager, Enterprise Solutions.
“The Weather Alerts module automates the time-intensive process of actively tracking weather conditions across the U.S. as well as determining which alerts may affect drivers, then rerouting them to avoid hazardous conditions,” he continued.
“ALK Maps now does all that heavy lifting and integrates the pertinent information into one tool,” Mehra added. “Driver and fleet managers can now focus on directing vehicles around problems, rather than figuring out what those problems are and where they exist in the first place.”
