SafeTrack aims at allowing companies to manage vehicle fleets
and cargo in a secure way using accessible off-the-shelf mobile
devices, RFID technology and Geofence techniques. Fig. 1 shows
the model overview, which is composed of five main components,
as follows: Delivery Provider, Website Monitoring and Management,
SafeTrack Server, Carrier Station and Depot Station.
The component Delivery Provider provides a set of web pages for
business clients to give information about load’s shipments, such
as origin, final destination, pickup and delivery dates, among
others. The input of data is done by employees of service contractors,
which are called Delivery Provider Operators.
The SafeTrack Website allows administrative functionalities and
view features to show the monitored mobile devices movements.
Furthermore, it permits to monitor, at real-time, the ongoing travels
and alarm’s occurrence as detour route, low battery and delivery
status. The administrator has full access to the Website
Monitoring and Management functionalities. The monitor only
has permission to check the ongoing transportations, and check
deliveries and travel information. The logistics planner is able to
manage the travels and routes at real-time. The SafeTrack Server
manages the model and also stores location data sent by mobile
devices. Its main tasks are: to control and to manage of routes
and loads, to optimize the routes, and also to provide resources
as services to other SafeTrack’s components. The Carrier Station component represents vehicles that deal with goods transportation
and identifies events when a load enters or leaves the vehicle.
Besides,this component is in charge of obtain the GPS coordinates.
Finally, Depot Station represents logistics stations, such as warehouses
or distribution points. The component detects and identifies
when a load enters or leaves, transmitting this information
to the SafeTrack Server, confirming the load’s reception.
The model was planned to support several connections at the
same time. SafeTrack employs web services and SOAP protocol
for communication. We chose this approach to avoid problems in
communication due firewalls and underlying technologies.
Furthermore, web services add several advantages to the model,
such as software reuse, increased productivity, interoperability
and scalability. The next subsections describe in details the functionalities
of each component of the model.