Nashville Electric Service Selects In Motion Technology for Vehicle Tracking and Mobile Communications

NES now dispatches closest available crews to address outages

NASHVILLE, Tenn. & VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In Motion Technology, the leader in mobile networking technologies that efficiently connect and manage equipment, information and people in the field, today announced Nashville Electric Service has deployed the company’s end-to-end mobile networking and fleet management solution to improve dispatches, communications, and customer service.

“NES had extremely rigorous and forward-looking specifications for their new mobile communications technology, and we’re pleased to have been chosen to equip their fleet”

“When we began our search for a new mobile communications technology, we set very demanding specifications,” said Vic Hatridge, Nashville’s Chief Information Officer. “We found the onBoard Mobile Gateway to be far superior to laptop-based devices,” said Hatridge. “Data cards are enclosed in steel and mounted in vehicles, so they are not easily broken, lost or stolen. In Motion Technology’s solution integrates seamlessly with our management and dispatch system to track vehicles, while providing high-bandwidth mobile communications over any wireless network. The solution is helping us improve operations and enhance customer service, and provides a platform on which we can deploy new applications.”

Nashville Electric Service, one of the largest publicly owned electric utilities in the nation, serves more than 357,000 residential and business customers across seven counties in north-central Tennessee. This year, the American Public Power Association awarded NES the Reliable Public Power Providers (RP3®) Diamond status, the electric industry’s highest designation for reliability, safety, workforce development and system improvement.

NES installed In Motion’s onBoard Mobile Gateways in 146 bucket trucks and supervisory vehicles. The Gateway turns vehicles into mobile hotspots, providing wireless connectivity to laptops and other devices in and around the vehicle. The Gateway can roam across wireless networks to provide the highest bandwidth and most reliable communications anywhere. It is easy to install, maintain and upgrade, and requires no user intervention.

The Gateway is GPS-enabled, allowing NES dispatchers to track all vehicles on a single screen and dispatch the closet truck to an outage or service call – a capability that will reduce response times and fuel use, while improving efficiency and customer service.

In Motion’s web-based onBoard Mobility Manager scans and analyzes information from Gateway equipped vehicles to provide NES with real time and historical information about its operations and communications. If a vehicle leaves its designated service area or exceeds speed limits, dispatchers receive email alerts. NES also used the onBoard Mobility Manager to map all available wireless networks in its service area and select the one with the best coverage. In the future, NES may use the management system to monitor vehicle telemetry and other information from the field in real time.

“NES had extremely rigorous and forward-looking specifications for their new mobile communications technology, and we’re pleased to have been chosen to equip their fleet,” said Tony Morris, In Motion Technology's VP of Sales and Marketing. “Many of the most demanding organizations in North America rely on In Motion to track, connect and manage their fleets and mobile operations, and we’re pleased to work with NES to improve operations, keep costs low and customer satisfaction high."

About In Motion Technology

In Motion Technology is the leader in mobile networking technologies that connect and manage equipment, information and people in the field. In Motion’s patented Mobile Wireless Hot Spot System (US Patent #7,382,771) turns each vehicle into a secure, mobile communications hotspot that enables people on the road to stay in constant contact, as onboard communications roam seamlessly across wireless networks. It provides organizations with real-time information to manage operations to peak efficiency, and frees individuals to be effective anywhere, any time. Today, In Motion’s solutions are used by more than 275 municipal, healthcare, public safety, transportation and utility organizations worldwide. Founded in 2002, In Motion Technology is based in Vancouver, BC. For more information, please call Louise Labuda (In Motion Technology) at [phone] ext. 538 or Michael Rubin (Rubin|Meyer) at [phone], or visit www.inmotiontechnology.com.

About In Nashville Electric Service

Nashville Electric Service is one of the 12 largest public electric utilities in the nation, distributing energy to nearly 357,000 customers in Middle Tennessee. For more information about NES, visit www.nespower.com.