Fleet Management System Interface (FMS) Standard for Commercial Vehicles

The challenges for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers are immense with the increased fluctuations in the supply chain and in e-commerce. Commercial Vehicles are often leased out by manufacturers and used for long hours in extreme working conditions, it is important for the owners to monitor their location and the parameters to effectively control the usage.

Parameters such as location, working duration, engine performance, engine parameters need to be continuously monitored to prevent failures of such vehicles and extend the life of the vehicle.

What is the FMS Standard?

The Fleet Management Systems Interface (FMS) is a standard interface to vehicle data of commercial vehicles. The Fleet Management Systems Interface (FMS) is an optional interface to vehicle data of different commercial vehicle manufacturers and is seen as a worldwide standard. Supporting information is dependent upon vehicle ECU.

The FMS interface is designed to be the sole interface for a safe data connection to the internal network since a direct connection to the vehicles’ internal bus system might affect vehicle reliability. The six European manufacturers Daimler AG, MAN AG, Scania, Volvo, DAF Trucks and IVECO developed the FMS-Standard in 2002 to make manufacturer-independent applications and evaluations of the data for telematics possible. Fleet Management helps businesses to maintain optimal use of their work vehicles from a central platform.

Evolution of the FMS Standard over the years

• FMS Standard 1.0 was issued in 2002 with the support of vehicle data such as speed, electronic engine controller, fuel consumption, vehicle weight, total engine hours, vehicle identification number, tachograph information, service/vehicle distance and engine coolant temperature.
• Bus FMS standard (Ver. 00.01) was issued in 2007 for buses and coaches by Daimler Buses, EvoBus GmbH, MAN Truck & Bus AG, Scania CV, Volvo Bus Corporation, IrisBus Iveco and VDL Bus International B.V. The initial “FMS Standard 1.0” was also referred as “Truck FMS Standard”
• FMS Standard 2.0 was issued in 2010 with the support of additional information compared to FMS Standard 1.0 such as ambient conditions, driver’s identification, fuel economy, PTO drive engagement and accurate fuel consumption data.
• FMS Standard 3.0 harmonized Bus and Truck standard was issued in 2012.
• FMS Standard 4.0 was issued in 2017, the FMS-CAN interface is Scania’s CAN interface for FMS standard messages

Telematics with the FMS Standard

Telematics with fleet management system ensures vehicles are operating smoothly, are constantly seeking ways to improve performance, are able to keep operating costs at a minimum, and maintain compliance with government regulations. It brings significant advantages in terms of the time and cost borne in providing field service for emergency breakdowns.

Following are few benefits of telematics with the FMS Standard in commercial vehicles:

• Easy access to diagnostics data for quick detection and troubleshooting of failures
• Remotely access efficiency and critical statuses of machines
• Ensure vehicle uptime with preventive /predictive maintenance
• Immediately notify negligent use, damage, and attempt of theft
• Increased customer satisfaction through fewer breakdowns and better diagnostics
• Reduced fuel, maintenance, and operating costs
• Predict emergency breakdowns and service time with simpler dispute handling
• Smart allocation of resources
• Track and recover lost vehicles

iWave telematics hardware for FMS

To connect to commercial vehicles, you can utilise the Telematics Control Unit or the Telematics gateway from iWave. The telematics solutions are integrated with multiple CAN Ports, RS232, RS485, Analog, Digital Inputs with the backhaul over cellular 4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The powerful microprocessor powered telematics solution provides the software flexibility and transparency to be compatible with different makes and models of commercial vehicles.

Architecture of FMS with the J1939 Protocol Stack

The SAE J1939 stack developed by iWave is based on the ANSI C standard and supports all the specifications of the SAE J1939 protocol needed for collecting data from buses and trucks. The stack works with an extended 29-bit CAN identifier with all the standard baud rates (100kbps, 125kbps, 250kbps, 500kbps, and 1000kbps) supported. The iWave stack implements an auto baud rate detection mechanism that allows the external diagnostic tool/data logger device to find the baud rate supported by the vehicle and initiates the communication between the device and vehicle ECU. The stack facilitates the device to interpret all types of SAE J1939 standard messages from the Vehicle ECU.

The SAE J1939 software stack provides an efficient way to read FMS (Fleet Management System) standard parameters. The FMS data can be combined with the J1939 data, such as GPS position, Tachograph data, sensor readings, which provides a universal communication and information source.

The following data is broadcast at the FMS interface of the truck brand and standardized to SAE J1939:

iWave designed the stack to be fully customizable, allowing users to specify feature sets and fine-tune the stack to meet end application requirements. J1939 protocol stack has been deployed globally for commercial vehicle applications.

Value proposition of iWave Telematics Solutions with J1939 protocol stack are:

• Easy to use APIs
• End to End solution offerings for Telematics Solutions
• Supported in all available kernel versions.

To get in touch with iWave for enquiries and any further information, you can reach us at mktg@iwavesystems.com

Learn more at:

• Telematics Control Unit
• Telematics Gateway
• FMS (Fleet Management System)

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