Garmin Expands Fleet Management Capabilities

Garmin International has announced the Garmin fleet 700 tablet series for fleet management solutions and telematics.

The new series combines Garmin navigation with the flexibility of a scalable tablet, and allows mobile workforces to customize every tablet in the series with their own Android-based business application.

The new fleet series features three models: the fleet 770 establishes an open and scalable platform; the fleet 780 and fleet 790 enhance the feature set with a built-in dual-purpose dash camera; and the fleet 790 adds Open-SIM 4G/3G support to take business wherever it needs to go, both in and out of the vehicle.

“Our telematics solutions partners can now benefit from fleet management-ready tablets that are purpose-built specifically for the commercial truck environment that will drastically expand their opportunities,” said Chad Sallman, Garmin senior business development manager, commercial fleet solutions.

The fleet 790 comes equipped with Open-SIM embedded cellular connectivity (4G/3G) to provide customers with an “always-on” internet connection when Wi-Fi  connectivity is not available. With 4G/3G support, users can extend their bandwidth to send videos, access cloud-based applications, and eliminate the need for a personal laptop, consumer tablet, or smartphone to complete the job. All fleet series devices feature built-in Wi-Fi  for easy access to over-the-air map updates, and connectivity to third-party accessories, including back-up cameras, side-view cameras and more.

For extra safety and coverage, the fleet 780 and fleet 790 utilize a dual-purpose camera to act as personal eyewitness on the road to record HD footage and to help mitigate risks encountered on the road, including capturing documentation for insurance purposes. If the tablet is removed from its mount, fleet owners can optimize the camera for inventory management, proof of delivery by easily snapping a picture with the camera, bar code scanning, and more. In addition, the Garmin fleet series supports navigation API’s (application program interfaces) and offers built-in fleet management apps to help develop and fulfill the needs of fleet owners and telematics service providers around the world.

Each device in the fleet 700 series features a 7-inch capacitive touch display and has n industrial-grade hardware specifically tailored for long-haul commercial truck use, and a magnetic mount so drivers can easily remove the tablet to help businesses stay “on-the-go.” The Garmin fleet 700 series is expected to be available in December.

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